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now begins generated list of local instances, definitions, quotes, instances in chapters, wordnet info if available and instances among weblinks


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

TOPICS
SEE ALSO


AUTH

BOOKS
Enchiridion_text
Full_Circle
Heart_of_Matter
Integral_Life_Practice_(book)
Integral_Spirituality
Journey_to_the_Lord_of_Power_-_A_Sufi_Manual_on_Retreat
Kosmic_Consciousness
Liber_Null
Modern_Man_in_Search_of_a_Soul
Process_and_Reality
Questions_And_Answers_1950-1951
Questions_And_Answers_1955
The_Archetypes_and_the_Collective_Unconscious
The_Divine_Milieu
The_Human_Cycle
The_Seals_of_Wisdom
The_Study_and_Practice_of_Yoga
The_Use_and_Abuse_of_History
The_Yoga_Sutras
Toward_the_Future

IN CHAPTERS TITLE
1951-05-11_-_Mahakali_and_Kali_-_Avatar_and_Vibhuti_-_Sachchidananda_behind_all_states_of_being_-_The_power_of_will_-_receiving_the_Divine_Will
1955-04-27_-_Symbolic_dreams_and_visions_-_Curing_pain_by_various_methods_-_Different_states_of_consciousness_-_Seeing_oneself_dead_in_a_dream_-_Exteriorisation

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT
00.02_-_Mystic_Symbolism
0.01_-_Letters_from_the_Mother_to_Her_Son
0.02_-_The_Three_Steps_of_Nature
0.04_-_The_Systems_of_Yoga
0.08_-_Letters_to_a_Young_Captain
01.03_-_Yoga_and_the_Ordinary_Life
01.04_-_Motives_for_Seeking_the_Divine
01.04_-_The_Poetry_in_the_Making
0.10_-_Letters_to_a_Young_Captain
0.11_-_Letters_to_a_Sadhak
0.14_-_Letters_to_a_Sadhak
0_1958-09-16_-_OM_NAMO_BHAGAVATEH
0_1958-10-06
0_1958-10-25_-_to_go_out_of_your_body
0_1958-11-04_-_Myths_are_True_and_Gods_exist_-_mental_formation_and_occult_faculties_-_exteriorization_-_work_in_dreams
0_1958-11-15
0_1960-11-08
0_1960-12-17
0_1961-01-12
0_1961-06-24
0_1961-07-12
0_1961-07-18
0_1962-06-27
0_1962-06-30
0_1962-07-04
0_1962-08-14
0_1963-05-18
0_1963-07-31
0_1964-11-04
0_1965-02-19
0_1965-07-21
0_1965-08-21
0_1966-05-18
0_1966-08-03
0_1966-10-12
0_1966-10-26
0_1966-10-29
0_1966-11-03
0_1967-01-14
0_1967-05-03
0_1967-07-15
0_1967-11-22
0_1967-11-Prayers_of_the_Consciousness_of_the_Cells
0_1967-12-06
0_1968-04-17
0_1968-06-15
0_1968-06-26
0_1968-07-20
0_1968-08-28
0_1968-09-07
0_1968-10-19
0_1968-10-26
0_1968-11-23
0_1968-11-27
0_1969-01-18
0_1969-04-12
0_1969-05-17
0_1969-10-18
0_1970-03-28
0_1971-12-18
0_1972-01-15
0_1972-02-08
02.07_-_India_One_and_Indivisable
04.04_-_Evolution_of_the_Spiritual_Consciousness
04.06_-_Evolution_of_the_Spiritual_Consciousness
05.06_-_Physics_or_philosophy
07.17_-_Why_Do_We_Forget_Things?
07.20_-_Why_are_Dreams_Forgotten?
10.01_-_A_Dream
10.04_-_The_Dream_Twilight_of_the_Earthly_Real
1.00a_-_DIVISION_A_-_THE_INTERNAL_FIRES_OF_THE_SHEATHS.
1.00c_-_INTRODUCTION
1.012_-_Sublimation_-_A_Way_to_Reshuffle_Thought
1.01_-_Archetypes_of_the_Collective_Unconscious
1.01f_-_Introduction
1.01_-_Isha_Upanishad
1.01_-_On_knowledge_of_the_soul,_and_how_knowledge_of_the_soul_is_the_key_to_the_knowledge_of_God.
1.01_-_SAMADHI_PADA
1.01_-_Tara_the_Divine
1.01_-_THE_STUFF_OF_THE_UNIVERSE
1.02.1_-_The_Inhabiting_Godhead_-_Life_and_Action
1.02.2.2_-_Self-Realisation
1.02.3.1_-_The_Lord
1.02.3.3_-_Birth_and_Non-Birth
1.02.4.1_-_The_Worlds_-_Surya
1.02_-_Groups_and_Statistical_Mechanics
1.02_-_Isha_Analysis
1.02_-_MAPS_OF_MEANING_-_THREE_LEVELS_OF_ANALYSIS
1.02_-_Prana
1.02_-_SADHANA_PADA
1.02_-_Skillful_Means
1.02_-_THE_NATURE_OF_THE_GROUND
1.02_-_The_Vision_of_the_Past
1.032_-_Our_Concept_of_God
10.32_-_The_Mystery_of_the_Five_Elements
10.35_-_The_Moral_and_the_Spiritual
1.03_-_A_Parable
1.03_-_APPRENTICESHIP_AND_ENCULTURATION_-_ADOPTION_OF_A_SHARED_MAP
1.03_-_Tara,_Liberator_from_the_Eight_Dangers
1.03_-_The_Human_Disciple
1.03_-_The_Phenomenon_of_Man
1.03_-_The_Sephiros
1.045_-_Piercing_the_Structure_of_the_Object
1.04_-_KAI_VALYA_PADA
1.04_-_Reality_Omnipresent
1.04_-_Religion_and_Occultism
1.04_-_THE_APPEARANCE_OF_ANOMALY_-_CHALLENGE_TO_THE_SHARED_MAP
1.04_-_The_Sacrifice_the_Triune_Path_and_the_Lord_of_the_Sacrifice
1.056_-_Lack_of_Knowledge_is_the_Cause_of_Suffering
1.05_-_Adam_Kadmon
1.05_-_Computing_Machines_and_the_Nervous_System
1.05_-_Ritam
1.05_-_The_Activation_of_Human_Energy
1.05_-_The_Ascent_of_the_Sacrifice_-_The_Psychic_Being
1.05_-_The_Destiny_of_the_Individual
1.05_-_THE_HOSTILE_BROTHERS_-_ARCHETYPES_OF_RESPONSE_TO_THE_UNKNOWN
1.05_-_THE_MASTER_AND_KESHAB
1.05_-_THE_NEW_SPIRIT
1.06_-_Agni_and_the_Truth
1.06_-_A_Summary_of_my_Phenomenological_View_of_the_World
1.06_-_Being_Human_and_the_Copernican_Principle
1.06_-_Magicians_as_Kings
1.06_-_Man_in_the_Universe
1.06_-_On_Thought
1.06_-_Raja_Yoga
1.06_-_The_Desire_to_be
1.06_-_THE_MASTER_WITH_THE_BRAHMO_DEVOTEES
1.07_-_Bridge_across_the_Afterlife
1.07_-_Incarnate_Human_Gods
1.07_-_Medicine_and_Psycho_therapy
1.07_-_Note_on_the_word_Go
1.07_-_On_Dreams
1.07_-_The_Ego_and_the_Dualities
1.07_-_The_Primary_Data_of_Being
1.07_-_The_Psychic_Center
1.08a_-_The_Ladder
1.08_-_Independence_from_the_Physical
1.08_-_Information,_Language,_and_Society
1.08_-_Introduction_to_Patanjalis_Yoga_Aphorisms
1.08_-_The_Gods_of_the_Veda_-_The_Secret_of_the_Veda
1.08_-_THE_MASTERS_BIRTHDAY_CELEBRATION_AT_DAKSHINESWAR
1.08_-_The_Synthesis_of_Movement
1.09_-_Civilisation_and_Culture
1.09_-_Concentration_-_Its_Spiritual_Uses
1.09_-_Saraswati_and_Her_Consorts
1.09_-_Talks
1.09_-_The_Absolute_Manifestation
1.1.01_-_Seeking_the_Divine
1.10_-_Concentration_-_Its_Practice
1.10_-_Conscious_Force
1.10_-_Foresight
1.10_-_The_Image_of_the_Oceans_and_the_Rivers
1.10_-_The_Secret_of_the_Veda
11.15_-_Sri_Aurobindo
1.11_-_GOOD_AND_EVIL
1.11_-_The_Seven_Rivers
1.11_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_AT_DAKSHINEWAR
1.1.2_-_Commentary
1.12_-_Independence
1.12_-_THE_FESTIVAL_AT_PNIHTI
1.12_-_The_Office_and_Limitations_of_the_Reason
1.14_-_IMMORTALITY_AND_SURVIVAL
1.14_-_The_Structure_and_Dynamics_of_the_Self
1.14_-_TURMOIL_OR_GENESIS?
1.15_-_Index
1.15_-_In_the_Domain_of_the_Spirit_Beings
1.15_-_The_Possibility_and_Purpose_of_Avatarhood
1.16_-_THE_ESSENCE_OF_THE_DEMOCRATIC_IDEA
1.16_-_WITH_THE_DEVOTEES_AT_DAKSHINESWAR
1.17_-_The_Seven-Headed_Thought,_Swar_and_the_Dashagwas
1.18_-_Mind_and_Supermind
1.19_-_Life
1.19_-_The_Curve_of_the_Rational_Age
12.07_-_The_Double_Trinity
1.21_-_FROM_THE_PRE-HUMAN_TO_THE_ULTRA-HUMAN,_THE_PHASES_OF_A_LIVING_PLANET
1.21_-_The_Ascent_of_Life
1.22__-_Dominion_over_different_provinces_of_creation_assigned_to_different_beings
1.240_-_1.300_Talks
1.240_-_Talks_2
1.25_-_ADVICE_TO_PUNDIT_SHASHADHAR
1.26_-_The_Ascending_Series_of_Substance
1.28_-_Supermind,_Mind_and_the_Overmind_Maya
1.300_-_1.400_Talks
1.3.2.01_-_I._The_Entire_Purpose_of_Yoga
1.400_-_1.450_Talks
1.439
1.44_-_Serious_Style_of_A.C.,_or_the_Apparent_Frivolity_of_Some_of_my_Remarks
1.450_-_1.500_Talks
1.55_-_Money
1.73_-_Monsters,_Niggers,_Jews,_etc.
1914_05_18p
1914_05_20p
1914_05_22p
1914_05_27p
1914_06_11p
1914_06_13p
1914_06_23p
1914_06_26p
1914_07_12p
1917_09_24p
1951-01-20_-_Developing_the_mind._Misfortunes,_suffering;_developed_reason._Knowledge_and_pure_ideas.
1951-03-26_-_Losing_all_to_gain_all_-_psychic_being_-_Transforming_the_vital_-_physical_habits_-_the_subconscient_-_Overcoming_difficulties_-_weakness,_an_insincerity_-_to_change_the_world_-_Psychic_source,_flash_of_experience_-_preparation_for_yoga
1951-04-12_-_Japan,_its_art,_landscapes,_life,_etc_-_Fairy-lore_of_Japan_-_Culture-_its_spiral_movement_-_Indian_and_European-_the_spiritual_life_-_Art_and_Truth
1951-04-28_-_Personal_effort_-_tamas,_laziness_-_Static_and_dynamic_power_-_Stupidity_-_psychic_and_intelligence_-_Philosophies-_different_languages_-_Theories_of_Creation_-_Surrender_of_ones_being_and_ones_work
1951-05-11_-_Mahakali_and_Kali_-_Avatar_and_Vibhuti_-_Sachchidananda_behind_all_states_of_being_-_The_power_of_will_-_receiving_the_Divine_Will
1953-05-06
1953-05-27
1953-07-01
1953-09-30
1953-11-11
1954-02-10_-_Study_a_variety_of_subjects_-_Memory_-Memory_of_past_lives_-_Getting_rid_of_unpleasant_thoughts
1954-04-07_-_Communication_without_words_-_Uneven_progress_-_Words_and_the_Word
1954-06-30_-_Occultism_-_Religion_and_vital_beings_-_Mothers_knowledge_of_what_happens_in_the_Ashram_-_Asking_questions_to_Mother_-_Drawing_on_Mother
1954-08-18_-_Mahalakshmi_-_Maheshwari_-_Mahasaraswati_-_Determinism_and_freedom_-_Suffering_and_knowledge_-_Aspects_of_the_Mother
1954-09-08_-_Hostile_forces_-_Substance_-_Concentration_-_Changing_the_centre_of_thought_-_Peace
1954-11-24_-_Aspiration_mixed_with_desire_-_Willing_and_desiring_-_Children_and_desires_-_Supermind_and_the_higher_ranges_of_mind_-_Stages_in_the_supramental_manifestation
1955-03-09_-_Psychic_directly_contacted_through_the_physical_-_Transforming_egoistic_movements_-_Work_of_the_psychic_being_-_Contacting_the_psychic_and_the_Divine_-_Experiences_of_different_kinds_-_Attacks_of_adverse_forces
1955-04-27_-_Symbolic_dreams_and_visions_-_Curing_pain_by_various_methods_-_Different_states_of_consciousness_-_Seeing_oneself_dead_in_a_dream_-_Exteriorisation
1955-07-20_-_The_Impersonal_Divine_-_Surrender_to_the_Divine_brings_perfect_freedom_-_The_Divine_gives_Himself_-_The_principle_of_the_inner_dimensions_-_The_paths_of_aspiration_and_surrender_-_Linear_and_spherical_paths_and_realisations
1955-10-26_-_The_Divine_and_the_universal_Teacher_-_The_power_of_the_Word_-_The_Creative_Word,_the_mantra_-_Sound,_music_in_other_worlds_-_The_domains_of_pure_form,_colour_and_ideas
1956-01-25_-_The_divine_way_of_life_-_Divine,_Overmind,_Supermind_-_Material_body__for_discovery_of_the_Divine_-_Five_psychological_perfections
1956-03-07_-_Sacrifice,_Animals,_hostile_forces,_receive_in_proportion_to_consciousness_-_To_be_luminously_open_-_Integral_transformation_-_Pain_of_rejection,_delight_of_progress_-_Spirit_behind_intention_-_Spirit,_matter,_over-simplified
1956-03-28_-_The_starting-point_of_spiritual_experience_-_The_boundless_finite_-_The_Timeless_and_Time_-_Mental_explanation_not_enough_-_Changing_knowledge_into_experience_-_Sat-Chit-Tapas-Ananda
1956-08-22_-_The_heaven_of_the_liberated_mind_-_Trance_or_samadhi_-_Occult_discipline_for_leaving_consecutive_bodies_-_To_be_greater_than_ones_experience_-_Total_self-giving_to_the_Grace_-_The_truth_of_the_being_-_Unique_relation_with_the_Supreme
1956-11-21_-_Knowings_and_Knowledge_-_Reason,_summit_of_mans_mental_activities_-_Willings_and_the_true_will_-_Personal_effort_-_First_step_to_have_knowledge_-_Relativity_of_medical_knowledge_-_Mental_gymnastics_make_the_mind_supple
1956-12-19_-_Preconceived_mental_ideas_-_Process_of_creation_-_Destructive_power_of_bad_thoughts_-_To_be_perfectly_sincere
1957-01-09_-_God_is_essentially_Delight_-_God_and_Nature_play_at_hide-and-seek_-__Why,_and_when,_are_you_grave?
1957-02-06_-_Death,_need_of_progress_-_Changing_Natures_methods
1957-03-06_-_Freedom,_servitude_and_love
1957-06-19_-_Causes_of_illness_Fear_and_illness_-_Minds_working,_faith_and_illness
1958-02-19_-_Experience_of_the_supramental_boat_-_The_Censors_-_Absurdity_of_artificial_means
1958-09-17_-_Power_of_formulating_experience_-_Usefulness_of_mental_development
1960_11_13?_-_50
1965_12_26?
1970_03_25
1.A_-_ANTHROPOLOGY,_THE_SOUL
1f.lovecraft_-_The_Dreams_in_the_Witch_House
1f.lovecraft_-_The_Rats_in_the_Walls
1.jr_-_I_Am_Only_The_House_Of_Your_Beloved
20.01_-_Charyapada_-_Old_Bengali_Mystic_Poems
2.01_-_Indeterminates,_Cosmic_Determinations_and_the_Indeterminable
2.01_-_Isha_Upanishad__All_that_is_world_in_the_Universe
2.01_-_The_Two_Natures
2.02_-_Brahman,_Purusha,_Ishwara_-_Maya,_Prakriti,_Shakti
2.02_-_Evolutionary_Creation_and_the_Expectation_of_a_Revelation
2.02_-_On_Letters
2.02_-_The_Ishavasyopanishad_with_a_commentary_in_English
2.03_-_Karmayogin__A_Commentary_on_the_Isha_Upanishad
2.03_-_On_Medicine
2.05_-_Renunciation
2.05_-_The_Cosmic_Illusion;_Mind,_Dream_and_Hallucination
2.05_-_Universal_Love_and_how_it_leads_to_Self-Surrender
2.06_-_Reality_and_the_Cosmic_Illusion
2.06_-_WITH_VARIOUS_DEVOTEES
2.07_-_I_Also_Try_to_Tell_My_Tale
2.09_-_Memory,_Ego_and_Self-Experience
2.09_-_On_Sadhana
2.09_-_THE_MASTERS_BIRTHDAY
2.0_-_THE_ANTICHRIST
2.1.02_-_Nature_The_World-Manifestation
2.1.03_-_Man_and_Superman
2.11_-_The_Modes_of_the_Self
2.11_-_The_Shattering_And_Fall_of_The_Primordial_Kings
2.15_-_CAR_FESTIVAL_AT_BALARMS_HOUSE
2.16_-_The_Integral_Knowledge_and_the_Aim_of_Life;_Four_Theories_of_Existence
2.20_-_The_Infancy_and_Maturity_of_ZO,_Father_and_Mother,_Israel_The_Ancient_and_Understanding
2.20_-_The_Lower_Triple_Purusha
2.20_-_The_Philosophy_of_Rebirth
2.21_-_The_Ladder_of_Self-transcendence
2.21_-_The_Order_of_the_Worlds
2.24_-_The_Evolution_of_the_Spiritual_Man
2.24_-_The_Message_of_the_Gita
2.26_-_Samadhi
2.26_-_The_Ascent_towards_Supermind
2.28_-_Rajayoga
2.3.02_-_Mantra_and_Japa
2.3.02_-_The_Supermind_or_Supramental
2.3.03_-_The_Overmind
23.12_-_A_Note_On_The_Mother_of_Dreams
2.4.02.08_-_Contact_with_the_Divine
2.4.02_-_Bhakti,_Devotion,_Worship
3.00.2_-_Introduction
3.02_-_The_Psychology_of_Rebirth
3.03_-_The_Four_Foundational_Practices
3.09_-_Of_Silence_and_Secrecy
3.0_-_THE_ETERNAL_RECURRENCE
31.08_-_The_Unity_of_India
3.2.02_-_The_Veda_and_the_Upanishads
3.2.07_-_Tantra
3.2.2_-_Sleep
3.2.3_-_Dreams
37.06_-_Indra_-_Virochana_and_Prajapati
3.7.1.04_-_Rebirth_and_Soul_Evolution
3.8.1.02_-_Arya_-_Its_Significance
3.8.1.03_-_Meditation
3.8.1.06_-_The_Universal_Consciousness
3_-_Commentaries_and_Annotated_Translations
4.01_-_Sweetness_in_Prayer
4.05_-_The_Instruments_of_the_Spirit
4.1.2_-_The_Difficulties_of_Human_Nature
4.18_-_Faith_and_shakti
4.24_-_The_supramental_Sense
4.25_-_Towards_the_supramental_Time_Vision
4.4.2.08_-_Fixing_the_Consciousness_Above
5.01_-_EPILOGUE
5.04_-_Supermind_and_the_Life_Divine
6.05_-_THE_PSYCHOLOGICAL_INTERPRETATION_OF_THE_PROCEDURE
6.0_-_Conscious,_Unconscious,_and_Individuation
7_-_Yoga_of_Sri_Aurobindo
9.99_-_Glossary
Aeneid
Apology
Blazing_P2_-_Map_the_Stages_of_Conventional_Consciousness
Blazing_P3_-_Explore_the_Stages_of_Postconventional_Consciousness
BOOK_II._--_PART_III._ADDENDA._SCIENCE_AND_THE_SECRET_DOCTRINE_CONTRASTED
BOOK_II._--_PART_II._THE_ARCHAIC_SYMBOLISM_OF_THE_WORLD-RELIGIONS
BOOK_I._--_PART_I._COSMIC_EVOLUTION
BOOK_I._--_PART_III._SCIENCE_AND_THE_SECRET_DOCTRINE_CONTRASTED
Book_of_Genesis
Book_of_Imaginary_Beings_(text)
BOOK_XIII._-_That_death_is_penal,_and_had_its_origin_in_Adam's_sin
DM_2_-_How_to_Meditate
DS3
ENNEAD_01.05_-_Does_Happiness_Increase_With_Time?
ENNEAD_02.09_-_Against_the_Gnostics;_or,_That_the_Creator_and_the_World_are_Not_Evil.
ENNEAD_03.07_-_Of_Time_and_Eternity.
ENNEAD_04.02_-_How_the_Soul_Mediates_Between_Indivisible_and_Divisible_Essence.
ENNEAD_04.04_-_Questions_About_the_Soul.
ENNEAD_06.05_-_The_One_and_Identical_Being_is_Everywhere_Present_In_Its_Entirety.345
Euthyphro
Gorgias
Liber_111_-_The_Book_of_Wisdom_-_LIBER_ALEPH_VEL_CXI
Liber_71_-_The_Voice_of_the_Silence_-_The_Two_Paths_-_The_Seven_Portals
LUX.01_-_GNOSIS
MMM.01_-_MIND_CONTROL
Phaedo
r1913_02_02
r1913_11_13
r1913_11_27
r1913_12_28
r1913_12_29
r1914_03_19
r1914_03_26
r1914_04_12
r1914_10_15
r1914_10_24
r1914_11_22
r1914_12_19
r1918_02_19
r1919_06_27
r1919_07_20
r1919_07_27
Symposium_translated_by_B_Jowett
Talks_001-025
Talks_176-200
Talks_With_Sri_Aurobindo_1
The_Act_of_Creation_text
Theaetetus
The_Anapanasati_Sutta__A_Practical_Guide_to_Mindfullness_of_Breathing_and_Tranquil_Wisdom_Meditation
The_Dwellings_of_the_Philosophers
The_Essentials_of_Education
the_Eternal_Wisdom
The_Logomachy_of_Zos
The_Wall_and_the_BOoks
Timaeus

PRIMARY CLASS

SIMILAR TITLES
states of

DEFINITIONS


TERMS STARTING WITH

States of nature – Refers to those conditions that are likely to occur and over which the decision maker has no control.


TERMS ANYWHERE

4. to abstain from lying (often explained as lying about the possession of high states of attainment or superhuman powers) (S. mṛsāvāda-virati; T. rdzun du smra ba spong ba; C. bu wangyu/li xukuang yu 妄語/離誑語)

"A basis can be created for a subjective illusion-consciousness which is yet part of Being, if we accept in the sense of an illusory subjective world-awareness the account of sleep and dream creation given to us in the Upanishads. For the affirmation there is that Brahman as Self is fourfold; the Self is Brahman and all that is is the Brahman, but all that is is the Self seen by the Self in four states of its being. In the pure self-status neither consciousness nor unconsciousness as we conceive it can be affirmed about Brahman; it is a state of superconscience absorbed in its self-existence, in a self-silence or a self-ecstasy, or else it is the status of a free Superconscient containing or basing everything but involved in nothing. But there is also a luminous status of sleep-self, a massed consciousness which is the origin of cosmic existence; this state of deep sleep in which yet there is the presence of an omnipotent Intelligence is the seed state or causal condition from which emerges the cosmos; — this and the dream-self which is the continent of all subtle, subjective or supraphysical experience, and the self of waking which is the support of all physical experience, can be taken as the whole field of Maya.” The Life Divine

“A basis can be created for a subjective illusion-consciousness which is yet part of Being, if we accept in the sense of an illusory subjective world-awareness the account of sleep and dream creation given to us in the Upanishads. For the affirmation there is that Brahman as Self is fourfold; the Self is Brahman and all that is is the Brahman, but all that is is the Self seen by the Self in four states of its being. In the pure self-status neither consciousness nor unconsciousness as we conceive it can be affirmed about Brahman; it is a state of superconscience absorbed in its self-existence, in a self-silence or a self-ecstasy, or else it is the status of a free Superconscient containing or basing everything but involved in nothing. But there is also a luminous status of sleep-self, a massed consciousness which is the origin of cosmic existence; this state of deep sleep in which yet there is the presence of an omnipotent Intelligence is the seed state or causal condition from which emerges the cosmos;—this and the dream-self which is the continent of all subtle, subjective or supraphysical experience, and the self of waking which is the support of all physical experience, can be taken as the whole field of Maya.” The Life Divine

abbreviation ::: n. --> The act of shortening, or reducing.
The result of abbreviating; an abridgment.
The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.
One dash, or more, through the stem of a note, dividing it respectively into quavers, semiquavers, or


abhidharmapitaka. (P. abhidhammapitaka; T. chos mngon pa'i sde snod; C. lunzang; J. ronzo; K. nonjang 論藏). The third of the three "baskets" (PItAKA) of the Buddhist canon (TRIPItAKA). The abhidharmapitaka derives from attempts in the early Buddhist community to elucidate the definitive significance of the teachings of the Buddha, as compiled in the SuTRAs. Since the Buddha was well known to have adapted his message to fit the predilections and needs of his audience (cf. UPAYAKAUsALYA), there inevitably appeared inconsistencies in his teachings that needed to be resolved. The attempts to ferret out the definitive meaning of the BUDDHADHARMA through scholastic interpretation and exegesis eventually led to a new body of texts that ultimately were granted canonical status in their own right. These are the texts of the abhidharmapitaka. The earliest of these texts, such as the PAli VIBHAnGA and PUGGALAPANNATTI and the SARVASTIVADA SAMGĪTIPARYAYA and DHARMASKANDHA, are structured as commentaries to specific sutras or portions of sutras. These materials typically organized the teachings around elaborate doctrinal taxonomies, which were used as mnemonic devices or catechisms. Later texts move beyond individual sutras to systematize a wide range of doctrinal material, offering ever more complex analytical categorizations and discursive elaborations of the DHARMA. Ultimately, abhidharma texts emerge as a new genre of Buddhist literature in their own right, employing sophisticated philosophical speculation and sometimes even involving polemical attacks on the positions of rival factions within the SAMGHA. ¶ At least seven schools of Indian Buddhism transmitted their own recensions of abhidharma texts, but only two of these canons are extant in their entirety. The PAli abhidhammapitaka of the THERAVADA school, the only recension that survives in an Indian language, includes seven texts (the order of which often differs): (1) DHAMMASAnGAnI ("Enumeration of Dharmas") examines factors of mentality and materiality (NAMARuPA), arranged according to ethical quality; (2) VIBHAnGA ("Analysis") analyzes the aggregates (SKANDHA), conditioned origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA), and meditative development, each treatment culminating in a catechistic series of inquiries; (3) DHATUKATHA ("Discourse on Elements") categorizes all dharmas in terms of the skandhas and sense-fields (AYATANA); (4) PUGGALAPANNATTI ("Description of Human Types") analyzes different character types in terms of the three afflictions of greed (LOBHA), hatred (DVEsA), and delusion (MOHA) and various related subcategories; (5) KATHAVATTHU ("Points of Controversy") scrutinizes the views of rival schools of mainstream Buddhism and how they differ from the TheravAda; (6) YAMAKA ("Pairs") provides specific denotations of problematic terms through paired comparisons; (7) PAttHANA ("Conditions") treats extensively the full implications of conditioned origination. ¶ The abhidharmapitaka of the SARVASTIVADA school is extant only in Chinese translation, the definitive versions of which were prepared by XUANZANG's translation team in the seventh century. It also includes seven texts: (1) SAMGĪTIPARYAYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Discourse on Pronouncements") attributed to either MAHAKAUstHILA or sARIPUTRA, a commentary on the SaMgītisutra (see SAnGĪTISUTTA), where sAriputra sets out a series of dharma lists (MATṚKA), ordered from ones to elevens, to organize the Buddha's teachings systematically; (2) DHARMASKANDHA[PADAsASTRA] ("Aggregation of Dharmas"), attributed to sAriputra or MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA, discusses Buddhist soteriological practices, as well as the afflictions that hinder spiritual progress, drawn primarily from the AGAMAs; (3) PRAJNAPTIBHAsYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Treatise on Designations"), attributed to MaudgalyAyana, treats Buddhist cosmology (lokaprajNapti), causes (kArana), and action (KARMAN); (4) DHATUKAYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Collection on the Elements"), attributed to either PuRnA or VASUMITRA, discusses the mental concomitants (the meaning of DHATU in this treatise) and sets out specific sets of mental factors that are present in all moments of consciousness (viz., the ten MAHABHuMIKA) or all defiled states of mind (viz., the ten KLEsAMAHABHuMIKA); (5) VIJNANAKAYA[PADAsASTRA] ("Collection on Consciousness"), attributed to Devasarman, seeks to prove the veracity of the eponymous SarvAstivAda position that dharmas exist in all three time periods (TRIKALA) of past, present, and future, and the falsity of notions of the person (PUDGALA); it also provides the first listing of the four types of conditions (PRATYAYA); (6) PRAKARAnA[PADAsASTRA] ("Exposition"), attributed to VASUMITRA, first introduces the categorization of dharmas according to the more developed SarvAstivAda rubric of RuPA, CITTA, CAITTA, CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAMSKARA, and ASAMSKṚTA dharmas; it also adds a new listing of KUsALAMAHABHuMIKA, or factors always associated with wholesome states of mind; (7) JNANAPRASTHANA ("Foundations of Knowledge"), attributed to KATYAYANĪPUTRA, an exhaustive survey of SarvAstivAda dharma theory and the school's exposition of psychological states, which forms the basis of the massive encyclopedia of SarvAstivAda-VaibhAsika abhidharma, the ABHIDHARMAMAHAVIBHAsA. In the traditional organization of the seven canonical books of the SarvAstivAda abhidharmapitaka, the JNANAPRASTHANA is treated as the "body" (sARĪRA), or central treatise of the canon, with its six "feet" (pAda), or ancillary treatises (pAdasAstra), listed in the following order: (1) PrakaranapAda, (2) VijNAnakAya, (3) Dharmaskandha, (4) PrajNaptibhAsya, (5) DhAtukAya, and (6) SaMgītiparyAya. Abhidharma exegetes later turned their attention to these canonical abhidharma materials and subjected them to the kind of rigorous scholarly analysis previously directed to the sutras. These led to the writing of innovative syntheses and synopses of abhidharma doctrine, in such texts as BUDDHAGHOSA's VISUDDHIMAGGA and ANURUDDHA's ABHIDHAMMATTHASAnGAHA, VASUBANDHU's ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA, and SAMGHABHADRA's *NYAYANUSARA. In East Asia, this third "basket" was eventually expanded to include the burgeoning scholastic literature of the MAHAYANA, transforming it from a strictly abhidharmapitaka into a broader "treatise basket" or *sASTRAPItAKA (C. lunzang).

abhijNA. (P. abhiNNA; T. mngon shes; C. shentong; J. jinzu; K. sint'ong 神通). In Sanskrit, "superknowledges"; specifically referring to a set of supranormal powers that are by-products of meditation. These are usually enumerated as six: (1) various psychical and magical powers (ṚDDHIVIDHABHIJNA [alt. ṛddhividhi], P. iddhividhA), such as the ability to pass through walls, sometimes also known as "unimpeded bodily action" (ṛddhisAksAtkriyA); (2) clairvoyance, lit. "divine eye" (DIVYACAKsUS, P. dibbacakkhu), the ability to see from afar and to see how beings fare in accordance with their deeds; (3) clairaudience, lit. "divine ear" (DIVYAsROTRA, P. dibbasota), the ability to hear from afar; (4) the ability to remember one's own former lives (PuRVANIVASANUSMṚTI, P. pubbenivAsAnunssati); (5) "knowledge of others' states of mind" (CETOPARYAYABHIJNANA/PARACITTAJNANA, P. cetopariyaNAna), e.g., telepathy; and (6) the knowledge of the extinction of the contaminants (ASRAVAKsAYA, P. AsavakkhAya). The first five of these superknowledges are considered to be mundane (LAUKIKA) achievements, which are gained through still more profound refinement of the fourth stage of meditative absorption (DHYANA). The sixth power is said to be supramundane (LOKOTTARA) and is attainable through the cultivation of insight (VIPAsYANA) into the nature of reality. The first, second, and sixth superknowledges are also called the three kinds of knowledge (TRIVIDYA; P. tevijjA).

. a brahman ::: brahman with qualities, the active brahman, whose "being assumes by conscious Will all kinds of properties [gun.as], shapings of the stuff of conscious being, habits as it were of cosmic character and power of dynamic self-consciousness"; it provides the basis of "general personality" in the vision of brahman (brahmadarsana) from which emerge the bhavas or "states of perception" of the purus.a that reveal the "divine secret behind personality".

abyss ::: Abyss In Ritual Magick and Kabbalah, the Abyss is the divide between individual ego-consciousness and Cosmic consciousness (enlightenment). In Kabbalah, it is the divide between the Supernal and the lower Sephiroth, i.e. the divide between the higher and lower states of existence. The serpent Choronzon is the 'dweller' in the abyss, the final great obstacle between the magician and true enlightenment. See Oath of the Abyss for further details.

According to Subba Row (Theos 3:42), Cancer represents the sacred Tetragram; the Parabrahmatharacam [Parabrahmadharaka]; the Pranava resolved into four separate entities corresponding to its four matras; the four avastas or four states of consciousness; the four states of Brahman, etc.

action language ::: A language for specifying state transition systems, and is commonly used to create formal models of the effects of actions on the world.[5] Action languages are commonly used in the artificial intelligence and robotics domains, where they describe how actions affect the states of systems over time, and may be used for automated planning.

adhi ::: simultaneous experience of sus.upta samadhi, svapnasamadhi and jagrat samadhi, the three states of samadhi being superimposed so that the consciousness "in sushupta perceives below it the activities of the swapna & perceives also what is happening in the jagrat".

adhi ::: simultaneous experience of two states of samadhi, especially svapnasamadhi and jagrat samadhi, so that one is "aware in the dream-trance of the outer physical world through the subtle senses which belong to the subtle body".

adhi ::: the simultaneous experience of different states of samadhi, in the form of double samadhi or triple samadhi.

adlegation ::: n. --> A right formerly claimed by the states of the German Empire of joining their own ministers with those of the emperor in public treaties and negotiations to the common interest of the empire.

advayajNAna. (T. gnyis su med pa'i ye shes; C. bu'erzhi; J. funichi; K. puriji 不二智). In Sanskrit, "nondual knowledge"; referring to knowledge that has transcended the subject-object bifurcation that governs all conventional states of sensory consciousness, engendering a distinctive type of awareness that is able to remain conscious without any longer requiring an object of consciousness. See also WU'AIXING.

advaya. (T. gnyis su med pa; C. bu'er; J. funi; K. puri 不二). In Sanskrit, "nonduality"; one of the common synonyms for the highest teachings of Buddhism and one of the foundational principles of the MAHAYANA presentation of doctrine. Nonduality refers to the definitive awareness achieved through enlightenment, which transcends all of the conventional dichotomies into which compounded existence is divided (right and wrong, good and evil, etc.). Most specifically, nondual knowledge (ADVAYAJNANA) transcends the subject-object bifurcation that governs all conventional states of consciousness and engenders a distinctive type of awareness that no longer requires an object of consciousness. See also WU'AIXING.

advesa. (P. adosa; T. zhe sdang med pa; C. wuchen; J. mushin; K. mujin 無瞋). In Sanskrit, "absence of ill will" or "absence of hatred." One of the forty-six mental concomitants (CAITTA) according to the VAIBHAsIKA-SARVASTIVADA school of ABHIDHARMA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGACARA school and one of the fifty-two in the PAli ABHIDHAMMA, "absence of ill will" is the opposite of "ill will" or "aversion" (DVEsA). The SARVASTIVADA exegetes posited that this mental quality accompanied all wholesome activities, and it is therefore classified as one of the ten omnipresent wholesome factors (KUsALAMAHABHuMIKA). "Absence of ill will" is listed as one of the three wholesome faculties (KUsALAMuLA), is one of the states of mind comprising right intention (SAMYAKSAMKALPA) in the noble eightfold path (ARYAstAnGIKAMARGA), and is traditionally presumed to be a precondition for the cultivation of loving-kindness (MAITRĪ).

AGGREGATION, STATES OF Same as molecular kinds.

ahiMsA. (T. 'tshe ba med pa; C. buhai; J. fugai; K. purhae 不害). In Sanskrit and PAli, "absence of harmful intentions," "harmlessness," "noninjury," or "nonviolence." The religious ideal and ethical injunction of "harmlessness" toward all living beings was shared in some fashion by several of the Indian sRAMAnA traditions, including the Buddhists as well as the JAINAs, who made it a central tenet of their religion. Some of the corollaries of this idea included the precept against killing, the injunction to refrain from physically and verbally abusing sentient beings, and vegetarianism. The Jainas were especially stringent in their interpretation of "harmlessness" toward all living creatures, demanding strict vegetarianism from their followers in order to avoid injuring sentient creatures, a requirement that the Buddha rejected when his rival in the order, DEVADATTA, proposed it in his list of austerities (see DHUTAnGA). The Buddha's view was that monks were a "field of merit" (PUnYAKsETRA) for the laity and should accept all offerings made to them, including meat, unless the monk knew that the animal had been killed specifically to feed him, for example. The voluntary vegetarianism that is now prevalent in both MahAyAna Buddhism and wider Indian Hindu culture is almost certainly a result of Jaina influence and constitutes that religion's most enduring contribution to Indian religion. Buddhism treated "absence of harmful intentions" as one of the forty-six mental factors (CAITTA) according to the SARVASTIVADA-VAIBHAsIKA school of ABHIDHARMA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGACARA school, and one of the fifty-two CETASIKAs in the PAli ABHIDHAMMA. It is the opposite of "harmful intention" or "injury" (VIHIMSA, and is sometimes seen written as avihiMsA) and one of the states of mind comprising right intention (S. samyaksaMkalpa; P. sammAsankappa) in the noble eightfold path (ARYAstAnGIKAMARGA). "Absence of harmful intentions" is also traditionally taken to be a precondition for the cultivation of "compassion" (KARUnA). See VIHIMSA.

AkAsAnantyAyatana. (P. AkAsAnaNcAyatana; T. nam mkha' mtha' yas skye mched; C. kong wubian chu; J. kumuhenjo; K. kong mubyon ch'o 空無邊處). In Sanskrit, "sphere of infinite space"; the first and lowest (in ascending order) of the four levels of the immaterial realm (ARuPYADHATU) and the first of the four immaterial absorptions (DHYANA). It is a realm of rebirth as well as a meditative state that is entirely immaterial (viz., there is no physical [RuPA] component to existence) in which the mind comes to an awareness of unlimited pervasive space (AKAsA) without the existence of material objects. Beings reborn in this realm are thought to live as long as forty thousand eons (KALPAS). However, as a state of being that is still subject to rebirth, even the realm of infinite space remains part of SAMSARA. Like the other levels of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHATU) and the immaterial realm, one is reborn in this state by achieving the specific level of meditative absorption of that state in the previous lifetime. One of the most famous and influential expositions on the subject of these immaterial states comes from the VISUDDHIMAGGA of BUDDHAGHOSA, written in the fifth century. Although there are numerous accounts of Buddhist meditators achieving immaterial states of SAMADHI, they are also used polemically in Buddhist literature to describe the attainments of non-Buddhist yogins, who mistakenly identify these exalted states within saMsAra as states of permanent liberation from rebirth. See also DHYANASAMAPATTI; DHYANOPAPATTI.

AkiNcanyAyatana. (P. AkiNcaNNAyatana; T. ci yang med pa'i skye mched; C. wu suoyou chu; J. mushousho; K. mu soyu ch'o 無所有處). In Sanskrit, "sphere of nothing whatsoever," or "absolute nothingness," the third (in ascending order) of the four levels of the immaterial realm (ARuPYADHATU) and the third of the four immaterial absorptions (SAMAPATTI). It is "above" the first two levels of the immaterial realm, called infinite space (AKAsANANTYAYATANA) and infinite consciousness (VIJNANANANTYAYATANA), but "below" the fourth level, called "neither perception nor nonperception" (NAIVASAMJNANASAMJNAYATANA). It is a realm of rebirth as well as a meditative state that is entirely immaterial (viz., there is no physical [RuPA] component to existence) in which all ordinary semblances of consciousness vanish entirely. Beings reborn in this realm are thought to live as long as sixty thousand eons (KALPAS). However, as states of being that are still subject to rebirth, all of these spheres remain part of SAMSARA. See also DHYANASAMAPATTI; DHYANOPAPATTI.

AlayavijNAna. (T. kun gzhi rnam par shes pa; C. alaiyeshi/zangshi; J. arayashiki/zoshiki; K. aroeyasik/changsik 阿賴耶識/藏識). In Sanskrit, "storehouse consciousness" or "foundational consciousness"; the eighth of the eight types of consciousness (VIJNANA) posited in the YOGACARA school. All forms of Buddhist thought must be able to uphold (1) the principle of the cause and effect of actions (KARMAN), the structure of SAMSARA, and the process of liberation (VIMOKsA) from it, while also upholding (2) the fundamental doctrines of impermanence (ANITYA) and the lack of a perduring self (ANATMAN). The most famous and comprehensive solution to the range of problems created by these apparently contradictory elements is the AlayavijNAna, often translated as the "storehouse consciousness." This doctrinal concept derives in India from the YOGACARA school, especially from ASAnGA and VASUBANDHU and their commentators. Whereas other schools of Buddhist thought posit six consciousnesses (vijNAna), in the YogAcAra system there are eight, adding the afflicted mind (KLIstAMANAS) and the AlayavijNAna. It appears that once the SarvAstivAda's school's eponymous doctrine of the existence of dharmas in the past, present, and future was rejected by most other schools of Buddhism, some doctrinal solution was required to provide continuity between past and future, including past and future lifetimes. The alAyavijNAna provides that solution as a foundational form of consciousness, itself ethically neutral, where all the seeds (BIJA) of all deeds done in the past reside, and from which they fructify in the form of experience. Thus, the AlayavijNAna is said to pervade the entire body during life, to withdraw from the body at the time of death (with the extremities becoming cold as it slowly exits), and to carry the complete karmic record to the next rebirth destiny. Among the many doctrinal problems that the presence of the AlayavijNAna is meant to solve, it appears that one of its earliest references is in the context not of rebirth but in that of the NIRODHASAMAPATTI, or "trance of cessation," where all conscious activity, that is, all CITTA and CAITTA, cease. Although the meditator may appear as if dead during that trance, consciousness is able to be reactivated because the AlayavijNAna remains present throughout, with the seeds of future experience lying dormant in it, available to bear fruit when the person arises from meditation. The AlayavijNAna thus provides continuity from moment to moment within a given lifetime and from lifetime to lifetime, all providing the link between an action performed in the past and its effect experienced in the present, despite protracted periods of latency between seed and fruition. In YogAcAra, where the existence of an external world is denied, when a seed bears fruit, it bifurcates into an observing subject and an observed object, with that object falsely imagined to exist separately from the consciousness that perceives it. The response by the subject to that object produces more seeds, either positive, negative, or neutral, which are deposited in the AlayavijNAna, remaining there until they in turn bear their fruit. Although said to be neutral and a kind of silent observer of experience, the AlayavijNAna is thus also the recipient of karmic seeds as they are produced, receiving impressions (VASANA) from them. In the context of Buddhist soteriological discussions, the AlayavijNAna explains why contaminants (ASRAVA) remain even when unwholesome states of mind are not actively present, and it provides the basis for the mistaken belief in self (Atman). Indeed, it is said that the klistamanas perceives the AlayavijNAna as a perduring self. The AlayavijNAna also explains how progress on the path can continue over several lifetimes and why some follow the path of the sRAVAKA and others the path of the BODHISATTVA; it is said that one's lineage (GOTRA) is in fact a seed that resides permanently in the AlayavijNAna. In India, the doctrine of the AlayavijNAna was controversial, with some members of the YogAcAra school rejecting its existence, arguing that the functions it is meant to serve can be accommodated within the standard six-consciousness system. The MADHYAMAKA, notably figures such as BHAVAVIVEKA and CANDRAKĪRTI, attacked the YogAcAra proponents of the AlayavijNAna, describing it as a form of self, which all Buddhists must reject. ¶ In East Asia, the AlayavijNAna was conceived as one possible solution to persistent questions in Buddhism about karmic continuity and about the origin of ignorance (MOHA). For the latter, some explanation was required as to how sentient beings, whom many strands of MAHAYANA claimed were inherently enlightened, began to presume themselves to be ignorant. Debates raged within different strands of the Chinese YogAcAra traditions as to whether the AlayavijNAna is intrinsically impure because of the presence of these seeds of past experience (the position of the Northern branch of the Chinese DI LUN ZONG and the Chinese FAXIANG tradition of XUANZANG and KUIJI), or whether the AlayavijNAna included both pure and impure elements because it involved also the functioning of thusness, or TATHATA (the Southern Di lun school's position). Since the sentient being has had a veritable interminable period of time in which to collect an infinity of seeds-which would essentially make it impossible to hope to counteract them one by one-the mainstream strands of YogAcAra viewed the mind as nevertheless tending inveterately toward impurity (dausthulya). This impurity could only be overcome through a "transformation of the basis" (AsRAYAPARAVṚTTI), which would completely eradicate the karmic seeds stored in the storehouse consciousness, liberating the bodhisattva from the effects of all past actions and freeing him to project compassion liberally throughout the world. In some later interpretations, this transformation would then convert the AlayavijNAna into a ninth "immaculate consciousness" (AMALAVIJNANA). See also DASHENG QIXIN LUN.

alobha. (T. ma chags pa; C. wutan; J. muton; K. mut'am 無貪). In Sanskrit and PAli, "absence of craving" or "absence of greed"; one of the most ubiquitous of moral virtues (KUsALA), which serves as an antidote to the KLEsA of desire and as the foundation for progress on the path. Alobha is one of the forty-six mental factors (CAITTA) according to the SARVASTIVADA school and the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGACARA school, and one of the fifty-one of the PAli abhidhamma. "Absence of craving" is the opposite of "craving" or "greed" (LOBHA). The SarvAstivAda ABHIDHARMA system posited that this mental quality accompanied all wholesome activities, and therefore lists it as the seventh of the ten major omnipresent wholesome factors (KUsALAMAHABHuMIKA). Absence of craving is listed as one of the so-called three roots of virtue (KUsALAMuLA), one of the states of mind comprising right intention (SAMYAKSAMKALPA) in the noble eightfold path (ARYAstAnGAMARGA), and is traditionally taken to be the precondition for the cultivation of equanimity (UPEKsA).

Alokasyopalabdhisa. (T. nye bar thob pa'i snang ba). In Sanskrit "appearance of near-attainment," the penultimate stage in the final three stages of the dissolution of consciousness that culminates in the dawning of "clear light" (PRABHASVARA), the actual moment of death according to certain systems of ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA. After the gross elements and states of consciousness dissolve, a process that is accompanied by a series of signs, the subtler levels of consciousness appear: first an experience of radiant whiteness called appearance (Aloka) like a night sky filled with moonlight, then an experience of redness, called increase (vṛddhi) like a clear sky filled with sunlight, and finally an experience called "near attainment" (upalabdha) like a black moonless sky, so called because it is the state nearest to the most subtle level of consciousness, the mind of clear light.

altered states of awareness: any state of awareness which differs from normal waking awareness; examples include meditation, sleep, drug states and psychosis.

altered states ::: Also known as “nonordinary” states of consciousness. There are at least two major types of altered states: exogenous or “externally created” (e.g., drug induced, or near-death experiences) and endogenous or “self-created” (including trained states such as meditative states).

Al-Waliyy ::: The One who guides and enables an individual to discover their reality and to live their life in accordance to their essence. It is the source of risalah (personification of Allah’s knowledge) and nubuwwah (prophethood), which comprise the pinnacle states of sainthood (wilayah). It is the dispatcher of the perfected qualities comprising the highest point of sainthood, risalah, and the state one beneath that, nubuwwah.

amphictyons ::: n. pl. --> Deputies from the confederated states of ancient Greece to a congress or council. They considered both political and religious matters.

amphictyony ::: n. --> A league of states of ancient Greece; esp. the celebrated confederation known as the Amphictyonic Council. Its object was to maintain the common interests of Greece.

anabhisaMskAraparinirvAyin. (T. mngon par 'du byed pa med par yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa; C. wuxing ban/wuxing banniepan; J. mugyohatsu/mugyohatsunehan; K. muhaeng pan/muhaeng panyolban 無行般/無行般涅槃). In Sanskrit, "one who achieves NIRVAnA without effort"; a particular sort of nonreturner (ANAGAMIN), one of the twenty members of the ARYASAMGHA (see VIMsATIPRABHEDASAMGHA). According to the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA, the anabhisaMskAraparinirvAyin are nonreturners who, having achieved any of the sixteen birth states of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHATU), enter "nirvAna with remainder" (SOPADHIsEsANIRVAnA) in that state without having to apply any effort. They are distinguished from those who achieve nirvAna at birth (see UPAPADYAPARINIRVAYIN) or those who need to apply themselves in order to achieve nirvAna (see SABHISAMSKARAPARINIRVAYIN).

anAsravadhAtu. (T. zag pa med pa'i dbyings; C. wulou jie; J. murokai; K. muru kye 無漏界). In Sanskrit, the "uncontaminated realm." According to those proponents of the MAHAYANA who assert that all beings will eventually become buddhas, ARHATs do not enter the NIRVAnA without remainder (ANUPADHIsEsANIRVAnA) at the time of death but instead enter the anAsravadhAtu. There, they abide in states of deep concentration until they are roused by the buddhas and exhorted to abandon their "unafflicted ignorance" (AKLIstAJNANA) by following the BODHISATTVA path to buddhahood.

aniNjyakarman. [alt. aniNjanakarman] (P. aniNjitakamma; T. mi g.yo ba'i las; C. budong ye; J. fudogo; K. pudong op 不動業). In Sanskrit, "invariable" or "unwavering action"; usually appearing in conjunction with the dichotomies of wholesome (KUsALA) and unwholesome (AKUsALA) or meritorious (PUnYA) and demeritorious (APUnYA) in referring to types of action (KARMAN) or the states of existence resulting therefrom. Wholesome and unwholesome actions lead to rebirth, but other actions may intervene and produce their results first. In particular, according to the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA, when a meditator attains the fundamental state (maula) of a DHYANA (concentration) in the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHATU) or the immaterial realm (ARuPYADHATU), the force of the action is aniNjya and will definitely lead to rebirth as a deity in the corresponding heaven in the next life. It is said, however, that BODHISATTVAs are able to circumvent birth as a long-lived divinity in one of the heavens of the realm of subtle materiality or immaterial realm so that they can better offer assistance to sentient beings. Thus, aniNjyakarman indicates the "invariable" connection or continuity between the achievement of those states in this lifetime and the subsequent rebirth: for example, a person who achieves the fourth immaterial absorption in this lifetime will "invariably" be reborn as a BHAVAGRA deity in the fourth immaterial heaven in the next lifetime.

Annihilation Complete destruction of consciousness is an impossibility in nature, for there can be no annihilation of the consciousness which makes the essential person. The universe is built of illimitable hosts of evolving entities existing in all-various grades of evolutionary unfoldment. All are passing through a continual series of changes — comprising the shedding of sheath after sheath — involving their essential consciousness. These entities continuously modify the vehicles through which they express themselves on the various cosmic planes. When the elements forming a compound become dissociated, the compound as such ceases to exist, at least temporarily; but there still exists that which brought the elements into the compound union. The human personality is constantly changing, even during a single life, and even more greatly through rebirth; indeed, the higher states of individualized consciousnesses, though they may endure for periods so vast as to seem to be everlasting, must disappear for a time during the kosmic pralaya. Even then, when the physical, psychic, and spiritual vehicles are reduced to unity, it is not annihilation any more than a person in dreamless sleep is annihilated while his higher self is in its original state of absolute consciousness, though it leaves no impression on the sleeping and therefore unconscious brain. “Nor is the individuality — nor even the essence of the personality, if any be left behind — lost, because re-absorbed. For, however limitless — from a human standpoint — the paranirvanic state, it has yet a limit in Eternity. Once reached, the same monad will re-emerge therefrom, as a still higher being, on a far higher plane, to recommence its cycle of perfected activity” (SD 1:266).

Anoetic: (Gr. a + noetikos, from nous, the mind) Applied to pure sensations, affective states and other pre-cognitive or non-cognitive states of mind. -- L.W.

antarAbhava. (T. bar do'i srid pa/bar do; C. zhongyin/zhongyou; J. chuin/chuu; K. chungŭm/chungyu 中陰/中有). In Sanskrit, "intermediate state" or "transitional existence," a transitional state between death (maranabhava) and rebirth (upapattibhava), distinct from the five or six destinies of SAMSARA (see GATI), during which time the transitional being (GANDHARVA) prepares for rebirth. The antarAbhava is considered one of sentient beings' "four modes of existence" (catvAro bhavAḥ), along with birth/rebirth (upapattibhava), life (purvakAlabhava), and death (maranabhava). The notion of an intermediate state was controversial. Schools that accepted it, including the SARVASTIVADA and most MAHAYANA traditions, resorted to scriptural authority to justify its existence, citing, for example, SuTRAs that refer to seven states of existence (bhava), including an antarAbhava. A type of nonreturner (ANAGAMIN), the third stage of sanctity in the mainstream Buddhist schools, was also called "one who achieved NIRVAnA while in the intermediate state" (ANTARAPARINIRVAYIN), again suggesting the scriptural legitimacy of the antarAbhava. There were several views concerning the maximum duration of the ANTARABHAVA. The ABHIDHARMAMAHAVIBHAsA, for example, lists such variations as instantaneous rebirth, rebirth after a week, indeterminate duration, and forty-nine days. Of these different durations, forty-nine days became dominant, and this duration is found in the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA and the YOGACARABHuMIsASTRA. Ceremonies to help guide the transitional being toward a more salutary rebirth, if not toward enlightenment itself, take place once weekly (see QIQI JI); these observances culminate in a "forty-ninth day ceremony" (SISHIJIU [RI] ZHAI), which is thought to mark the end of the process of transition, when rebirth actually occurs. The transitional being in the intermediate state is termed either a gandharva (lit. "fragrance eater"), because it does not take solid food but is said to subsist only on scent (gandha), or sometimes a "mind-made body" (MANOMAYAKAYA). During the transitional period, the gandharva is searching for the appropriate place and parents for its next existence and takes the form of the beings in the realm where it is destined to be reborn. In the Tibetan tradition, the antarAbhava is termed the BAR DO, and the guidance given to the transitional being through the process of rebirth is systematized in such works as the BAR DO THOS GROL CHEN MO, commonly known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Like several of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS, the THERAVADA scholastic tradition rejects the notion of an intermediate state, positing instead that an instantaneous "connecting" or "linking" consciousness (P. patisandhiviNNAna; S. *pratisaMdhivijNAna) directly links the final moment of consciousness in the present life to the first moment of consciousness in the next.

Antaryoga (Sanskrit) Antaryoga [from antar interior, within + yoga union from the verbal root yuj to join, unite] Interior union; a state of deep thought or abstraction signifying that high stage of inner spiritual and intellectual recollection in which all the superior part of a person’s constitution is gathered together and focused as it were into a single point of consciousness. It is involved in the attaining of the higher states of consciousness such as turiya-samadhi.

anupadhisesanirvAna. [alt. nirupadhisesanirvAna] (P. anupAdisesanibbAna; T. phung po'i lhag ma med par mya ngan las 'das ba / lhag med myang 'das; C. wuyu niepan; J. muyonehan; K. muyo yolban 無餘涅槃). In Sanskrit, "the nirvAna without remainder"; one of the two kinds of NIRVAnA, along with "the nirvAna with remainder" (SOPADHIsEsANIRVAnA). After a buddha or, in some interpretations, an ARHAT has achieved awakening (BODHI), some Buddhist schools distinguish between the experience of nirvAna while it is still accompanied by a substratum of existence (upadhi = SKANDHA) and the nirvAna that is completely freed from that substratum. According to this view, at the time of his enlightenment under the BODHI TREE, the Buddha achieved the nirvAna with remainder, because he had destroyed all causes for future rebirth, but the "remainder" of his mind and body persisted. The anupadhisesanirvAna subsequently occurred at the time of the Buddha's death. It was achieved through having brought an absolute end to any propensity toward defilement (KLEsA) and of the causes that would lead to any prospect of future rebirth; it is therefore the total extinction of all conventional physical and mental existence. The nirvAna that is experienced at death is thus "without remainder" because there are no physical or mental constituents remaining that were the products of previous KARMAN; anupadhisesanirvAna is therefore synonymous with PARINIRVAnA. Since this type of nirvAna results from the complete eradication of the afflictive destructions (KLEsAVARAnA), MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS typically claim that it is accessible by sRAVAKAs and PRATYEKABUDDHAs. However, according to those proponents of the MAHAYANA who assert that all beings will eventually become buddhas, arhats do not enter anupAdisesanirvAna upon death but instead enter the uncontaminated realm (ANASRAVADHATU), where they remain in states of deep concentration until they are roused by the buddhas and exhorted to abandon their "unafflicted ignorance" (AKLIstAJNANA). In the YOGACARA school, anupAdisesanirvAna is one of the four kinds of nirvAna, which entails the cessation of any tendency toward delusion through the transformation of the eighth consciousness, the storehouse consciousness (ALAYAVIJNANA), into the mirrorlike knowledge (ADARsAJNANA).

apramAna. (P. appammaNNA; T. tshad med pa; C. wuliangxin; J. muryoshin; K. muryangsim 無量心). In Sanskrit, "the boundless states," "unlimiteds," or "limitless qualities." This list is identical to the four "divine abidings" (BRAHMAVIHARA) of loving-kindness (MAITRĪ), compassion (KARUnA), empathetic joy (MUDITA), and equanimity or impartiality (UPEKsA). When taken as objects of concentration and extended in meditation to all beings without limit, the divine abidings then become "boundless states" (apramAna). The meditator is taught to take up each of the boundless states in the same way: starting with the first apramAna, for example, filling his mind with loving-kindness, he pervades the world with it, first in one direction, then in a second direction, then a third and a fourth, then above, below, and all around, identifying himself with all beings and remaining free from hatred and ill will. In the same way, he takes up compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. These four factors are taken up as objects of meditation to counter the influence of specific unwholesome states of mind: viz., loving-kindness counteracts hostility (VYAPADA); compassion counters harmfulness (VIHIMSA); empathetic joy counters dissatisfaction or envy regarding others' achievements (arati); and equanimity counters both the desire and hostility arising from sensuality (KAMARAGA-VYAPADA) and the desire to win the approval of others (anunaya). Of these boundless states, the first three are capable of producing the first three of the four DHYANAs, or meditative absorptions; the fourth divine abiding is the only one capable of producing the fourth meditative absorption.

apratisaMkhyAnirodha. (T. so sor brtags min gyi 'gog pa; C. feizemie; J. hichakumetsu; K. pit'aekmyol 非擇滅). In Sanskrit, "nonanalytical suppression" or "nonanalytical cessation," one of the uncompounded factors (ASAMSKṚTADHARMA) listed by both the VAIBHAsIKA-SARVASTIVADA and the YOGACARA schools. In the VaibhAsika dharma theory, where all factors were presumed to exist in all three time periods (TRIKALA) of past, present, and future, this dharma was posited to suppress the production of all other dharmas, ensuring that they remain ever positioned in future mode and never again able to arise in the present. Whenever any specific factor is unproduced, this is due to its position in the present mode being occupied by the nonanalytical suppression; thus the number of apratisaMkhyAnirodha is coextensive with the number of factors. Because this dharma is not produced, not an object of knowledge, and not a result of insight, it is considered to be "nonanalytical." Other schools, such as the SAUTRANTIKA, presume that this factor has only nominal validity and refers to dharmas when they are in their unproduced state. The term also refers to states of temporary absence or cessation that do not occur as the result of meditative practice, such as the cessation of hunger after eating a meal. See also PRATISAMKHYANIRODHA.

Arcana ::: Refers to Mysteries: those aspects of reality that go unnoticed in states of mundane consciousness. Also refers to the symbolic categories of the Tarot.

Ardhanarisa or Ardhanarisvara (Sanskrit) Ardhanārīśa, Ardhanārīśvara [from ardha half + nārī woman + īśvara, īśa lord] Half-feminine lord; a form of Siva, also applied to the first cosmic androgyne, equivalent to the mystically androgynous Sephirah-’Adam Qadmon of the Qabbalah. Cosmic entities are not sexual or sexed in the human sense, for sex as known in the human and animal kingdoms is a transitory phase of evolution. The application of terms such as androgyne, masculine, or feminine to cosmic divinities has reference to states of cosmic force or energy and substance which may be polarized or unpolarized. Human energies and substances in our present evolutionary stage — and this applies likewise to the animal kingdom, and to a degree to the vegetable kingdom — are divided into opposites which bring about sex conditions. When the forces are partially polarized, the androgynous or hermaphroditic condition results. When the forces or substances are unpolarized during pralayas and at the beginnings and endings of manvantaras, then each entity contains within itself and manifests a state of undivided unity — a complete and perfect individual.

AriyapariyesanAsutta. (C. Luomo jing; J. Ramakyo; K. Rama kyong 羅摩經). In PAli, "Discourse on the Noble Quest"; the twenty-sixth sutta (SuTRA) in the MAJJHIMANIKAYA, also known as the PAsarAsisutta (a separate SARVASTIVADA recension appears as the 204th SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMAGAMA); preached by the Buddha to an assembly of monks at the hemitage of the brAhmana Rammaka in the town of sRAVASTĪ. The Buddha explains the difference between noble and ignoble quests and recounts his own life as an example of striving to distinguish between the two. Beginning with his renunciation of the householder's life, he tells of his training under two meditation masters, his rejection of this training in favor of austerities, and ultimately his rejection of austerities in order to discover for himself his own path to enlightenment. The Buddha also relates how he was initially hesitant to teach what he had discovered, but was convinced to do so by the god BRAHMA SAHAMPATI, and how he then converted the "group of five" ascetics (PANCAVARGIKA) who had been his companions while he practiced austerities. There is an understated tone of the narrative, devoid of the detail so familiar from the biographies. There is no mention of the opulence of his youth, no mention of his wife, no mention of the chariot rides, no description of the departure from the palace in the dead of night, no mention of MARA. Instead, the Buddha states, "Later, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessing of youth, in the prime of life, though my mother and father wished otherwise and wept with tearful faces, I shaved off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and went forth from the home life into homelessness." Although the accounts of his study with other meditation masters assume a sophisticated system of states of concentration, the description of the enlightenment itself is both simple and sober, portrayed as the outcome of long reflection rather than as an ecstatic moment of revelation.

Ar-Rafi ::: The One who exalts. The one who elevates conscious beings to higher states of existence; to enable the realization and observation of their essential reality.

ArupyadhAtu. [alt. in S. and P. arupadhAtu] (T. gzugs med pa'i khams; C. wuse jie; J. mushikikai; K. musaek kye 無色界). In Sanskrit, "immaterial" or "formless" "realm"; the highest of the three realms of existence (TRAIDHATUKA) within SAMSARA, along with the sensuous realm (KAMADHATU) and the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHATU). The heavens of the immaterial realm are comprised of four classes of divinities (DEVA) whose existence is entirely mental, no longer requiring even a subtle material foundation for their ethereal states of mind: (1) the sphere of infinite space (AKAsANANTYAYATANA); (2) the sphere of infinite consciousness (VIJNANANANTYAYATANA); (3) the sphere of nothing whatsoever or absolute nothingness (AKINCANYAYATANA); (4) the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception (NAIVASAMJNANASAMJNAYATANA, see also BHAVAGRA). Rebirth in these different spheres is based on mastery of the corresponding four immaterial meditative absorptions (ARuPYAVACARADHYANA) in previous lives. Because they have transcended all materiality, the beings here retain only the subtlest form of the last four aggregates (SKANDHA). For a detailed description, see DEVA.

AryAstAngamArga. (P. ariyAtthangikamagga; T. 'phags lam yan lag brgyad; C. bazhengdao; J. hasshodo; K. p'alchongdo 八正道). In Sanskrit, "noble eightfold path"; the path (MARGA) that brings an end to the causes of suffering (DUḤKHA); the fourth of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (catvAry AryasatyAni). This formulation of the Buddhist path to enlightenment appears in what is regarded as the Buddha's first sermon after his enlightenment, the "Setting Forth the Wheel of Dharma" (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANASuTRA), in which he sets forth a middle way (MADHYAMAPRATIPAD) between the extremes of asceticism and sensual indulgence. That middle way, he says, is the eightfold path, which, like the four truths, he calls "noble" (ARYA); the term is therefore commonly rendered as "noble eightfold path." However, as in the case of the four noble truths, what is noble is not the path but those who follow it, so the compound might be more accurately translated as "eightfold path of the [spiritually] noble." Later in the same sermon, the Buddha sets forth the four noble truths and identifies the fourth truth, the truth of the path, with the eightfold path. The noble eightfold path is comprised of (1) right views (SAMYAGDṚstI; P. sammAditthi), which involve an accurate understanding of the true nature of things, specifically the four noble truths; (2) right intention (SAMYAKSAMKALPA; P. sammAsankappa), which means avoiding thoughts of attachment, hatred, and harmful intent and promoting loving-kindness and nonviolence; (3) right speech (SAMYAGVAC; P. sammAvAcA), which means refraining from verbal misdeeds, such as lying, backbiting and slander, harsh speech and abusive language, and frivolous speech and gossip; (4) right action or right conduct (SAMYAKKARMANTA; P. sammAkammanta), which is refraining from physical misdeeds, such as killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; (5) right livelihood (SAMYAGAJĪVA; P. sammAjīva), which entails avoiding trades that directly or indirectly harm others, such as selling slaves, selling weapons, selling animals for slaughter, dealing in intoxicants or poisons, or engaging in fortune-telling and divination; (6) right effort (SAMYAGVYAYAMA; P. sammAvAyAma), which is defined as abandoning unwholesome states of mind that have already arisen, preventing unwholesome states that have yet to arise, sustaining wholesome states that have already arisen, and developing wholesome states that have yet to arise; (7) right mindfulness (SAMYAKSMṚTI; P. sammAsati), which means to maintain awareness of the four foundations of mindfulness (SMṚTYUPASTHANA), viz., body, physical sensations, the mind, and phenomena; and (8) right concentration (SAMYAKSAMADHI; P. sammAsamAdhi), which is one pointedness of mind. ¶ The noble eightfold path receives less discussion in Buddhist literature than do the four noble truths (of which they are, after all, a constituent). Indeed, in later formulations, the eight factors are presented not so much as a prescription for behavior but as eight qualities that are present in the mind of a person who has understood NIRVAnA. The eightfold path may be reduced to a simpler, and more widely used, threefold schema of the path that comprises the "three trainings" (TRIsIKsA) or "higher trainings" (adhisiksA) in morality (sĪLA; P. sīla; see ADHIsĪLAsIKsA), concentration (SAMADHI, see ADHISAMADHIsIKsA), and wisdom (PRAJNA; P. paNNA; see ADHIPRAJNAsIKsA). In this schema, (1) right views and (2) right intention are subsumed under the training in higher wisdom (adhiprajNAsiksA); (3) right speech, (4) right conduct, and (5) right livelihood are subsumed under higher morality (adhisīlasiksA); and (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right concentration are subsumed under higher concentration (adhisamAdhisiksA). According to the MADHYANTAVIBHAGA, a MAHAYANA work attributed to MAITREYANATHA, the eightfold noble path comprises the last set of eight of the thirty-seven constituents of enlightenment (BODHIPAKsIKADHARMA), where enlightenment (BODHI) is the complete, nonconceptual awakening achieved during the path of vision (DARsANAMARGA). After that vision, following the same pattern as the Buddha, right view is the perfect understanding of the vision, and right intention is the articulation of the vision that motivates the teaching of it. Right mindfulness, right effort, and right concentration correspond respectively to the four types of mindfulness (SMṚTYUPASTHANA), four efforts (PRAHAnA), and four ṚDDHIPADA ("legs of miraculous attainments," i.e., samAdhi) when they are perfect or right (samyak), after the vision of the four noble truths.

Asmita: A Sanskrit term meaning “I-am-ness.” The view which presumes lower states of mind to be the Self (purusha).

Asmita: (Skr. "I am-ness") A kind of egoism repudiated by the Yogasutras (q.v.) in which lower states of mind are presumed to be the self or purusa. -- K.F.L.

A somewhat different definition is, “Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped under Thought, Will, and Feeling. During deep sleep, ideation ceases on the physical plane, and memory is in abeyance; thus for the time being ‘Mind is not,’ because the organ, through which the ego manifests ideation and memory on the material plane, has temporarily ceased to function. A noumenon can become a phenomenon on any plane of existence only by manifesting on that plane through an appropriate basis or vehicle; and during the long night of rest called Pralaya, when all existences are dissolved, the ‘Universal Mind’ remains as a permanent possibility of mental action, or as that abstract absolute thought, of which mind is the concrete manifestation” (SD 1:38). Here mind is consciousness in action, the phenomenon corresponding to a noumenon which, in the absence of vehicles for its expression, can only be described as mind in latency, or a possibility of mental action. The dhyani-chohans are the expressers of latent cosmic mind, who bring it into various degrees of manifestation. They are vehicles for the expression of divine thought and will, intelligent forces which give to nature its laws.

astavimoksa. (P. atthavimokkha; T. rnam par thar pa brgyad; C. ba jietuo; J. hachigedatsu; K. p'al haet'al 八解脱). In Sanskrit, "eight liberations"; referring to a systematic meditation practice for cultivating detachment and ultimately liberation (VIMOKsA). There are eight stages in the attenuation of consciousness that accompany the cultivation of increasingly deeper states of meditative absorption (DHYANA). In the first four dhyAnas of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPAVACARADHYANA), the first three stages entail (1) the perception of materiality (RuPA) in that plane of subtle materiality (S. rupasaMjNin, P. rupasaNNī), (2) the perception of external forms while not perceiving one's own form (S. arupasaMjNin, P. arupasaNNī), and (3) the developing of confidence through contemplating the beautiful (S. subha, P. subha). The next five stages transcend the realm of subtle materiality to take in the four immaterial dhyAnas (ARuPYAVACARADHYANA) and beyond: (4) passing beyond the material plane with the idea of "limitless space," one attains the plane of limitless space (AKAsANANTYAYATANA); (5) passing beyond the plane of limitless space with the idea of "limitless consciousness," one attains the plane of limitless consciousness (VIJNANANANTYAYATANA); (6) passing beyond the plane of limitless consciousness with the idea that "there is nothing," one attains the plane of nothingness (AKINCANYAYATANA); (7) passing beyond the plane of nothingness, one attains the plane of neither perception nor nonperception (NAIVASAMJNANASAMJNAYATANA); and (8) passing beyond the plane of neither perception nor nonperception, one attains the cessation of all perception and sensation (SAMJNAVEDAYITANIRODHA). ¶ The ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA and YOGACARABHuMIsASTRA give an explanation of the first three of the eight vimoksas within the larger context of bodhisattvas who compassionately manifest shapes, smells, and so on for the purpose of training others. Bodhisattvas who have reached any of the nine levels (the RuPADHATU, the four subtle-materiality DHYANAs, and four immaterial attainments) engage in this type of practice. In the first vimoksa, they destroy "form outside," i.e., those in the rupadhAtu who have not destroyed attachment to forms (to their own color, shape, smell, and so on) cultivate detachment to the forms they see outside. (Other bodhisattvas who have reached the first dhyAna and so on do this by relaxing their detachment for the duration of the meditation.) In the second vimoksa, they destroy the "form inside," i.e., they cultivate detachment to their own color and shape. (Again, others who have reached the immaterial attainments and have no attachment to their own form relax that detachment for the duration of the meditation.) In the third, they gain control over what they want to believe about forms by meditating on the relative nature of beauty, ugliness, and size. They destroy grasping at anything as having an absolute pleasant or unpleasant identity, and perceive them all as having the same taste as pleasant, or however else they want them to be. These texts finally give an explanation of the remaining five vimoksas, "to loosen the rope of craving for the taste of the immaterial levels."

At one time the lower quaternary was given as kama (desire), prana (vitality), linga-sarira (astral body) and sthula-sarira (physical body); later the physical body was excluded from the list of principles, and lower manas was added to make up the four. These principles, however, must not be regarded as separate things conjoined or strung together, as they are several aspects or states of manifestation of the one life that circulates through the human constitution. Another way of regarding the matter is to say that there are two triads, the higher triad of atma-buddhi with higher manas and the lower triad of our astral-vital nature, each of which becomes a complete quaternary when the element of self-conscious mind is added to it.

AUM ::: another spelling of the mystic syllable OM; its three letters,.28A, U and M, symbolise the states of brahman as, respectively, "the spirit of the gross and external" (virat.), "the spirit of the subtle and internal" (hiran.yagarbha), and "the spirit of the secret superconscient omnipotence" (prajña), while the syllable as a whole represents the Absolute (turiya), "the supreme Intangible, the original Unity, the timeless Mystery self-existent above all manifestation in supernal being".

avacara. (T. spyod pa; C. jieji; J. kaike; K. kyegye 界繫). In Sanskrit and PAli, when used at the end of compound words, means "sphere," "domain," or "realm of existence." In Buddhist cosmology, the term refers to the things that "belong to the sphere" of the three realms of existence (traidhAtukAvacara, see TRAIDHATUKA), which comprise the entire phenomenal universe: the sensuous realm (kAmAvacara or KAMADHATU), the realm of subtle materiality or form (rupAvacara or RuPADHATU), and the immaterial or formless realm (ArupyAvacara or ARuPYADHATU). The three realms of existence taken together comprise all of SAMSARA, the cycle of rebirth, and are the spheres within which beings take rebirth: there are no realms of existence that are unoccupied, and no beings are born anywhere other than in these three spheres. The sensuous realm is the lowest stratum of the universe and contains the following destinies (GATI), in ascending order: denizens of hell, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demigods (ASURA), and divinities (DEVA). Rebirth in the sensuous realm is the result of past performance of either predominantly unwholesome deeds (in the case of hell denizens, hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras), a mix of unwholesome and wholesome deeds (as with human beings), or predominantly wholesome deeds (the divinities). The beings in the sensuous realm all have a coarser physical constituent. The realm of subtle materiality is occupied by the BRAHMA and other gods, whose minds are perpetually absorbed in one of the four subtle-materiality meditative absorptions (RuPAVACARADHYANA). Rebirth in the realm of subtle materiality is the result of mastery of one or all of these four dhyAnas, and the beings residing there are refined enough that they require only the subtlest of material foundations for their consciousnesses. The immaterial realm is occupied by divinities who are entirely mental, no longer requiring even a subtle-material foundation for their ethereal states of mind. The divinities in the immaterial realm are perpetually absorbed in immaterial trance states, and rebirth there is the result of mastery of one or all of the immaterial dhyAnas (ARuPYAVACARADHYANA).

Avastha (Sanskrit) Avasthā [from ava down into + the verbal root sthā to stand] State, condition, position, situation; applied to the four states of consciousness (jagradavastha, svapnavastha, sushuptyavastha, and turiyavastha). The Greek equivalent is hypostasis, that which stands under, supports, carries, or bears a superior. Thus the superior is born or manifested by its hypostasis or avastha.

avasthas. ::: the three alternating states of waking, dreaming and sleeping

Avasthatraya: Three states of consciousness, waking, dreaming and deep sleep.

Ba Khin, U. (1899-1971). Influential lay Burmese teacher of insight meditation (S. VIPAsYANA; P. VIPASSANA). Born to a working-class family in Rangoon, U Ba Khin was educated in Christian middle and high schools. Married with six children, he began his career as a government clerk during the British colonial period, later becoming accountant general of independent Burma. He began practicing vipassanA in 1937 under the guidance of Saya Thet Gyi, a lay meditation teacher and disciple of the Burmese monk LEDI SAYADAW. He explored several styles of tranquility (P. samatha, S. sAMATHA) and insight meditation and eventually developed his own technique of vipassanA by drawing on his own experiences. The method he devised focuses on physical sensations (VEDANA), beginning at the crown of the head and continuing throughout the body; his approach is considered to be especially effective in producing states of deep concentration (SAMADHI). In 1941, U Ba Khin met the famous meditation teacher Webu Sayadaw, who encouraged him to teach his meditation technique to others. He began teaching small groups informally and eventually, while accountant general, taught vipassanA to his staff. Under his influence, the government of Burma instituted a policy of encouraging civil servants to practice meditation as part of their daily routine. In 1952, U Ba Khin established the International Meditation Centre in Rangoon, where he taught meditation and began holding intensive ten-day vipassanA retreats on a regular basis. After his retirement from government service in 1953, he devoted all of his time to promoting vipassanA practice. He also played an active role in the sixth Buddhist council (see COUNCIL, SIXTH), held in Rangoon from 1954-1956. His style of vipassanA is one of the most widely disseminated techniques internationally, and his disciples include such well-known meditation teachers as S. N. Goenka.

bhava ::: 1. status of being. ::: 2. a becoming. ::: 3. a subjective state, one of the secondary subjective becomings of Nature (states of mind, affections of desire, movements of passion, the reactions of the senses, the limited and dual play of the reason, the turns of the feeling and moral sense). ::: 4. the affective nature. ::: 5. general sensation. ::: 6. [one of the sadanga]: the emotion or aesthetic feeling expressed by the form. ::: 7. [in poetry: feeling, mood, sentiment]. ::: bhavah [plural]

bhava ::: becoming; state of being (sometimes added to an adjective to bhava form an abstract noun and translatable by a suffix such as "-ness", as in br.hadbhava, the state of being br.hat [wide], i.e., wideness); condition of consciousness; subjectivity; state of mind and feeling; physical indication of a psychological state; content, meaning (of rūpa); spiritual experience, realisation; emotion, "moved spiritualised state of the affective nature"; (madhura bhava, etc.) any of several types of relation between the jiva and the isvara, each being a way in which "the transcendent and universal person of the Divine conforms itself to our individualised personality and accepts a personal relation with us, at once identified with us as our supreme Self and yet close and different as our Master, Friend, Lover, Teacher"; attitude; mood; temperament; aspect; internal manifestation of the Goddess (devi), in . her total divine Nature (daivi prakr.ti or devibhava) or in the "more seizable because more defined and limited temperament" of any of her aspects, as in Mahakali bhava; a similar manifestation of any personality or combination of personalities of the deva or fourfold isvara, as in Indrabhava or Aniruddha bhava; in the vision of Reality (brahmadarsana), any of the "many aspects of the Infinite" which "disclose themselves, separate, combine, fuse, are unified together" until "there shines through it all the supreme integral Reality"; especially, the various "states of perception" in which the divine personality (purus.a) is seen in the impersonality of the brahman, ranging from the "general personality" of sagun.a brahman to the "vivid personality" of Kr.s.n.akali. bh bhavasamrddhi

bhAvanA. (T. sgom pa; C. xiuxi; J. shuju; K. susŭp 修習). In Sanskrit and PAli, "cultivation" (lit. "bringing into being"); a Sanskrit term commonly translated into English as "meditation." It is derived from the root √bhu, "to be" or "to become," and has a wide range of meanings including cultivating, producing, manifesting, imagining, suffusing, and reflecting. It is in the first sense, that of cultivation, that the term is used to mean the sustained development of particular states of mind. However, bhAvanA in Buddhism can include studying doctrine, memorizing sutras, and chanting verses to ward off evil spirits. The term thus refers broadly to the full range of Buddhist spiritual culture, embracing the "bringing into being" (viz., cultivating) of such generic aspects of training as the path (MARGA), specific spiritual exercises (e.g., loving-kindness, or MAITRĪ), or even a general mental attitude, such as virtuous (KUsALA) states of mind. The term is also used in the specific sense of a "path of cultivation" (BHAVANAMARGA), which "brings into being" the insights of the preceding path of vision (DARsANAMARGA). Hence, bhAvanA entails all the various sorts of cultivation that an adept must undertake in order to enhance meditation, improve its efficacy, and "bring it into being." More specifically as "meditation," two general types of meditation are sometimes distinguished in the commentarial literature: stabilizing meditation (sAMATHA) in which the mind focuses with one-pointedness on an object in an effort to expand the powers of concentration; and analytical meditation (VIPAsYANA), in which the meditator conceptually investigates a topic in order to develop insight into it.

bhuta ::: 1. a becoming, an existence. ::: 2. an elemental power or spirit. ::: 3. an element; the five bhutas: elements, the five elemental states of substance: akasa, vayu, agni (tejas), apas (jala), prthivi. ::: bhutanam [genitive plural] ::: bhutani [nominative and accusative]

Bitul (&

bkra shis tshe ring mched lnga. (tashi tsering chenga). In Tibetan, "the five long-life sisters," a group of pre-Buddhist Tibetan deities who were subdued and converted to Buddhism by PADMASAMBHAVA; the sisters also make an appearance in the songs of MI LA RAS PA (MI LA'I MGUR 'BUM) collected by GTSANG SMYON HERUKA, where they give the yogin access to the highest states of bliss. According to the DGE LUGS tradition, they are dharma protectors (DHARMAPALA) who have not transcended existence in SAMSARA (although both the RNYING MA and BKA' BRGYUD sects assert that they have done so). They reside at either Mount Everest or LA PHYI, on the border between Tibet and Nepal. Their leader is Bkra shis tshe ring ma/Rdo rje kun grags ma or Tshe yi dbang phyug ma. The other members are Mthing gi zhal bzang ma, Mi g.yo glang bzang ma, Cod pan mgrin bzang ma, and Gtal dkar 'gro bzang ma. They are also known as the bkra shis tshe yi lha mo lnga.

blue book ::: --> A parliamentary publication, so called from its blue paper covers.
The United States official "Biennial Register."


Bodhisattva ::: Without delving too deeply into Buddhist philosophy, a Bodhisattva can be thought of as a being that has attained at least some level of enlightenment and has made the compassionate decision to continue causally in the phenomenal world in order to help raise all other beings from states of suffering toward realization and to help elevate and evolve society for the betterment of all beings.

Bodhyanga (Sanskrit) Bodhyaṅga [from bodhi wisdom + aṅga limb, portion, division] Limb or division of essential wisdom; often used collectively to signify the branches of esoteric knowledge or understanding, usually enumerated as seven: 1) smriti (memory); 2) dharma-pravichaya (investigation — hence correct understanding or discrimination of the Law); 3) virya (energy); 4) priti (spiritual joy); 5) prasrabdhi (confidence, tranquillity); 6) samadhi (absorption of the consciousness in a high spiritual and intellectual objective); and 7) upeksha (absolute indifference). Esoterically these correspond to seven states of consciousness (TG 59).

brahmavihAra. (T. tshangs pa'i gnas; C. fanzhu; J. bonju; K. pomju 梵住). In Sanskrit and PAli, "divine abidings," or "highest religious state." This is a classification of four meditative topics used for the cultivation of tranquility meditation (sAMATHA): loving-kindness (MAITRĪ; P. mettA), compassion (KARUnA), empathetic joy (MUDITA), and equanimity or impartiality (UPEKsA; P. upekkhA). The meditator is taught to take up each of the divine abidings in the same way: starting with the first brahmavihAra, for example, filling his mind with loving-kindness, he pervades the world with it, first in one direction; then in a second direction; then a third and a fourth; then above, below, and all around; always identifying himself with all beings and keeping himself free from hatred and ill will. In the same way, he develops compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. These four factors are taken up as objects of meditation to counter the influence of specific unwholesome (AKUsALA) states of mind: viz., loving-kindness counteracts hostility (VYAPADA), compassion counters harmfulness (VIHIMSA), empathetic joy counters dissatisfaction or envy regarding others achievements (arati), and equanimity counters both the desire and hostility arising from sensuality (kAmarAgavyApAda) as well as the desire to win the approval of others (anunaya). Of these divine abidings, the first three are capable of producing the first three of the four meditative absorptions (DHYANA); the fourth divine abiding is the only one capable of producing the fourth meditative absorption. The four divine abidings are listed in the VISUDDHIMAGGA as four of the forty meditative topics (KAMMAttHANA) that may be pursued by the meditator. The Visuddhimagga notes they are useful only for the cultivation of tranquility (P. samatha; S. samatha), and not for the cultivation of insight (P. VIPASSANA; S. VIPAsYANA). Taken as objects of concentration and extended in meditation to all beings without limit, the divine abidings also come to be known as the "boundless states" (APRAMAnA).

Bureau International des Poids et Mesures ::: (body, standard) (BIPM) The standards body that ensures world-wide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International System of metrology laboratories of the member states of the convention, and through its own laboratory work.The BIPM carries out measurement-related research. It takes part in, and organises, international comparisons of national measurement standards, and it carries out calibrations for member states. .(2005-03-15)

Bureau International des Poids et Mesures "body, standard" (BIPM) The standards body that ensures world-wide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the {International System of Units} (SI). The BIPM is based in France and operates with the authority of the Convention of the Metre, a diplomatic treaty between fifty-one nations. It operates through a series of committees, whose members are the national metrology laboratories of the member states of the convention, and through its own laboratory work. The BIPM carries out measurement-related research. It takes part in, and organises, international comparisons of national measurement standards, and it carries out calibrations for member states. {BIPM Home (http://www.bipm.org/)}. (2014-07-08)

By Saraadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of with- drawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consdousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consdousness and posses thence to the higher supra- mental planes on which the indiWdual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and conrentrated energising of consdousness on its object which our phiJos^hy asserts as the priraa/j' cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the

Cartesianism: The philosophy of the French thinker, Rene Descartes (Cartesius) 1596-1650. After completing his formal education at the Jesuit College at La Fleche, he spent the years 1612-1621 in travel and military service. The reminder of his life was devoted to study and writing. He died in Sweden, where he had gone in 1649 to tutor Queen Christina. His principal works are: Discours de la methode, (preface to his Geometric, Meteores, Dieptrique) Meditationes de prima philosophia, Principia philosophiae, Passions de l'ame, Regulae ad directionem ingenii, Le monde. Descartes is justly regarded as one of the founders of modern epistemology. Dissatisfied with the lack of agreement among philosophers, he decided that philosophy needed a new method, that of mathematics. He began by resolving to doubt everything which could not pass the test of his criterion of truth, viz. the clearness and distinctness of ideas. Anything which could pass this test was to be readmitted as self-evident. From self-evident truths, he deduced other truths which logically follow from them. Three kinds of ideas were distinguished: innate, by which he seems to mean little more than the mental power to think things or thoughts; adventitious, which come to him from without; factitious, produced within his own mind. He found most difficulty with the second type of ideas. The first reality discovered through his method is the thinking self. Though he might doubt nearly all else, Descartes could not reasonably doubt that he, who was thinking, existed as a res cogitans. This is the intuition enunciated in the famous aphorism: I think, therefore I am, Cogito ergo sum. This is not offered by Descartes as a compressed syllogism, but as an immediate intuition of his own thinking mind. Another reality, whose existence was obvious to Descartes, was God, the Supreme Being. Though he offered several proofs of the Divine Existence, he was convinced that he knew this also by an innate idea, and so, clearly and distinctly. But he did not find any clear ideas of an extra-mental, bodily world. He suspected its existence, but logical demonstration was needed to establish this truth. His adventitious ideas carry the vague suggestion that they are caused by bodies in an external world. By arguing that God would be a deceiver, in allowing him to think that bodies exist if they do not, he eventually convinced himself of the reality of bodies, his own and others. There are, then, three kinds of substance according to Descartes: Created spirits, i.e. the finite soul-substance of each man: these are immaterial agencies capable of performing spiritual operations, loosely united with bodies, but not extended since thought is their very essence. Uncreated Spirit, i.e. God, confined neither to space nor time, All-Good and All-Powerful, though his Existence can be known clearly, his Nature cannot be known adequately by men on earth, He is the God of Christianity, Creator, Providence and Final Cause of the universe. Bodies, i.e. created, physical substances existing independently of human thought and having as their chief attribute, extension. Cartesian physics regards bodies as the result of the introduction of "vortices", i.e. whorls of motion, into extension. Divisibility, figurability and mobility, are the notes of extension, which appears to be little more thin what Descartes' Scholastic teachers called geometrical space. God is the First Cause of all motion in the physical universe, which is conceived as a mechanical system operated by its Maker. Even the bodies of animals are automata. Sensation is the critical problem in Cartesian psychology; it is viewed by Descartes as a function of the soul, but he was never able to find a satisfactory explanation of the apparent fact that the soul is moved by the body when sensation occurs. The theory of animal spirits provided Descartes with a sort of bridge between mind and matter, since these spirits are supposed to be very subtle matter, halfway, as it were, between thought and extension in their nature. However, this theory of sensation is the weakest link in the Cartesian explanation of cognition. Intellectual error is accounted for by Descartes in his theory of assent, which makes judgment an act of free will. Where the will over-reaches the intellect, judgment may be false. That the will is absolutely free in man, capable even of choosing what is presented by the intellect as the less desirable of two alternatives, is probably a vestige of Scotism retained from his college course in Scholasticism. Common-sense and moderation are the keynotes of Descartes' famous rules for the regulation of his own conduct during his nine years of methodic doubt, and this ethical attitude continued throughout his life. He believed that man is responsible ultimately to God for the courses of action that he may choose. He admitted that conflicts may occur between human passions and human reason. A virtuous life is made possible by the knowledge of what is right and the consequent control of the lower tendencies of human nature. Six primary passions are described by Descartes wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sorrow. These are passive states of consciousness, partly caused by the body, acting through the animal spirits, and partly caused by the soul. Under rational control, they enable the soul to will what is good for the body. Descartes' terminology suggests that there are psychological faculties, but he insists that these powers are not really distinct from the soul itself, which is man's sole psychic agency. Descartes was a practical Catholic all his life and he tried to develop proofs of the existence of God, an explanation of the Eucharist, of the nature of religious faith, and of the operation of Divine Providence, using his philosophy as the basis for a new theology. This attempted theology has not found favor with Catholic theologians in general.

causal body ::: The mass-energy support (or “body”) for such states of consciousness as formless meditation, nirvikalpa samadhi, the chikhai bardo, and the deep, dreamless sleep state. The term “causal” technically refers only to this mass-energy but is sometimes broadly used to refer to states of consciousness supported by the causal body. See gross body and subtle body.

cetayanti sumatinam ::: awakener of the consciousness to right thinkings or right states of mind. [RV 1.3.11]

Chohan (Tibetan) [poss from chös law, dharma + Mong khan lord] “Lord of the dharma”; in The Mahatma Letters chohan is the title usually given to superiors among the Masters of the Great White Lodge, whose chief is called the Maha-chohan. Also a general term used for beings in several states of evolution higher than the human. “There are men who become such mighty beings, there are men among us who may become immortal during the remainder of the Rounds, and then take their appointed place among the highest Chohans, the Planetary conscious ‘Ego-Spirits’ ” (ML 130). Because chohan is used much as “chief” is used in English, the term does not signify one single degree in spiritual evolution.

citta. (T. sems; C. xin; J. shin; K. sim 心). In Sanskrit and PAli, "mind," "mentality," or "thought"; used broadly to refer to general mentality, citta is the factor (DHARMA) that is present during any type of conscious activity. Citta is contrasted with the physical body or materiality (RuPA), and is synonymous in this context with "name" (NAMA), as in the term NAMARuPA. In this sense, citta corresponds to the last four of the five aggregates (SKANDHA), excluding only the first aggregate, of materiality (RuPA), i.e., sensation (VEDANA), perception (SAMJNA), conditioning factors (SAMSKARA), and consciousness (VIJNANA). (Where the correspondences on this list are further refined, the first three of these mentality aggregates correspond to the mental concomitants, viz., CAITTA, while citta is restricted to the last aggregate, that of consciousness, or vijNAna.) Citta in this broad sense is synonymous with both mentality (MANAS) and consciousness (vijNAna): mind is designated as citta because it "builds up" (cinoti) virtuous and nonvirtuous states; as manas, because it calculates and examines; and as vijNAna, because it discriminates among sensory stimuli. Mind as "consciousness" refers to the six consciousnesses (sadvijNAna): the five sensory consciousnesses of the visual (CAKsURVIJNANA), auditory (sROTRAVIJNANA), olfactory (GHRAnAVIJNANA), gustatory (JIHVAVIJNANA), and tactile (KAYAVIJNANA), along with the mental consciousness (MANOVIJNANA). In some strands of MAHAYANA thought, such as YOGACARA, mind is instead considered to encompass not only mentality but all dharmas, and the distinction between mentality and materiality is presumed to be merely nominal; YogAcAra is thus sometimes called the school of CITTAMATRA, or "mind-only." Citta as mentality serves as one of the four foundations of mindfulness (SMṚTYUPASTHANA) in Buddhist meditative training, and refers to various general states of mind, e.g., a mind (citta) that is depressed, distracted, developed, concentrated, or freed. Citta is also used to signify mind itself in distinction to various sets of mental concomitants (caitta) that accompany the basic sensory consciousnesses. The DHAMMASAnGAnI, the first of the seven books of the PAli ABHIDHAMMAPItAKA, classifies citta as the first of a fourfold division of factors into mind (citta), mental concomitants (P. CETASIKA), materiality or form (rupa), and NIRVAnA (P. nibbAna). In this text's treatment, a moment of consciousness (citta) will always arise in association with a variety of associated mental factors (P. cetasika), seven of which are always present during every moment of consciousness: (1) sensory contact or sense impression (P. phassa; S. SPARsA), (2) feeling or sensation (VEDANA), (3) perception or conception (P. saNNA; S. SAMJNA), (4) volition (CETANA), (5) concentration (SAMADHI), (6) vitality (JĪVITA), and (7) attention, viz., the advertence of the mind toward an object (P. manasikAra; S. MANASKARA). The SARVASTIVADA ABHIDHARMA instead divides all dharmas into five groups: mind (citta), mental concomitants (caitta), materiality (rupa), forces dissociated from thought (CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAMSKARA), and the unconditioned (ASAMSKṚTA). In this system, ten specific factors are said universally to accompany all conscious activity and are therefore called "factors of wide extent" or "omnipresent mental factors" (MAHABHuMIKA): (1) sensation (vedanA); (2) volition (cetanA); (3) perception (saMjNA); (4) zeal or "desire-to-act" (CHANDA) (5) sensory contact (sparsa); (6) discernment (mati); (7) mindfulness (SMṚTI); (8) attention (manaskAra); (9) determination (ADHIMOKsA); (10) concentration (samAdhi). According to the system set forth by ASAnGA in his ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, this list is divided into two sets of five: the five omnipresent (SARVATRAGA) mental factors (vedanA, saMjNA, cetanA, sparsa, and manaskAra) and the five determining (pratiniyama) mental factors (chanda, adhimoksa, smṛti, samAdhi, and prajNA). ¶ In the experience of enlightenment (BODHI), the citta is said to be "freed" from the "point of view" that is the self (ATMAN). The citta is then no longer subject to the limitations perpetuated by ignorance (AVIDYA) and craving (TṚsnA) and thus becomes nonmanifesting (because there is no longer any projection of ego into the perceptual process), infinite (because the mind is no longer subject to the limitations of conceptualization), and lustrous (because the ignorance that dulls the mind has been vanquished forever). Scriptural statements attest to this inherent luminosity of the citta, which may be revealed through practice and manifested in enlightenment. For example, in the PAli AnGUTTARANIKAYA, the Buddha says, "the mind, O monks, is luminous" (P. pabhassaraM idaM bhikkhave cittaM). Such statements are the strands from which the MahAyAna subsequently derives such concepts as the inherent quality of buddhahood (BUDDHADHATU; C. FOXING) or the embryo of the TATHAGATAs (TATHAGATAGARBHA) that is said to be innate in the mind.

cittaviprayuktasaMskAra. (T. sems dang ldan pa ma yin pa'i 'du byed; C. xin buxiangying fa; J. shinfusoobo; K. sim pulsangŭng pop 心不相應法). In Sanskrit, "conditioned forces dissociated from thought"; forces that are associated with neither materiality (RuPA) nor mentality (CITTA) and thus are listed in a separate category of factors (DHARMA) in ABHIDHARMA materials associated with the SARVASTIVADA school and in the hundred-dharmas (BAIFA) list of the YOGACARA school. These conditioned forces were posited to account for complex moral and mental processes (such as the states of mind associated with the higher spheres of meditation, where both physicality and mentality were temporarily suspended), and anomalous doctrinal problems (such as how speech was able to convey meaning or how group identity was established). A standard listing found in the DHARMASKANDHA and PRAKARAnAPADA, two texts of the SarvAstivAda abhidharma canon, includes sixteen dissociated forces: (1) possession (PRAPTI); (2) equipoise of nonperception (ASAMJNASAMAPATTI); (3) equipoise of cessation (NIRODHASAMAPATTI); (4) nonperception (AsaMjNika); (5) vitality (JĪVITA); (6) homogeneity (sabhAgatA); (7) acquisition the corporeal basis (*AsrayapratilAbha); (8) acquisition of the given entity (*vastuprApti); (9) acquisition of the sense spheres (*AyatanaprApti); the four conditioned characteristics (SAMSKṚTALAKsAnA), viz., (10) origination, or birth (JATI); (11) continuance, or maturation (STHITI); (12) senescence, or decay (JARA); and (13) desinence, or death (anityatA); (14) name set (nAmakAya); (15) phrase set (padakAya); 16) syllable set (vyaNjanakAya). The later treatise ABHIDHARMAKOsABHAsYA includes only fourteen, dropping numbers 7, 8, 9 and adding nonpossession (APRAPTI). These listings, however, constituted only the most generic and comprehensive types employed by the VAIBHAsIKA school of SarvAstivAda abhidharma; the cittaviprayuktasaMskAras thus constituted an open category, and new forces could be posited as the need arose in order to resolve thorny doctrinal issues. The four conditioned characteristics (saMskṛtalaksana) are a good example of why the cittaviprayuktasaMskAra category was so useful in abhidharma-type analysis. In the SarvAstivAda treatment of causality, these four characteristics were forcesthat exerted real power over compounded objects, escorting an object along from origination, to continuance, to senescence or decay, until the force "desinence," or death finally extinguishes it; this rather tortured explanation was necessary in order to explain how factors that the school presumed continued to exist in all three time periods (TRIKALA) of past, present, and future nevertheless still appeared to undergo change. The YOGACARA school subsequently includes twenty-four cittaviprayuktasaMskAras in its list of one hundred dharmas (see BAIFA), including such elements as the state of an ordinary being (pṛthagjanatva), time (KALA), place (desa), and number (saMkhyA).

confederate ::: a. --> United in a league; allied by treaty; engaged in a confederacy; banded together; allied.
Of or pertaining to the government of the eleven Southern States of the United States which (1860-1865) attempted to establish an independent nation styled the Confederate States of America; as, the Confederate congress; Confederate money. ::: n.


Contextual definition: See incomplete symbol. Contiguity, Association by: A type of association, recognized by Aristotle, whereby one of two states of mind, which have been coexistent or successive, tends to recall the other. This type of association has sometimes been considered the basic type to which all others are reducible. See Association, laws of. -- L.W.

(c) The relation between psychology and epistemology is particularly intimate since the cognitive processes of perception, memory, imagination, conception and reasoning, investigated by empirical psychology are the very processes which, in quite a different context, are the special subject matter of epistemology. Nevertheless the psychological and epistemological treatments of the cognitive processes of mind are radically different: scientific psychology is concerned solely with the description and explanation of conscious processes, e.g. particular acts of perception, in the context of other conscious events; epistemology is interested in the cognitive pretentions of the perceptions, i.e. their apparent reference to external objects. In short, whereas psychology is the investigation of all states of mind including the cognitive in the context of the mental life, epistemology investigates only cognitive states and these solely with respect to their cognitive import. Psychology and epistemology are by virtue of the partial identity of their subject matter interdependent sciences. The psychology of perception, memory, imagination, conception, etc. affords indispensable data for epistemological interpretation and on the other hand epistemological analysis of the cognitive processes may sometimea prove psychologically suggestive. The epistemologist must, however, guard against a particularly insidious form of the genetic fallacy: viz. the supposition that the psychological origin of an item of knowledge prejudices either favorably or unfavorably its cognitive validity -- a fallacy which is psychologism at its worst.

CulAssapurasutta. (C. Mayi jing; J. Meyukyo; K. Maŭp kyong 馬邑經). In PAli, "Shorter Discourse at Assapura"; the fortieth sutta in the MAJJHIMANIKAYA (a separate SARVASTIVADA recension appears as the 183rd sutra in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMAGAMA); preached by the Buddha to a group of monks dwelling in the market town of Assapura in the country of the Angans. The people of Assapura were greatly devoted to the Buddha, the DHARMA, and the SAMGHA and were especially generous in their support of the community of monks. In recognition of their generosity, the Buddha advised his monks that the true path of the recluse is not concerned with mere outward purification through austerities but rather with inward purification through freedom from passion and mental defilements. The dedicated monk should therefore devote himself to the path laid down by the Buddha until he has abandoned twelve unwholesome states of mind: (1) covetousness, (2) ill will, (3) anger, (4) resentment, (5) contempt, (6) insolence, (7) envy, (8) greed, (9) fraud, (10) deceit, (11) evil wishes, and (12) wrong view. Having abandoned these twelve, the monk should then strive to cultivate the divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHARA) of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; through those virtues, the monk attains inner peace and thereby practices the true path of the recluse.

DAY AND NIGHT. ::: The up and down movement is com- mon to all ways of yoga. It is there in the path of Bhakti, but there are equally alternations of states of light and states of darkness, sometimes sheer and prolonged darkness, when one follows the path of Knowledge. Those who have occult experi- ences come to periods when all experiences cease and even seem finished for ever.

deterministic model: A mathematical model where the states of a model is determined completely by parameters of the model as well as prior states of the model only.

Devachan and nirvana are not localities, but the states of consciousness of the beings in those respective spiritual conditions. Nirvana is the highest spiritual or superspiritual state; devachan is the intermediate or high psychological states; and avichi, popularly called the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beings existing in the lokas or talas, the worlds of the cosmic egg; whereas paranirvana (“beyond nirvana,” a super-nirvana) is that divine state which is virtually identification with cosmic reality.

Dhammasangani. [alt. Dhammasanganī]. In Pāli, lit. "Enumeration (sanganī) of Factors (dhamma)"; the first of the seven books of the THERAVĀDA ABHIDHAMMAPItAKA. The text undertakes a systematic analysis of all the elements of reality, or factors (dhamma; S. DHARMA), discussed in the suttapitaka, organizing them into definitive rosters. The elaborate analysis of each and every element of existence provided by the Dhammasangani is considered to be foundational to the full account of the conditional relations pertaining between all those dharmas found in the PAttHĀNA, the last book of the Pāli abhidhamma. ¶ The Dhammasangani consists of an initial "matrix" (mātikā; S. MĀTṚKĀ), followed by four main divisions: (1) mind (CITTA) and mental concomitants (CETASIKA), (2) materiality (RuPA), (3) analytical summaries (nikkhepa; S. NIKsEPA), and (4) exegesis (AttHAKATHĀ). In the opening matrix, the complete list of subjects to be treated in both the Dhammasangani, as well as the entire abhidhammapitaka, is divided into three groups. (1) The triad matrix (tikamātikā) consists of twenty-two categories of factors (dhamma; S. DHARMA), each of which is treated as triads. For example, in the case of the matrix on wholesomeness (kusala; S. KUsALA), the relevant factors are divided into wholesome factors (kusaladhamma; S. kusaladharma), unwholesome factors (akusaladhamma; S. akusaladharma), and neither wholesome nor unwholesome factors (avyākatadhamma; S. AVYĀKṚTA-DHARMA). (2) The dyad matrix (dukamātikā) consists of one hundred categories of factors, treated as dyads. For example, in the matrix on cause (HETU), factors are divided between factors that are root causes (hetudhamma) and factors that are not root causes (na hetudhamma). (3) The dyad matrix from the sutras (suttantikadukamātikā) consists of forty-six categories of factors found in the suttapitaka that are treated as dyads. According to the AttHASĀLINĪ, the commentary to the Dhammasangani, this section was added by Sāriputta (S. sĀRIPUTRA), one of the two main disciples of the Buddha, to facilitate understanding of the suttapitaka. Of the four main divisions of the Dhammasangani that follow this initial matrix, the first two, the division on mind and mental concomitants (cittuppādakanda) and the division on materiality (rupakanda), expound upon the first category in the triad matrix, the matrix on wholesomeness, so as to provide a basis for the analysis of other categories of dharmas. The division on mind and mental concomitants contains the analysis of wholesome factors, unwholesome factors, and the first two of the four categories of factors that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome (avyākata; S. AVYĀKṚTA), namely, resultant (VIPĀKA) and noncausative action (kiriya); the division on materiality (rupakanda) treats the remaining two categories of abyākatadhammas, namely, materiality (rupa) and nibbāna (S. NIRVĀnA), although nibbāna does not receive a detailed explanation. In the first division on wholesomeness in the triad category, each aspect is analyzed in relation to the various realms of existence: wholesome states of mind and mental concomitants: (1) pertaining to the sensuous realm (KĀMĀVACARA) (P. kāmāvacara-atthamahācitta), (2) pertaining to the realm of subtle materiality (rupāvacara) (P. rupāvacarakusala), (3) pertaining to the immaterial realm (arupāvacara) (P. arupāvacarakusala), (4) leading to different levels of existence within the three realms, and (5) leading to liberation from the three realms (lokuttaracitta). The third division, the division on analytical summaries (nikkhepakanda), provides a synopsis of the classifications found in all the triads and dyads, organized in eight categories: roots (mula), aggregates (khandha; S. SKANDHA), doors (dvāra), field of occurrence (BHuMI), meaning (attha; S. ARTHA), doctrinal interpretation (dhamma), nomenclature (nāma), and grammatical gender (linga). The final division on exegesis (atthakathākanda) offers additional detailed enumeration of other triads and dyads.

Dharmakaya (Sanskrit) Dharmakāya [from dharma law, continuance from the verbal root dhṛ to support, carry, continue + kāya body] Continuance-body, body of the law. One of the trikaya of Buddhism, which consists of 1) nirmanakaya, 2) sambhogakaya, and 3) dharmakaya. “It is that spiritual body or state of a high spiritual being in which the restricted sense of soulship and egoity has vanished into a universal (hierarchical) sense, and remains only in the seed, latent — if even so much. It is pure consciousness, pure bliss, pure intelligence, freed from all personalizing thought” (OG 38). In the dharmakaya vesture the initiate is on the threshold of nirvana or in the nirvanic state. Sometimes the dharmakaya is called the “nirvana without remains,” for once having reached that state the buddha or bodhisattva remains entirely outside of every earthly condition; he will return no more until the commencement of a new manvantara, for he has crossed the cycle of births. Dharmakaya state is that of parasamadhi, where no progress is possible — at least as long as the entity remains in it. Such entities may be said to be for the time being crystallized in purity and homogeneity. This is, likewise, one of the states of adi-buddha, and as such is called the mystic, universally diffused essence, the robe or vesture of luminous spirituality. See also TRIKAYA; TRISARANA

dharma. (P. dhamma; T. chos; C. fa; J. ho; K. pop 法). In Sanskrit, "factor," or "element"; a polysemous term of wide import in Buddhism and therefore notoriously difficult to translate, a problem acknowledged in traditional sources; as many as ten meanings of the term are found in the literature. The term dharma derives from the Sanskrit root √dhṛ, which means "to hold" or "to maintain." In Vedic literature, dharma is often used to refer to the sacrifice that maintains the order of the cosmos. Indian kings used the term to refer to the policies of their realms. In Hinduism, there is an important genre of literature called the dharmasāstra, treatises on dharma, which set forth the social order and the respective duties of its members, in relation to caste, gender, and stage of life. Based on this denotation of the term, many early European translators rendered dharma into English as "law," the same sense conveyed in the Chinese translation of dharma as fa (also "law"). ¶ In Buddhism, dharma has a number of distinct denotations. One of its most significant and common usages is to refer to "teachings" or "doctrines," whether they be Buddhist or non-Buddhist. Hence, in recounting his search for truth prior to his enlightenment, the Buddha speaks of the dharma he received from his teachers. After his enlightenment, the Buddha's first sermon was called "turning the wheel of the dharma" (DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANA). When the Buddha described what he himself taught to his disciples, he called it the DHARMAVINAYA, with the vinaya referring to the rules of monastic discipline and the dharma referring presumably to everything else. This sense of dharma as teaching, and its centrality to the tradition, is evident from the inclusion of the dharma as the second of the three jewels (RATNATRAYA, along with the Buddha and the SAMGHA, or community) in which all Buddhists seek refuge. Commentators specified that dharma in the refuge formula refers to the third and fourth of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS: the truth of the cessation (NIRODHASATYA) of the causes that lead to suffering and the truth of the path (MĀRGA) to that cessation. Here, the verbal root of dharma as "holding" is evoked etymologically to gloss dharma as meaning something that "holds one back" from falling into states of suffering. A distinction was also drawn between the dharma or teachings as something that is heard or studied, called the scriptural dharma (ĀGAMA-dharma), and the dharma or teachings as something that is made manifest in the consciousness of the practitioner, called the realized dharma (ADHIGAMA-dharma). ¶ A second (and very different) principal denotation of dharma is a physical or mental "factor" or fundamental "constituent element," or simply "phenomenon." In this sense, the individual building blocks of our compounded (SAMSKṚTA) existence are dharmas, dharma here glossed as something that "holds" its own nature. Thus, when Buddhist texts refer to the constituent elements of existence, they will often speak of "all dharmas," as in "all dharmas are without self." The term ABHIDHARMA, which is interpreted to mean either "higher dharma" or "pertaining to dharma," refers to the analysis of these physical and mental factors, especially in the areas of causation and epistemology. The texts that contain such analyses are considered to be one of the three general categories of the Buddhist canon (along with SuTRA and vinaya), known as the TRIPItAKA or "three baskets." ¶ A third denotation of the term dharma is that of "quality" or "characteristic." Thus, reference is often made to dharmas of the Buddha, referring in this sense not to his teachings but to his various auspicious qualities, whether they be physical, verbal, or mental. This is the primary meaning of dharma in the term DHARMAKĀYA. Although this term is sometimes rendered into English as "truth body," dharmakāya seems to have originally been meant to refer to the entire corpus (KĀYA) of the Buddha's transcendent qualities (dharma). ¶ The term dharma also occurs in a large number of important compound words. SADDHARMA, or "true dharma," appears early in the tradition as a means of differentiating the teachings of the Buddha from those of other, non-Buddhist, teachers. In the MAHĀYĀNA sutras, saddharma was used to refer, perhaps defensively, to the Mahāyāna teachings; one of the most famous Mahāyāna sutras is the SADDHARMAPUndARĪKASuTRA, known in English as the "Lotus Sutra," but whose full title is "White Lotus of the True Dharma Sutra." In Buddhist theories of history, the period after the death of the Buddha (often said to last five hundred years) is called the time of the true dharma. This period of saddharma is followed, according to some theories, by a period of a "semblance" of the true dharma (SADDHARMAPRATIRuPAKA) and a period of "decline" (SADDHARMAVIPRALOPA). The term DHARMADHĀTU refers to the ultimate nature of reality, as does DHARMATĀ, "dharma-ness." It should also be noted that dharma commonly appears in the designations of persons. Hence, a DHARMABHĀnAKA is a preacher of the dharma, a DHARMAPĀLA is a deity who protects the dharma; in both terms, dharma refers to the Buddhist doctrine. A DHARMARĀJAN is a righteous king (see CAKRAVARTIN), especially one who upholds the teachings of the Buddha. For various rosters of dharmas, see the List of Lists appendix.

Dhātukathā. In Pāli, "Discourse on Elements"; traditionally listed as the third of the seven canonical books of the THERAVĀDA abhidhammapitaka, and probably deriving from the middle stratum of Pāli abhidhamma literature, after the earlier VIBHAnGA and PUGGALAPANNATTI, but before the later KATHĀVATTHU; the proposed dating varies widely, but the first century BCE is its terminus ad quem. The Dhātukathā presents a psychological analysis of noble states of mind, supplementing the subject matter of the DHAMMASAnGAnI. Its fourteen chapters are presented in catechetic style, describing the relationship that pertains between specific factors (dhamma; S. DHARMA) and the three broader categories of the aggregates (khandha; S. SKANDHA), elements (DHĀTU), and sense-fields (ĀYATANA). In its analysis of the relationships that pertain between these various factors and categories, rigorous definitions of each factor are provided. The analytical approach taken in the text-e.g., whether a specific factor is both included and not included in a particular category, etc.-anticipates the sophisticated logical analysis found later in the four antinomies (CATUsKOtI). The Dhātukathā is reminiscent in style and exegetical approach to the SARVĀSTIVĀDA DHĀTUKĀYA, and may derive from a common urtext, although there are few similarities in their respective contents.

different ::: a. --> Distinct; separate; not the same; other.
Of various or contrary nature, form, or quality; partially or totally unlike; dissimilar; as, different kinds of food or drink; different states of health; different shapes; different degrees of excellence.


Dvesha (Sanskrit) Dveṣa [from the verbal root dviṣ to hate] Hatred, dislike, enmity, anger; “One of the three principle states of mind (of which 63 are enumerated), which are Raga — pride or evil desire, Dwesa — anger, of which hatred is a part, and Moha — the ignorance of truth. These three are to be steadily avoided” (TG 107).

Each planet, like all other celestial orbs, is composed of seven or twelve globes, in coadunation but not in consubstantiality, forming a planetary chain on the various cosmic planes, only those on our particular physical plane being visible to us. Planets are the outer shell of living beings and have evolved from cosmic seeds, passing through various stages including that of comets. They are inhabited by denizens adapted to their conditions. Each planet of the solar system is in its own particular stage of planetary evolution, one planet being in one round of its own evolutionary course, another in a different round of its evolutionary development; and the substances or matters composing them are in respectively different states of materiality, ethereality, or spirituality. The periods of the planetary movements and of their nodes and apses are regulated by mathematical law originally impressed not only in the structure of the solar system, but in the svabhava or characteristic nature of each individual planet in the system, and these periods mark innumerable cycles of time, great and small. They shed influence on the earth and its inhabitants both as time indicators and by virtue of their quality as living beings. Each celestial body is the mansion, vehicle, or house of what is in its essence a divine entity; and these regents or governors, each one of its own sun or planet, are themselves undergoing courses of evolutionary unfolding in time periods so vast that mathematics of cosmic extent are required to compass them.

eigenvector ::: (mathematics) A vector which, when acted on by a particular linear transformation, produces a scalar multiple of the original vector. The scalar in question is called the eigenvalue corresponding to this eigenvector.It should be noted that vector here means element of a vector space which can include many mathematical entities. Ordinary vectors are elements of a linear transformations on the space of such functions; quantum-mechanical states are vectors, and observables are linear transformations on the state space.An important theorem says, roughly, that certain linear transformations have enough eigenvectors that they form a basis of the whole vector states. This is why Fourier analysis works, and why in quantum mechanics every state is a superposition of eigenstates of observables.An eigenvector is a (representative member of a) fixed point of the map on the projective plane induced by a linear map. (1996-09-27)

eigenvector "mathematics" A {vector} which, when acted on by a particular {linear transformation}, produces a scalar multiple of the original vector. The scalar in question is called the {eigenvalue} corresponding to this eigenvector. It should be noted that "vector" here means "element of a vector space" which can include many mathematical entities. Ordinary vectors are elements of a vector space, and multiplication by a matrix is a {linear transformation} on them; {smooth functions} "are vectors", and many partial differential operators are linear transformations on the space of such functions; quantum-mechanical states "are vectors", and {observables} are linear transformations on the state space. An important theorem says, roughly, that certain linear transformations have enough eigenvectors that they form a {basis} of the whole vector states. This is why {Fourier analysis} works, and why in quantum mechanics every state is a superposition of eigenstates of observables. An eigenvector is a (representative member of a) {fixed point} of the map on the {projective plane} induced by a {linear map}. (1996-09-27)

Elemental(s) ::: Nature-spirits or sprites. The theosophical usage, however, means beings who are beginning a course ofevolutionary growth, and who thus are in the elemental states of their growth. It is a generalizing term forpurposes of convenient expression for all beings evolutionally below the minerals. Nevertheless, theminerals themselves are expressions of one family or host or hierarchy of elemental beings of a moreevolved type. The vegetable kingdom likewise manifests merely one family or host of elemental beingshappening to be in the vegetable phase of their evolution on this earth. Just so likewise is it as regards thebeasts. The beasts are highly evolved elemental beings, relatively speaking. Men in far distant aeons ofthe kosmic past were elemental beings also. We have evolved from that elemental stage into becomingmen, expressing with more or less ease, mostly very feebly, the innate divine powers and faculties lockedup in the core of the core of each one of us.An elemental is a being who has entered our universe on the lowest plane or in the lowest world, degree,or step on the rising stairway of life; and this stairway of life begins in any universe at its lowest stage,and ends for that universe in its highest stage -- the universal kosmic spirit. Thus the elemental passesfrom the elemental stage through all the realms of being as it rises along the stairway of life, passingthrough the human stage, becoming superhuman, quasi-divine -- a quasi-god -- then becoming a god.Thus did we humans first enter this present universe.Every race of men on earth has believed in these hosts of elemental entities -- some visible, like men, likethe beasts, like the animate plants; and others invisible. The invisible entities have been called by variousnames: fairies, sprites, hobgoblins, elves, brownies, pixies, nixies, leprechauns, trolls, kobolds, goblins,banshees, fawns, devs, jinn, satyrs, and so forth. The medieval mystics taught that these elemental beingswere of four general kinds: those arising in and frequenting the element of fire -- salamanders; thosearising in and frequenting the element air -- sylphs; those arising in and frequenting the element water -undines; those arising in and frequenting the element earth -- gnomes.

ELEMENT The &

emotion ::: 1. An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive or volitional states of consciousness. Also abstract ‘feeling" as distinguished from the other classes of mental phenomena. 2. A state of mental agitation or disturbance. **emotion"s, emotions.

Ethereal, Ethereality Used in an attempt to define states of matter more refined and less dense than familiar physical matter. The differences between the higher divisions of matter is analogous to the corresponding subdivisions of physical matter — solid, liquid, gas, and fiery. Thus the characteristic of the solid is fixity of form, restriction of movement; that of liquid, mobility; of gas, expansibility; while the fiery element among other things is exempt from gravitation. The major divisions of matter must be graded on a somewhat analogous scale.

Ethical judgments fall, roughly, into tw o classes, (a) judgments of value, i.e. judgments as to the goodness or badness, desirability or undesirability of certain objects, ends, experiences, dispositions, or states of affairs, e.g. "Knowledge is good," (b) judgments of obligation, i.e. judgments as to the obligatoriness, rightness or wrongness, wisdom or foolishness of various courses of action and kinds of conduct, judgments enjoining, recommending or condemning certain lines of conduct. Thus there are two pnrts of ethics, the theory of value or axiology. which is concerned with judgments of value, extrinsic or intrinsic, moral or non-moral, the theory of obligation or deontology, which is concerned with judgments of obligation. In either of these parts of ethics one mav take either of the above approaches -- in the theory of value one may be interested either in anilvzing and explaining (psychologically or sociologically) our various judgments of value or in establishing or recommending certain things as good or as ends, and in the theory of obligation one may be interested either in analyzing and explaining our various judgments of obligation or in setting forth certain courses of action as right, wise, etc.

Ethical rule: See Rule. Ethics: (Gr. ta ethika, from ethos) Ethics (also referred to as moral philosophy) is that study or discipline which concerns itself with judgments of approval and disapproval, judgments as to the rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness, virtue or vice, desirability or wisdom of actions, dispositions, ends, objects, or states of affairs. There are two main directions which this study may take. It may concern itself with a psychological or sociological analysis and explanation of our ethical judgments, showing what our approvals and disapprovals consist in and why we approve or disapprove what we do. Or it may concern itself with establishing or recommending certain courses of action, ends, or ways of life as to be taken or pursued, either as right or as good or as virtuous or as wise, as over against others which are wrong, bad, vicious, or foolish. Here the interest is more in action than in approval, and more in the guidance of action than in its explanation, the purpose being to find or set up some ideal or standard of conduct or character, some good or end or summum bonum, some ethical criterion or first principle. In many philosophers these two approaches are combined. The first is dominant or nearly so in the ethics of Hume, Schopenhauer, the evolutionists, Westermarck, and of M. Schlick and other recent positivists, while the latter is dominant in the ethics of most other moralists.

Ethics: That study or discipline which concerns itself with judgments of approval and disapproval, judgments as to the rightness or wrongness, goodness or badness, virtue or vice, desirability or wisdom of actions, dispositions, ends, objects, or states of affairs.

Etiology ::: The causal link to conditions of experience or to states of mind or matter. In the context of this site, studying the etiology of disease and suffering is of paramount important as well as understanding the link between the origins and movements of consciousness and the etiology of the human condition.

Existential import: See Logic, formal, § 4. Existential Philosophy: Determines the worth of knowledge not in relation to truth but according to its biological value contained in the pure data of consciousness when unaffected by emotions, volitions, and social prejudices. Both the source and the elements of knowledge are sensations as they "exist" in our consciousness. There is no difference between the external and internal world, as there is no natural phenomenon which could not be examined psychologically, it all has its "existence" in states of the mind. See Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Jaspers.

Federal Reserve (Fed) - The central bank of the United States of America.

Fires, The Forty-nine Refers to the seven states of manifestation of the one life with its various septenary subdivisions — whether these seven states of manifestation be in the kosmos or in an individualized entity. Thus cosmically it refers to the seven cosmic principles with their respective seven subdivisions. When applied to the individual it refers to its seven principles with their septenary subdivisions: “To man, it gives all that it bestows on all the rest of the manifested units in nature; but develops, furthermore, the reflection of all its Forty-nine Fires in him. Each of his seven principles is an heir in full to, and a partaker of, the seven principles of the ‘great Mother’ ” (SD 1:291).

fm "networking" The {country code} for the Federated States of Micronesia. Heavily used for {vanity domains} by FM radio stations. (1999-01-27)

Force ::: Consciousness seems to cohere due to a push-pull dynamic at the very earliest states of dualistic experience. Force is the active, volatile, yang aspect to that experience and, in the Kabbalistic map of reality, characterizes the Sephiroth on the Pillar of Mercy. The relationship between this concept and scientific ideas of force and coherence is an especially active area of research.

Form ::: Consciousness seems to cohere due to a push-pull dynamic at the very earliest states of dualistic experience. Form is the passive, receptive, yin aspect to that experience and, in the Kabbalistic map of reality, characterizes the Sephiroth on the Pillar of Severity. The relationship between this concept and scientific ideas of force and coherence is an especially active area of research.

Formless Realms ::: Areas of reality, likely corresponding to the upper reaches of the Mental Plane in the Four Worlds model, where consciousness sheds a discrete form and exists simply as formless awareness, awareness of space, awareness of awareness, etc. The Formless Realms proper correspond to the higher states of the samatha jhanas.

:::   "For the impersonal Divine is not ultimately an abstraction or a mere principle or a mere state or power and degree of being any more than we ourselves are really such abstractions. The intellect first approaches it through such conceptions, but realisation ends by exceeding them. Through the realisation of higher and higher principles of being and states of conscious existence we arrive not at the annullation of all in a sort of positive zero or even an inexpressible state of existence, but at the transcendent Existence itself which is also the Existent who transcends all definition by personality and yet is always that which is the essence of personality.” *The Synthesis of Yoga

“For the impersonal Divine is not ultimately an abstraction or a mere principle or a mere state or power and degree of being any more than we ourselves are really such abstractions. The intellect first approaches it through such conceptions, but realisation ends by exceeding them. Through the realisation of higher and higher principles of being and states of conscious existence we arrive not at the annullation of all in a sort of positive zero or even an inexpressible state of existence, but at the transcendent Existence itself which is also the Existent who transcends all definition by personality and yet is always that which is the essence of personality.” The Synthesis of Yoga

Further, “every human organ and each cell in the latter has a key-board of its own, like that of a piano, only that it registers and emits sensations instead of sounds. Every key contains the potentiality of good or bad, of producing harmony or disharmony” according as the impulse comes from the higher or lower nature (BCW 12:368-9 or St in Oc 91). Memory has no special organ of its own in the brain, but has seats in every organ of the body. The whole body is a vast sounding board in which each cell bears a long record of impressions connected with its parent organ, and also it has a memory and consciousness of its own kind. These impressions are, according to the nature of the organ, physical, psychic, mental, or again mixed, as they relate to this or another plane, there being states of instinctual, mental, and purely abstract or spiritual consciousness. The physiological functions and reciprocal workings of cells and organs are in the body automatically directed by a “universally diffused mind” throughout that body, which is beyond all material analysis. Because of this intelligence operating throughout the organism, physiology is destined someday “to become the hand-maiden of Occult truths” (BCW 12:139; or Studies in Occultism 105).

gama grass ::: --> A species of grass (Tripsacum dactyloides) tall, stout, and exceedingly productive; cultivated in the West Indies, Mexico, and the Southern States of North America as a forage grass; -- called also sesame grass.

gardnerianwicca ::: Gardnerian Wicca Gerald Gardner claimed to have been initiated into a secret witch cult which had been in existence for over 300 years. Hence Wicca is often referred to as The Old Religion, with its own rituals and beliefs, most of them remaining secretive. Gerald Gardner's books Witchcraft Today and The Meaning of Witchcraft became the basis for the modern religion of Wicca, which grew in popularity during the 1960's, and spread quickly from the United Kingdom to the rest of Europe as well as the United States of America, Canada, Asia and Australia. It has continued to grow as a religion, its followers now placing a greater emphasis on a reverence for nature, redeveloping the 'Goddess-worshiping' religion from pre-Christian and non-Christian religions, and group magick aimed at healing.

gators or creators often of vast and formidable inner upheavals or of action that overpass the normal human measure. There may also be an awareness of influences, presences, beings that do not seem to belong to other worlds beyond us but are here as a hidden element behind the veil in terrestrial nature. As contact wth the supraphysical is possible, a contact can also take place subjective or objective — or at_ least objectivised — between our own consciousness and the consciousness of other once embodied beings who have passed into a supraphysicaj status in these other regions of existence. It is possible also to pass beyond a subjective contact or a sahiie-scnse perception and, in certain subliminal states of consciousness, to enter actually into other worlds and know something of their secrets, ft is the wore objective order of other-worldly experience that seized most the imagination of mankind in the past, but it was put by popular belief into a gross objective statement which unduly assimilated these phenomena to those of the physical world with which we are familiar for it is the normal tendency of our mind to turn everything into forms or symbols proper to its own kind and terms of expericoce.

Gesia Cemetery ::: The largest Jewish cemetery in Warsaw just outside the location of the old Warsaw Ghetto. Of the approximately 300,000 tombstones contained in the cemetery, more than 100,000 are in various states of disrepair.

.GOLOKA. ::: Vaikuntha and Goloka arc human conceptions of states of being that arc be)ond humanity. Goloka is evidently a world of Love, Beauty and Ananda full of spiritual radiances

gross body ::: The mass-energy support (or “body”) for the typical waking state of consciousness. The term “gross” technically refers only to this mass-energy but is sometimes broadly used to refer to states of consciousness supported by the gross body. See subtle body and causal body.

Heaven and hell may denote states of consciousness experienced in daily life on earth. A rough division of cosmic spheres makes heaven the highest, hell or Tartarus the lowest, with the earth beneath heaven, and the underworld beneath it and preceding Tartarus. The crystalline spheres of medieval astronomy are called heavens surrounding the earth concentrically. Far from being adjudicated by a deity to happiness or torment, after death a person goes to that region to which he is attracted by the affinities which he has set up during his life. Thus theosophy teaches the existence of almost endless and widely varying spheres or regions, all inhabited by peregrinating entities; and of these regions the higher can be dubbed the heavens and the lowest the hells, and the intermediate can be called the regions of experiences and purgation. All spheres possessing sufficient materialized substance to be called imbodied spheres are hells by contrast with the ethereal and spiritual globes of the heavens. Therefore in a sense and on a smaller scale, the lower globes of a planetary chain may be called hells, and the higher globes of the chain, by contrast, heavens.

“Hell and heaven are often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it constructs about it after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with joyful or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which create the necessary affinities, but the idea of reward or retribution is a crude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error.” Letters on Yoga

HELL AND HEAVEN. ::: They arc often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it constructs about It after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with Joyful or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which create the necessary affimties, but the Idea of reward or retri- bution is a crude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error.

Hierarchy ::: The word hierarchy merely means that a scheme or system or state of delegated directive power andauthority exists in a self-contained body, directed, guided, and taught by one having supreme authority,called the hierarch. The name is used by theosophists, by extension of meaning, as signifying theinnumerable degrees, grades, and steps of evolving entities in the kosmos, and as applying to all parts ofthe universe; and rightly so, because every different part of the universe -- and their number is simplycountless -- is under the vital governance of a divine being, of a god, of a spiritual essence; and allmaterial manifestations are simply the appearances on our plane of the workings and actions of thesespiritual beings behind it.The series of hierarchies extends infinitely in both directions. If he so choose for purposes of thought,man may consider himself at the middle point, from which extends above him an unending series of stepsupon steps of higher beings of all grades -- growing constantly less material and more spiritual, andgreater in all senses -- towards an ineffable point. And there the imagination stops, not because the seriesitself stops, but because our thought can reach no farther out nor in. And similar to this series, aninfinitely great series of beings and states of beings descends downwards (to use human terms) -downwards and downwards, until there again the imagination stops, merely because our thought can gono farther.The summit, the acme, the flower, the highest point (or the hyparxis) of any series of animate and"inanimate" beings, whether we enumerate the stages or degrees of the series as seven or ten or twelve(according to whichever system we follow), is the divine unity for that series or hierarchy, and thishyparxis or highest being is again in its turn the lowest being of the hierarchy above it, and so extendingonwards forever -- each hierarchy manifesting one facet of the divine kosmic life, each hierarchyshowing forth one thought, as it were, of the divine thinkers.Various names were given to these hierarchies considered as series of beings. The generalized Greekhierarchy as shown by writers in periods preceding the rise of Christianity may be collected andenumerated as follows: (1) Divine; (2) Gods, or the divine-spiritual; (3) Demigods, sometimes calleddivine heroes, involving a very mystical doctrine; (4) Heroes proper; (5) Men; (6) Beasts or animals; (7)Vegetable world; (8) Mineral world; (9) Elemental world, or what was called the realm of Hades. TheDivinity (or aggregate divine lives) itself is the hyparxis of this series of hierarchies, because each ofthese nine stages is itself a subordinate hierarchy. This (or any other) hierarchy of nine, hangs like apendant jewel from the lowest hierarchy above it, which makes the tenth counting upwards, which tenthwe can call the superdivine, the hyperheavenly, this tenth being the lowest stage (or the ninth, countingdownwards) of still another hierarchy extending upwards; and so on, indefinitely.One of the noblest of the theosophical teachings, and one of the most far-reaching in its import, is that ofthe hierarchical constitution of universal nature. This hierarchical structure of nature is so fundamental,so basic, that it may be truly called the structural framework of being. (See also Planes)

Himitsu mandara jujushinron. (秘密曼荼羅十住心論). In Japanese, "Ten Abiding States of Mind According to the Sacred MAndALA"; a treatise composed by the Japanese SHINGONSHumonk KuKAI; often referred to more briefly as the Jujushinron. In 830, Kukai submitted this treatise in reply to Emperor Junna's (r. 823-833) request to each Buddhist tradition in Japan to provide an explanation of its teachings. In his treatise, Kukai systematically classified the various Buddhist teachings (see JIAOXIANG PANSHI) and placed them onto a spiritual map consisting of the ten stages of the mind (jujushin). The first and lowest stage of the mind ("the deluded, ram-like mind") is that of ignorant beings who, like animals, are driven by their uncontrolled desires for food and sex. The beings of the second stage ("the ignorant, childlike, but tempered mind") display ethical behavior consistent with the teachings of Confucius and the lay precepts of Buddhism. The third stage of mind ("the infantlike, fearless mind") is the state in which one worships the various gods and seeks rebirth in the various heavens, as would be the case in the non-Buddhist traditions of India and in Daoism. The fourth stage ("recognizing only SKANDHAs and no-self") corresponds to the sRĀVAKAYĀNA and the fifth stage ("mind free of karmic seeds") to that of the PRATYEKABUDDHAYĀNA. The sixth stage ("the mind of MAHĀYĀNA, which is concerned with others") corresponds to the YOGĀCĀRA teachings, the seventh ("mind awakened to its unborn nature") to MADHYAMAKA, the eighth ("mind of one path devoid of construction") to TIANTAI (J. TENDAI), and the ninth ("mind completely devoid of self-nature") to HUAYAN (J. Kegon). Kukai placed his own tradition of Shingon at the last and highest stage of mind ("the esoteric and adorned mind"). Kukai also likened each stage of mind to a palace and contended that these outer palaces surround an inner palace ruled by the buddha MAHĀVAIROCANA. To abide in the inner palace one must be initiated into the teachings of Shingon by receiving consecration (ABHIsEKA). Kukai thus provided a Buddhist (or Shingon) alternative to ideal rulership. To demonstrate his schema of the mind, Kukai frequently cites numerous scriptures and commentaries, which made his treatise extremely prolix; Kukai later provided an abbreviated version of his argument, without the numerous supporting references, in his HIZo HoYAKU.

Homeostasis ::: A tendency to stability in the normal body states of the organism.



HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS During incarnation the normal individual at mankind's present stage of development is as a rule objectively conscious in his organism only, subjectively conscious in his etheric, emotional, and mental envelopes, and unconscious in his causal envelope. &

humor ::: n. --> Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc.
A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin.
State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good humor; ill humor.
Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks;


hypnotism ::: Hypnosis / Hypnotism Hypnotism is used to induce an altered state of consciousness in a person (the subject), during which suggestions can be made directly to that person's unconscious mind. It can involve a combination of relaxation, visualisation and repetition exercises, besides a number of other techniques. There is an increasing acceptance that the various magical states of consciousness (such as astral projection) can be achieved by self-hypnosis.

In past stages of evolution, when inchoate attempts at formation were made, and when planes and states of matter were not as they are now, strange monsters existed, which were at first purely lower astral, then astral-physical, and finally physical, before they died out. Hence the idea that the hydra was derived from traditions or astral visions of some reptile-monster of the Mesozoic Age may be an imperfect intuition of the facts.

In schemata where there are nine levels of the Brahmā heavens, a ninth nonperceptual heaven [asaMjNika] is added to the list as an eighteenth heaven of the rupadhātu. The last five heavens of the fourth dhyāna level (levels thirteen through seventeen) are collectively designated as the five pure abodes (sUDDHĀVĀSAKĀYIKA), and the divinities residing there are called the suddhāvāsakāyika devas. In some interpretations, the suddhāvāsa are said to be the abode of nonreturners (ANĀGĀMIN), the third of the four types of advanced adepts who are in their final rebirth before achieving arhatship (see ARHAT) and thus need never again be reborn in the sensuous realm. Since nonreturners have removed the first five fetters (SAMYOJANA) associated with the sensuous realm and weakened the latter five, they are "nonreturners" to the sensuous realm and are instead reborn into the pure abodes, whence they will complete their practice and attain enlightenment, entering NIRVĀnA from that abode. The pure abodes therefore serve as a kind of way station for advanced spiritual beings (ĀRYA) in their last lives before final liberation. In the Abhidharmakosabhāsya, the explanation of nonreturners differs: before they reach nirvāna they never take rebirth in the sensuous realm, but they may pass through each of the heavens, or skip one or more heavens, and enter into nirvāna, depending on their aptitude, in any heaven. Furthermore, certain persons with sharp faculties (TĪKsnENDRIYA) even enter nirvāna in the sensuous realm itself. In certain Mahāyāna interpretations, such as in the ABHISAMAYĀLAMKĀRA commentarial tradition, especially in Tibet, the pure abodes are adjacent to the fourth dhyāna, and the akanistha heaven pure abode is considered to be the abode of the enjoyment body (SAMBHOGAKĀYA) of a buddha. According to some accounts, the pure abodes remain empty for several eons (KALPA) when there are no buddhas. ¶ The heavens of the immaterial realm (ārupyadhātu) are comprised of four classes of devas whose existence is entirely mental, no longer requiring a body or even a subtle material foundation for their ethereal states of mind. These heavens are:

In view of the electric nature of matter, physical disorder may be regarded as an electrical disharmony or wrong, since disease always changes the polarity of the body, more or less. The vital currents of human electricity connect the conscious person with his body by the living wires of nerves. The rhythmic motion or natural harmony vibrating in each cell and organ at its own rate, is responsive to the universal vibration or Great Breath which in other modes of motion manifests as heat, light, sound, density, etc. But beyond the electrical and vibrational states of the body, and above the mental influence, is the essential self, the source of all harmony or rhythmic procedures in all below it, keyed to harmony and striving to raise the lower nature to act in unison with its finer and greater powers. When the instinct of the animal body, the mental reasoning faculties, and the reimbodying ego’s intuition are functioning together, the person is keyed to health, sanity, and wisdom. Otherwise, the real inner conflict manifests in some form of disorder.

italic ::: a. --> Relating to Italy or to its people.
Applied especially to a kind of type in which the letters do not stand upright, but slope toward the right; -- so called because dedicated to the States of Italy by the inventor, Aldus Manutius, about the year 1500. ::: n.


It is here, when this foundation has been secured, that the practice of Asana and Pranayama come in and can then bear their perfect fruits. By itself the control of the mind and moral being only puts our normal consciousness into the right preliminary condition; it cannot bring about that evolution or manifestation of the higher psychic being which is necessary for the greater aims of Yoga. In order to bring about this manifestation the present nodus of the vital and physical body with the mental being has to be loosened and the way made clear for the ascent through the greater psychic being to the union with the superconscient Purusha. This can be done by Pranayama. Asana is used by the Rajayoga only in its easiest and most natural position, that naturally taken by the body when seated and gathered together, but with the back and head strictly erect and in a straight line, so that there may be no deflection of the spinal cord. The object of the latter rule is obviously connected with the theory of the six chakras and the circulation of the vital energy between the muladhara and the brahmarandhra. The Rajayogic Pranayama purifies and clears the nervous system; it enables us to circulate the vital energy equally through the body and direct it also where we will according to need, and thus maintain a perfect health and soundness of the body and the vital being; it gives us control of all the five habitual operations of the vital energy in the system and at the same time breaks down the habitual divisions by which only the ordinary mechanical processes of the vitality are possible to the normal life. It opens entirely the six centres of the psycho-physical system and brings into the waking consciousness the power of the awakened Shakti and the light of the unveiled Purusha on each of the ascending planes. Coupled with the use of the mantra it brings the divine energy into the body and prepares for and facilitates that concentration in Samadhi which is the crown of the Rajayogic method. Rajayogic concentration is divided into four stages; it commences with the drawing both of the mind and senses from outward things, proceeds to the holding of the one object of concentration to the exclusion of all other ideas and mental activities, then to the prolonged absorption of the mind in this object, finally, to the complete ingoing of the consciousness by which it is lost to all outward mental activity in the oneness of Samadhi. The real object of this mental discipline is to draw away the mind from the outward and the mental world into union with the divine Being. Th
   refore in the first three stages use has to be made of some mental means or support by which the mind, accustomed to run about from object to object, shall fix on one alone, and that one must be something which represents the idea of the Divine. It is usually a name or a form or a mantra by which the thought can be fixed in the sole knowledge or adoration of the Lord. By this concentration on the idea the mind enters from the idea into its reality, into which it sinks silent, absorbed, unified. This is the traditional method. There are, however, others which are equally of a Rajayogic character, since they use the mental and psychical being as key. Some of them are directed rather to the quiescence of the mind than to its immediate absorption, as the discipline by which the mind is simply watched and allowed to exhaust its habit of vagrant thought in a purposeless running from which it feels all sanction, purpose and interest withdrawn, and that, more strenuous and rapidly effective, by which all outward-going thought is excluded and the mind forced to sink into itself where in its absolute quietude it can only
   reflect the pure Being or pass away into its superconscient existence. The method differs, the object and the result are the same. Here, it might be supposed, the whole action and aim of Rajayoga must end. For its action is the stilling of the waves of consciousness, its manifold activities, cittavrtti, first, through a habitual replacing of the turbid rajasic activities by the quiet and luminous sattwic, then, by the stilling of all activities; and its object is to enter into silent communion of soul and unity with the Divine. As a matter of fact we find that the system of Rajayoga includes other objects,—such as the practice and use of occult powers,—some of which seem to be unconnected with and even inconsistent with its main purpose. These powers or siddhis are indeed frequently condemned as dangers and distractions which draw away the Yogin from his sole legitimate aim of divine union. On the way, th
   refore, it would naturally seem as if they ought to be avoided; and once the goal is reached, it would seem that they are then frivolous and superfluous. But Rajayoga is a psychic science and it includes the attainment of all the higher states of consciousness and their powers by which the mental being rises towards the superconscient as well as its ultimate and supreme possibility of union with the Highest. Moreover, the Yogin, while in the body, is not always mentally inactive and sunk in Samadhi, and an account of the powers and states which are possible to him on the higher planes of his being is necessary to the completeness of the science. These powers and experiences belong, first, to the vital and mental planes above this physical in which we live, and are natural to the soul in the subtle body; as the dependence on the physical body decreases, these abnormal activities become possible and even manifest themselves without being sought for. They can be acquired and fixed by processes which the science gives, and their use then becomes subject to the will; or they can be allowed to develop of themselves and used only when they come, or when the Divine within moves us to use them; or else, even though thus naturally developing and acting, they may be rejected in a single-minded devotion to the one supreme goal of the Yoga. Secondly, there are fuller, greater powers belonging to the supramental planes which are the very powers of the Divine in his spiritual and supramentally ideative being. These cannot be acquired at all securely or integrally by personal effort, but can only come from above, or else can become natural to the man if and when he ascends beyond mind and lives in the spiritual being, power, consciousness and ideation. They then become, not abnormal and laboriously acquired siddhis, but simply the very nature and method of his action, if he still continues to be active in the world-existence.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 539-40-41-42


It very often happens that when there is an exceptional power in the nature, there is found in the exterior being some contrary element which opens it to a quite opposite influence. It is this that makes the endeavour after a spiritual life so often a difficult struggle ; but the existence of this kind of contradiction even in an intense form does not make that life impossible. Doubt, struggle, efforts and failures, lapses, alternations of happy and unhappy or good and bad conditions, states of light and stales of darkness are the common lot of human beings. They are not created by yoga or by the effort after perfection ; only, in yoga one becomes conscious of their movements and their causes instead of feeling them blindly, and in the end one makes one’s way out of them into a clearer and happier consciousness.

jagrat ::: awake, waking; the waking consciousness, in which one is jagrat aware of the outer world through the physical senses; the state of jagrat samadhi (sometimes restricted to bahirdarsi jagrat); (the condition of being) inwardly wakeful and self-possessed in states of samadhi in which the consciousness is withdrawn from the surface. jjagrat agrat antardarsi

Jagrat (Sanskrit) Jāgrat [from the verbal root jāgri to be awake] The waking state of consciousness; the first of the four states of consciousness (avasthas) mentioned in Yoga philosophy. Jagrat is often compounded with avastha (condition, state) as jagradavastha. See also SUSHUPTI; SVAPNA; TURIYA

jagratta ::: wakefulness in the deeper states of samadhi; conscious jagratta self-possession and overcoming of the tendency to nidra (sleep) and incoherent dreaming.

jagrat. ::: the waking state of consciousness; the first of the four states of consciousness in which the pure, natural, and unperverted notions of

jala (jala; jalam) ::: water; the liquid condition of material being, one of the pañcabhūta or "five elemental states of Substance"; urine; urination (short for jalavisr.s.t.i). jala bh bhuta

Jala (Sanskrit) Jala Water, or liquid matter; one of the five elements or states of prakriti. It comes forth from tejas (fire), and its specific quality or sense is gandha (smell). See also APAS; BHUTA; ELEMENT (BCW 13:67)

japamālā. (T. bzlas brjod kyi 'phreng ba; C. shuzhu/nianzhu; J. juzu/nenju; K. suju/yomju 數珠/念珠). In Sanskrit and Pāli, lit. "garland for recitation," thus "prayer beads" or "rosary"; a string of beads held usually in the right hand and fingered by adherents to keep count of the number of recitations made in the course of a worship service, MANTRA recitation, or meditation session. The beads are often made from sandalwood or seeds of the BODHI TREE (Ficus religiosa), the tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment, although rosaries made from a range of other materials are also common; in some tantric practices, a rosary with beads made from human bone is used. The number of beads on a rosary varies widely. The most common number is 108, the significance of which receives widely varying explanations. One common interpretation is that this number refers to a list of 108 afflictions (KLEsA); fingering all 108 beads in the course of a recitation would then be either a reminder to remain mindful of these afflictions or would constitute their symbolic purification. Alternatively, this 108 can refer to all of phenomenal existence, i.e., the eighteen elements (DHĀTU), viz., the six sense bases, six sense objects, and six sensory consciousnesses, in all of the six states of existence (GATI) (18 × 6 = 108). In Tibetan Buddhism, the number 111 is sometimes used, based on the assumption that for each ten mantras recited, one will be mistaken and need to be repeated, thus adding an additional ten beads for 110. An additional bead is then added to account for the mistaken recitation among the additional ten. Thus, although a mantra might be recited 111 times, only 100 are counted. The Chinese PURE LAND advocate DAOCHUO (562-645) is famous for having used small beans (xiaodou) to keep track of the number of times he had recited the buddha AMITĀBHA's name (see NIANFO); some believe his habit of using such counting beans is the origin of the East Asian japamālā. In many Buddhist traditions, carrying a rosary serves almost as a symbol of the faith. In East Asia, Buddhist monks and nuns, and even many lay adherents, will commonly wear the full-length rosary around their necks. Rosaries of abbreviated lengths, which are more typically worn around the wrist, are sometimes designated duanzhu (J. tanju; K. tanju), or "short rosary." These rosaries will be a maximum of fifty-four beads in length (half the usual length), which would require two repetitions to complete a full round of recitation, and a minimum of nine beads, which would take twelve repetitions. In Tibetan Buddhism, a short rosary is sometimes worn around the right hand while doing prostrations. The CHAN school often uses a short rosary with eighteen beads, requiring six repetitions. See also JAPA.

Jhana ::: A Pali term describing an advanced meditative state of awareness. There are both vipassana jhanas and samatha jhanas. The former describes states of meditative insight that are found through progressing through the stages of mindfulness meditation and the latter describes states of advanced concentration whereupon the object of observation becomes increasingly prounounced in the locus of one's awareness (at least in the early states, in later states that object can drop away entirely). The jhanic states are genuinely preternatural to the mundane mind and are somewhat advanced, so a discussion of them will need to await further research and experience.

Jhumur: “Throughout Savitri I have noticed all the different times of the day and the position of the sun in relation to the earth. It runs through the book, the symbol dawn, night, not only that but there are different states of illumination, awakening of the consciousness progressively. Sometimes it falls into the darkness, sometimes twilight when one is caught between two states, and at the end it is the everlasting day. So the kingdoms of the rising sun represent states of being where the light is the most important. Mother always says that the sun is the symbol of the supreme truth, the supreme, the supreme wisdom. It is the world where the supreme truth and supreme wisdom rule, govern. Whereas In many other worlds this light gets covered, it gets clouded over but here there are the kingdoms of the rising sun because they are the godheads of the mind and the mind is an instrument of light. But it is a small early instrument, little mind, so it is just rising, it hasn’t come to its full glory. The kingdoms are the planes of consciousness where you have a little light, a little clarity, a little illumination. That is how I understand the main function of the mind, to seek for light. It is an instrument for seeking light although it often dodges light where the perversity comes in.”

kshetrajna. ::: the conscious principle known in the field of the body; the absolute witness aware of the three states of the self; waking, dream, and sleep

Lam rim chen mo. In Tibetan, "Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path"; the abbreviated title for one of the best-known works on Buddhist thought and practice in Tibet, composed by the Tibetan luminary TSONG KHA PA BLO BZANG GRAGS PA in 1402 at the central Tibetan monastery of RWA SGRENG. A lengthy treatise belonging to the LAM RIM, or stages of the path, genre of Tibetan Buddhist literature, the LAM RIN CHEN MO takes its inspiration from numerous earlier writings, most notably the BODHIPATHAPRADĪPA ("Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment") by the eleventh-century Bengali master ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNĀNA. It is the most extensive treatment of three principal stages that Tsong kha pa composed. The others include (1) the LAM RIM CHUNG BA ("Short Treatise on the Stages of the Path"), also called the Lam rim 'bring ba ("Intermediate Treatise on the States of the Path") and (2) the LAM RIM BSDUS DON ("Concise Meaning of the Stages of the Path"), occasionally also referred to as the Lam rim chung ngu ("Brief Stages of the Path"). The latter text, which records Tsong kha pa's own realization of the path in verse form, is also referred to as the Lam rim nyams mgur ma ("Song of Experience of the Stages of the Path"). The LAM RIM CHEN MO is a highly detailed and often technical treatise presenting a comprehensive and synthetic overview of the path to buddhahood. It draws, often at length, upon a wide range of scriptural sources including the SuTRA and sĀSTRA literature of both the HĪNAYĀNA and MAHĀYĀNA; Tsong kha pa treats tantric practice in a separate work. The text is organized under the rubric of the three levels of spiritual predilection, personified as "the three individuals" (skyes bu gsum): the beings of small capacity, who engage in religious practice in order to gain a favorable rebirth in their next lifetime; the beings of intermediate capacity, who seek liberation from rebirth for themselves as an ARHAT; and the beings of great capacity, who seek to liberate all beings in the universe from suffering and thus follow the bodhisattva path to buddhahood. Tsong kha pa's text does not lay out all the practices of these three types of persons but rather those practices essential to the bodhisattva path that are held in common by persons of small and intermediate capacity, such as the practice of refuge (sARAnA) and contemplation of the uncertainty of the time of death. The text includes extended discussions of topics such as relying on a spiritual master, the development of BODHICITTA, and the six perfections (PĀRAMITĀ). The last section of the text, sometimes regarded as a separate work, deals at length with the nature of serenity (sAMATHA) and insight (VIPAsYANĀ); Tsong kha pa's discussion of insight here represents one of his most important expositions of emptiness (suNYATĀ). Primarily devoted to exoteric Mahāyāna doctrine, the text concludes with a brief reference to VAJRAYĀNA and the practice of tantra, a subject discussed at length by Tsong kha pa in a separate work, the SNGAGS RIM CHEN MO ("Stages of the Path of Mantra"). The Lam rim chen mo's full title is Skyes bu gsum gyi rnyams su blang ba'i rim pa thams cad tshang bar ston pa'i byang chub lam gyi rim pa.

laving ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Lave ::: v. i. --> Being alive; having life; as, a living creature.
Active; lively; vigorous; -- said esp. of states of the mind, and sometimes of abstract things; as, a living faith; a living principle.


Laya-Center ::: A "point of disappearance" -- which is the Sanskrit meaning. Laya is from the Sanskrit root li, meaning"to dissolve," "to disintegrate," or "to vanish away." A laya-center is the mystical point where a thingdisappears from one plane and passes onwards to reappear on another plane. It is that point or spot -- anypoint or spot -- in space, which, owing to karmic law, suddenly becomes the center of active life, first ona higher plane and later descending into manifestation through and by the laya-centers of the lowerplanes. In one sense a laya-center may be conceived of as a canal, a channel, through which the vitalityof the superior spheres pours down into, and inspires, inbreathes into, the lower planes or states ofmatter, or rather of substance. But behind all this vitality there is a directive and driving force. There aremechanics in the universe, mechanics of many degrees of consciousness and power. But behind the puremechanic stands the spiritual-intellectual mechanician.Finally, a laya-center is the point where substance rebecomes homogeneous. Any laya-center, therefore,of necessity exists in and on the critical line or stage dividing one plane from another. Any hierarchy,therefore, contains within itself a number of laya-centers. (See also Hierarchy)

Lohiccasutta. (C. Luzhe jing; J. Roshakyo; K. Noch'a kyong 露遮經). In Pāli, "Discourse to Lohicca," the twelfth sutta of the Pāli DĪGHANIKĀYA (a separate DHARMAGUPTAKA recension appears as the twenty-ninth SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the DĪRGHĀGAMA); preached by the Buddha to the brāhmana Lohicca at the village of Sālavatikā in KOsALA. According to the Pāli account, Lohicca holds the view that a sage who reaches certain wholesome states of mind should tell no one of it, for to do so would be to manifest craving and entangle him in new bonds. He puts this opinion to the Buddha who responds that, to the contrary, it would be selfish for such a person to remain silent if he had something of benefit to teach to others. The Buddha then describes three types of teachers who are worthy of blame. The first is one who, even though he himself has not attained true renunciation, teaches DHARMA and VINAYA to others but is rejected along with his teachings by his pupils. The second is one who, even though he himself has not attained true renunciation, is embraced along with his teachings by his pupils. The third is one who, even though he himself has attained true renunciation, is nevertheless rejected along with his teachings by his pupils. The Buddha then describes the teacher who is unworthy of blame as someone who awakens to the dharma and enters the Buddhist order, trains in the restraint of conduct and speech and observes minor points of morality, guards the senses, practices mindfulness, is content with little, becomes freed from the five hindrances (NĪVARAnA), attains joy and peace of mind, cultivates the four meditative absorptions (DHYĀNA), develops insight (P. Nānadassana; JNĀNADARsANA) into the conditioned nature and the impermanence of body and mind, and gains knowledge of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVĀRY ĀRYASATYĀNI) and the destruction of the contaminants (ĀSRAVA). Lohicca is pleased by the sermon and becomes a lay disciple of the Buddha.

lokiyasamādhi. (S. laukikasamādhi; T. 'jig rten pa'i ting nge 'dzin; C. shunshi sanmei; J. junse sanmai; K. sunse sammae 順世三昧). In Pāli, "mundane concentration," or "worldly concentration"; any type of mental concentration that is disassociated from the four paths (P. magga; S. MĀRGA) and four fruits (PHALA) of liberation. The term denotes all moments of concentration that are involved in ordinary mundane consciousness, whether virtuous or nonvirtuous, and states of meditative absorption (P. JHĀNA; S. DHYĀNA) cultivated through tranquillity meditation (P. samathabhāvanā; S. sAMATHA), which do not as yet involve insight or wisdom (P. paNNā; S. PRAJNĀ). See also LOKUTTARASAMĀDHI.

longmynd rocks ::: --> The sparingly fossiliferous conglomerates, grits, schists, and states of Great Britain, which lie at the base of the Cambrian system; -- so called, because typically developed in the Longmynd Hills, Shropshire.

looming ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Loom ::: n. --> The indistinct and magnified appearance of objects seen in particular states of the atmosphere. See Mirage.

Madhyama (Sanskrit) Madhyamā [feminine of madhyama] One of the states of vach (mystic speech), which is of four kinds according to its differentiation: para, pasyanti, madhyama, and vaikhari. The madhyama vach is the link between the mental form (in the Logos) and the manifested form (in matter). It corresponds mystically to the Light of the Logos. Vach, though often equivalent to Logos, is the feminine counterpart of Brahma, the masculine side of the Logos. Thus Vach is the spiritual aspect of prakriti.

mahakarana. ::: primordial; Turiya or "fourth" state that transcends the three states of waking, dream state and deep sleep

maitrī. (P. mettā; T. byams pa; C. ci/cibei; J. ji/jihi; K. cha/chabi 慈/慈悲). In Sanskrit, "loving-kindness," "kindness"; often seen in Western literature in its Pāli form mettā. Loving-kindness is one of the four divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHĀRA) and the four immeasurables (APRAMĀnA), and is defined as the wish for happiness; the other three divine abidings and immeasurables are KARUnĀ, or compassion; MUDITĀ, or sympathetic joy; and UPEKsĀ, or equanimity. Of the four divine abidings, loving-kindness, along with sympathetic joy and compassion, is capable of producing the first three of the four states of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). Equanimity alone is capable of producing the fourth dhyāna. In the VISUDDHIMAGGA, loving-kindness is listed as one among forty meditative topics (KAMMAttHĀNA). The text indicates that divine abidings, including loving-kindness, are only to be used for the cultivation of tranquility (P. samatha; S. sAMATHA), not insight (P. VIPASSANĀ; VIPAsYANĀ). In the Visuddhimagga, BUDDHAGHOSA recommends that the practice of mettā (maitrī) begin with wishing for happiness for oneself, and then extending that wish to others. In other contexts, maitrī, as the wish for the happiness of others, is considered one of the factors that motivates the BODHISATTVA to seek to save all beings from suffering. See also METTĀSUTTA.

mārga. (P. magga; T. lam; C. dao; J. do; K. to 道). In Sanskrit, "path"; a polysemous term in Sanskrit, whose root denotation is a road, track, way, or course. As one of the most important terms in Buddhism, it refers to the metaphorical route from one state to another, typically from suffering to liberation, from SAMSĀRA to NIRVĀnA. The term derives in part from the view that the means of achieving liberation from suffering have been identified by the Buddha, and he himself has successfully followed the route to that goal, leaving behind tracks or footprints that others can follow. Indeed, it is the Buddhist view that each of the buddhas of the past has followed the same path to enlightenment. However, in the interval between buddhas, that path becomes forgotten, and the purpose of the next buddha's advent in the world is to rediscover and reopen that same path. The term mārga occurs in the Buddha's first sermon (S. DHARMACAKRAPRAVARTANASuTRA; P. DHAMMACAKKAPPAVATTANASUTTA) as the fourth constituent of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (CATVĀRY ĀRYASATYĀNI), where it is identified as the eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA) between the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. Elsewhere, the path is associated with the threefold training (TRIsIKsĀ) in morality (sĪLA), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom (PRAJNĀ). However, there are numerous delineations of the path to enlightenment. For example, both the mainstream Buddhist schools and the MAHĀYĀNA describe three paths: (1) the path of the sRĀVAKA, culminating in attainment of NIRVĀnA as an ARHAT; (2) the path of the PRATYEKABUDDHA, also culminating in the nirvāna of an arhat; and (3) the path of the BODHISATTVA, culminating in the attainment of buddhahood. Each of these paths has its own stages, with a common system describing five (PANCAMĀRGA): (1) the path of accumulation (SAMBHĀRAMĀRGA), (2) the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA), (3) the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA), (4) the path of cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA), and (5) the adept path, "where there is nothing more to learn" (AsAIKsAMĀRGA). In more technical descriptions, the path to enlightenment is described as a series of moments of consciousness in a process of purification, in which increasingly subtle states of contaminants (ĀSRAVA) and afflictions (KLEsA) are permanently cleansed from the mind. The term "path" figures in the title of a number of highly important Buddhist works, such as the VISUDDHIMAGGA ("Path of Purification") by the Pāli commentator BUDDHAGHOSA. The Tibetan exegete TSONG KHA PA wrote of the "three principal aspects of the path" (lam rtso rnam gsum): renunciation, BODHICITTA, and correct view. See also DAO.

Matter in the laya-state is in its eternal and normal condition; when differentiated it is in an abnormal state — a phenomenon becoming a transitory illusion when perceived by the senses. “A laya-center is the mystical point where a thing disappears from one plane and passes onwards to reappear on another plane. It is that point or spot — any point or spot — in space, which, owing to karmic law, suddenly becomes the center of active life, first on a higher plane and later descending into manifestation through and by the laya-centers of the lower planes. In one sense a laya-center may be conceived of as a canal, a channel, through which the vitality of the superior spheres pours down into, and inspires, inbreathes into, the lower planes or states of matter, or rather of substance. . . .

:::   "Maya is the supreme and universal consciousness and force of the Eternal and Infinite and, being by its very nature unbound and illimitable, it can put forth many states of consciousness at a time, many dispositions of its Force, without ceasing to be the same consciousness-force for ever. It is at once transcendental, universal and individual; it is the supreme supracosmic Being that is aware of itself as All-Being, as the Cosmic Self, as the Consciousness-Force of cosmic Nature, and at the same time experiences itself as the individual being and consciousness in all existences.” The Life Divine

“Maya is the supreme and universal consciousness and force of the Eternal and Infinite and, being by its very nature unbound and illimitable, it can put forth many states of consciousness at a time, many dispositions of its Force, without ceasing to be the same consciousness-force for ever. It is at once transcendental, universal and individual; it is the supreme supracosmic Being that is aware of itself as All-Being, as the Cosmic Self, as the Consciousness-Force of cosmic Nature, and at the same time experiences itself as the individual being and consciousness in all existences.” The Life Divine

“Maya is the supreme and universal consciousness and force of the Eternal and Infinite and, being by its very natureunbound and illimitable, it can put forth many states of consciousness at a time, many dispositions of its Force, without ceasing to be the same consciousness-force for ever. It is at once transcendental, universal and individual; it is the supreme supracosmic Being that is aware of itself as All-Being, as the Cosmic Self, as the Consciousness-Force of cosmic Nature, and at the same time experiences itself as the individual being and consciousness in all existences.” The Life Divine

Medical studies of catalepsy refer to the literary record of many classical examples of it, and claim that it has a close relationship with the ecstatic and trance-like states of mystics, but there is a marked contrast between the unnatural attitudes of the negative, unconscious cataleptic person, who remembers nothing of his entranced state, and the generally exalted spiritual consciousness of the genuine mystic who retains full memory of his self-induced experience.

Memory: (Lat. memoria) Non-inferential knowledge of past perceptual objects (perceptual memory) or of past emotions, feelings and states of consciousness of the remembering subject (introspective memory). See Introspection. Memory is psychologically analyzable into three functions: revival or reproduction of the memory image, recognition of the image as belonging to the past of the remembering subject, and temporal localization of the remembered object by reference to a psychological or physical time-scheme.

mentalism ::: The view, in philosophy of mind, that the mind and mental states exist as causally efficacious inner states of persons. The view should be distinguished from substance dualism, which is the view that the mind and the body (or brain) are two distinct kinds of things, which nevertheless interact (somehow) with one another. Although this dualistic view of the mind-body connection entails mentalism, mentalism does not entail dualism. Jerry Fodor and Noam Chomsky have been two of mentalism's most ardent recent defenders.

Mind and life in the body are in the state of Death because by Ignorance they fail to realise Sachchidananda. Realising perfectly Sachchidananda, they can convert themselves, Mind into the nature of the Truth, vijnana, Life into the nature of caitanya, Body into the nature of sat, that is, into the pure essence. When this cannot be done perfectly in the body, the soul realises its true state in other forms of existence or worlds, the sunlit worlds and states of felicity, and returns upon material existence to complete its evolution in the body. A progressively perfect realisation [of Sachchidananda] in the body is the aim of human evolution.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 17, Page: 41-42


model checking "theory, algorithm, testing" To algorithmically check whether a program (the model) satisfies a specification. The model is usually expressed as a {directed graph} consisting of {nodes} (or {vertices}) and {edges}. A set of {atomic propositions} is associated with each node. The nodes represents states of a program, the edges represent possible executions which alters the state, while the atomic propositions represent the basic properties that hold at a point of execution. A specification language, usually some kind of {temporal logic}, is used to express properties. The problem can be expressed mathematically as: given a temporal logic formula p and a model M with initial state s, decide if M,s \models p. ["Automatic verification of finite state concurrent systems using temporal logic", E.M. Clarke, E.A. Emerson, and A.P. Sisla, ACM Trans. on Programming Languages and Systems 8(2), pp. 244--263, 1986]. (1997-06-26)

MOLECULAR WORLDS Worlds within the solar system that consist of molecular matter.

The three lowest atomic worlds (47- 49) have been divided into five separate molecular worlds. World 47 is divided into the higher (or causal,
47:2,3) and the lower (47:4-7) mental world. World 49 is divided into the physical etheric world (49:2-4) and the world visible to man (49:5-7) with its three states of aggregation
(solid, liquid, and gaseous).

The consciousness development in the four lower natural kingdoms goes on in these five molecular worlds. K 1.11.3f


moody ::: superl. --> Subject to varying moods, especially to states of mind which are unamiable or depressed.
Hence: Out of humor; peevish; angry; fretful; also, abstracted and pensive; sad; gloomy; melancholy.


Mudhavastha: One of the five states of the mind; state of ignorance or forgetfulness of one's real nature.

muditā. (T. dga' ba; C. xi; J. ki; K. hŭi 喜). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "joy" or "sympathetic joy"; the third of the four divine abidings (BRAHMAVIHĀRA) and four immeasurables (APRAMĀnA). Sympathetic joy is the attitude of taking delight in the happiness and good fortune of others and is the opposite of jealousy and envy. The other three divine abidings and immeasurables are MAITRĪ (loving-kindness), KARUnĀ (compassion), and UPEKsĀ (equanimity). The divine abidings are used for the cultivation of tranquillity or serenity meditation (sAMATHA). Of the four divine abidings, sympathetic joy, along with loving-kindness and compassion, is capable of producing the first three of four states of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). Equanimity alone is capable of producing the fourth dhyāna. In the VISUDDHIMAGGA, sympathetic joy is listed as one among forty possible meditative topics (KAMMAttHĀNA). The text indicates that, along with the other three divine abidings, sympathetic joy is used only for the cultivation of tranquillity, not to cultivate insight (P. VIPASSANĀ; S. VIPAsYANĀ).

musitasmṛti. (P. mutthassati; T. brjed nges; C. shinian; J. shitsunen; K. sillyom 失念). In Sanskrit, "inattentiveness," "negligence," or "forgetfulness"; one of the forty-six mental concomitants (CAITTA) according to the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school of ABHIDHARMA (where the term is also called smṛtināsa) and one of the fifty-one according to the YOGĀCĀRA school. Within this group, it falls into the category of the "secondary afflictions" (UPAKLEsA). "Inattentiveness" refers to the lack of clarity caused by the failure to attend properly to and be mindful of either the present moment or an intended object of attention, or the failure to recollect what had transpired in the immediately preceding moments. It involves the inattentiveness to virtuous objects, thus leading to attention to nonvirtuous objects. The term is taken to be one of the possible derivative mental states of "ignorance" (AVIDYĀ), because it causes the mind to become distracted to the objects of the afflictions. It is the opposite of "attentiveness," "proper recollection," and "presence of mind" (SMṚTI).

MYSTIC On the highest cultural levels, the individual becomes a mystic. In the domains of emotional consciousness that he has now reached, he no longer has any use for his intellectuality as acquired up to now. Frequently in states of ecstasy he experiences the unity of life past all understanding. His imagination, which is powerfully developed, makes him lose himself in seeming infinitude. His emotional development is terminated and crowned by an incarnation as a saint. In subsequent incarnations he strives to become a mental self. K 1.34.17

The art of living is the chief interest of the mystic. (K 3.6.4)


Nadabindukalatita: Beyond the states of Nada, Bindu and Kala, in Tantric conception; the supreme state of Brahman.

naivasaMjNānāsaMjNāyatana. (P. nevasaNNānāsaNNāyatana; T. 'du shes med 'du shes med min skye mched; C. feixiang feifeixiang chu; J. hisohihisojo; K. pisang pibisang ch'o 非想非非想處). In Sanskrit, "sphere of neither perception nor nonperception," the fourth and highest of the four levels of the immaterial realm (ĀRuPYADHĀTU) and the fourth of the four immaterial absorptions (ĀRuPYĀVACARADHYĀNA). It surpasses the first three levels of the immaterial realm, viz., infinite space (AKĀsĀNANTYĀYATANA), infinite consciousness (VIJNĀNĀNANTYĀYATANA), and nothingness (ĀKINCANYĀYATANA), respectively. It is a realm of rebirth and a meditative state that is entirely immaterial (viz., there is no physical or material [RuPA] component to existence) in which perception of all mundane things vanishes entirely, but perception itself does not. Beings reborn in this realm are thought to live as long as eighty thousand eons (KALPA). However, as a state of being that is still subject to rebirth, even the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception remains part of SAMSĀRA. Like the other levels of both the subtle-materiality realm (RuPADHĀTU) and the immaterial realm, one is reborn in this state by achieving the specific level of meditative absorption associated with that state in the previous lifetime. One of the most famous and influential expositions on the subject of these immaterial states comes from the VISUDDHIMAGGA of BUDDHAGHOSA, written in the fifth century. Although there are numerous accounts of Buddhist meditators achieving immaterial states of SAMĀDHI, they are also used polemically in Buddhist literature to describe the attainments of non-Buddhist YOGINs, who mistakenly identify these exalted, but still impermanent, states of existence as the permanent liberation from rebirth. See also DHYĀNASAMĀPATTI; DHYĀNOPAPATTI.

natural states of consciousness ::: Also known as “ordinary” states of consciousness, most of which are continuously accessible. Natural states include waking, dreaming, deep dreamless sleep, witnessing (see turiya), and nondual (see turiyatita).

Nirvana(Sanskrit) ::: This is a compound: nir, "out," and vana, the past participle passive of the root va, "to blow,"literallly meaning "blown out." So badly has the significance of the ancient Indian thought (and even its language, the Sanskrit) been understood, that for many years erudite European scholars were discussingwhether being "blown out" meant actual entitative annihilation or not. But the being blown out refersonly to the lower principles in man.Nirvana is a very different thing from the "heavens." Nirvana is a state of utter bliss and complete,untrammeled consciousness, a state of absorption in pure kosmic Being, and is the wondrous destiny ofthose who have reached superhuman knowledge and purity and spiritual illumination. It really ispersonal-individual absorption into or rather identification with the Self -- the highest SELF. It is also thestate of the monadic entities in the period that intervenes between minor manvantaras or rounds of aplanetary chain; and more fully so between each seven-round period or Day of Brahma, and thesucceeding day or new kalpa of a planetary chain. At these last times, starting forth from the seventhsphere in the seventh round, the monadic entities will have progressed far beyond even the highest stateof devachan. Too pure and too far advanced even for such a condition as the devachanic felicity, they goto their appropriate sphere and condition, which latter is the nirvana following the end of the seventhround.Devachan and nirvana are not localities. They are states, states of the beings in those respective spiritualconditions. Devachan is the intermediate state; nirvana is the superspiritual state; and avichi, popularlycalled the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beingshaving habitat in the lokas or talas, in the worlds of the kosmic egg.So far as the individual human being is concerned, the nirvanic state or condition may be attained to bygreat spiritual seers and sages, such as Gautama the Buddha, and even by men less progressed than he;because in these cases of the attaining of the nirvana even during a man's life on earth, the meaning isthat one so attaining has through evolution progressed so far along the path that all the lower personalpart of him is become thoroughly impersonalized, the personal has put on the garment of impersonality,and such a man thereafter lives in the nirvanic condition of the spiritual monad.As a concluding thought, it must be pointed out that nirvana, while the ultima thule of the perfection tobe attained by any human being, nevertheless stands less high in the estimate of mystics than thecondition of the bodhisattva. For the bodhisattva, although standing on the threshold of nirvana andseeing and understanding its ineffable glory and peace and rest, nevertheless retains his consciousness inthe worlds of men, in order to consecrate his vast faculties and powers to the service of all that is. Thebuddhas in their higher parts enter the nirvana, in other words, assume the dharmakaya state or vesture,whereas the bodhisattva assumes the nirmanakaya vesture, thereafter to become an ever-active andcompassionate and beneficent influence in the world. The buddha indeed may be said to act indirectlyand by long distance control, thus indeed helping the world diffusively or by diffusion; but thebodhisattva acts directly and positively and with a directing will in works of compassion, both for theworld and for individuals.

nirvikalpa. (P. nibbikappa; T. rnam par rtog pa med pa; C. wu fenbie; J. mufunbetsu; K. mubunbyol 無分別). In Sanskrit, "nonconceptual," an adjective used to describe states of direct perception, either by the sensory consciousnesses or the mental consciousness. The sense consciousnesses are necessarily nonconceptual, but a state of nonconceptual mental consciousness is required for direct realization of the truth, and hence liberation. The nonconceptual state is therefore praised for its ability to perceive directly without the intercession of the distorting medium of thought. See also NIRVIKALPAJNĀNA.

nispannakrama. (T. rdzogs rim; C. yuanman cidi; J. enmanshidai; K. wonman ch'aje 圓滿次第). In Sanskrit, "stage of completion" (also called saMpannakrama and utpannakrama); one of the two major phases of ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA practice, the other being the UTPATTIKRAMA, variously translated as the "stage of generation," "creation stage," or "development stage." The stage of generation is considered the preparation for the stage of completion. After having received initiation (ABHIsEKA), during the stage of generation the practitioner engages in the practice of detailed visualization of himself or herself as a deity and the environment as a MAndALA. Meditation on emptiness (suNYATĀ) is also involved. The central point of the practice is to vividly imagine oneself as the buddha one is going to become and thus simulate the process whereby this achievement will occur. The stage of completion is the period in which the actual achievement of buddhahood by the path of anuttarayogatantra occurs. Here, the meditator engages in practices that cause the winds (PRĀnA) to enter the central channel (AVADHuTĪ) and gather at the heart CAKRA, causing the mind of clear light (PRABHĀSVARA) to become manifest, at which point the three states of death, intermediate state (ANTARĀBHAVA), and rebirth are transformed respectively into the DHARMAKĀYA, SAMBHOGAKĀYA, and NIRMĀnAKĀYA of a buddha.

No hard and fast enumeration can be made as to the number of planes in the kosmos. The number assigned depends on the particular purpose for which the definition is made. The septenary classification is often used, as in the seven planes of prakriti or the seven states of consciousness pertaining to each. But other enumerations may equally be made, and any plane is subdivided into subplanes.

OBJECTIVISM &

"Ordinarily we mean by it [consciousness] our first obvious idea of a mental waking consciousness such as is possessed by the human being during the major part of his bodily existence, when he is not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his physical and superficial methods of sensation. In this sense it is plain enough that consciousness is the exception and not the rule in the order of the material universe. We ourselves do not always possess it. But this vulgar and shallow idea of the nature of consciousness, though it still colours our ordinary thought and associations, must now definitely disappear out of philosophical thinking. For we know that there is something in us which is conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged or in a swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being. Not only so, but we may now be sure that the old thinkers were right when they declared that even in our waking state what we call then our consciousness is only a small selection from our entire conscious being. It is a superficies, it is not even the whole of our mentality. Behind it, much vaster than it, there is a subliminal or subconscient mind which is the greater part of ourselves and contains heights and profundities which no man has yet measured or fathomed.” Letters on Yoga

“Ordinarily we mean by it [consciousness] our first obvious idea of a mental waking consciousness such as is possessed by the human being during the major part of his bodily existence, when he is not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his physical and superficial methods of sensation. In this sense it is plain enough that consciousness is the exception and not the rule in the order of the material universe. We ourselves do not always possess it. But this vulgar and shallow idea of the nature of consciousness, though it still colours our ordinary thought and associations, must now definitely disappear out of philosophical thinking. For we know that there is something in us which is conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged or in a swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being. Not only so, but we may now be sure that the old thinkers were right when they declared that even in our waking state what we call then our consciousness is only a small selection from our entire conscious being. It is a superficies, it is not even the whole of our mentality. Behind it, much vaster than it, there is a subliminal or subconscient mind which is the greater part of ourselves and contains heights and profundities which no man has yet measured or fathomed.” Letters on Yoga

Our subliminal self is not, like our surface physical being, an outcome of the energy of the Inconscient; it is a meeting-place of the consciousness that emerges from below by evolution and the consciousness that has descended from above for involution. There is in it an inner mind, an inner vital being of ourselves, an inner or subtle-physical being larger than our outer being and nature. This inner existence is the concealed origin of almost all in our surface self that is not a construction of the first inconscient World-Energy or a natural developed functioning of our surface consciousness or a reaction of it to impacts from the outside universal Nature,—and even in this construction, these functionings, these reactions the subliminal takes part and exercises on them a considerable influence. There is here a consciousness which has a power of direct contact with the universal unlike the mostly indirect contacts which our surface being maintains with the universe through the sense-mind and the senses. There are here inner senses, a subliminal sight, touch, hearing; but these subtle senses are rather channels of the inner being’s direct consciousness of things than its informants: the subliminal is not dependent on its senses for its knowledge, they only give a form to its direct experience of objects; they do not, so much as in waking mind, convey forms of objects for the mind’s documentation or as the starting-point or basis for an indirect constructive experience. The subliminal has the right of entry into the mental and vital and subtle-physical planes of the universal consciousness, it is not confined to the material plane and the physical world; it possesses means of communication with the worlds of being which the descent towards involution created in its passage and with all corresponding planes or worlds that may have arisen or been constructed to serve the purpose of the re-ascent from Inconscience to Superconscience. It is into this large realm of interior existence that our mind and vital being retire when they withdraw from the surface activities whether by sleep or inward-drawn concentration or by the inner plunge of trance. Our waking state is unaware of its connection with the subliminal being, although it receives from it—but without any knowledge of the place of origin—the inspirations, intuitions, ideas, will-suggestions, sense-suggestions, urges to action that rise from below or from behind our limited surface existence. Sleep like trance opens the gate of the subliminal to us; for in sleep, as in trance, we retire behind the veil of the limited waking personality and it is behind this veil that the subliminal has its existence. But we receive the records of our sleep experience through dream and in dream figures and not in that condition which might be called an inner waking and which is the most accessible form of the trance state, nor through the supernormal clarities of vision and other more luminous and concrete ways of communication developed by the inner subliminal cognition when it gets into habitual or occasional conscious connection with our waking self. The subliminal, with the subconscious as an annexe of itself,—for the subconscious is also part of the behind-the-veil entity,—is the seer of inner things and of supraphysical experiences; the surface subconscious is only a transcriber. It is for this reason that the Upanishad describes the subliminal being as the Dream Self because it is normally in dreams, visions, absorbed states of inner experience that we enter into and are part of its experiences...
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 236


Padaeng Chronicle. "Chronicle of the Red Forest Monastery," a chronicle of uncertain date written in the Khun language of Kengtung valley of the Shan states of Burma (Myanmar). It records the history of the THERAVĀDA tradition from its inception to the founding of Wat Padaeng at Kengtung and the vicissitudes of the religion in the Shan states thereafter. It begins with a record of the life of the Buddha, through the three Buddhist councils (SAMGĪTI) in India, to Buddhism's spread to Sri Lanka and the Mon kingdom of SUVAnnABHuMI in Lower Burma. From that point, it describes the introduction of two reformed Sinhalese monastic sects at Martaban (Muttama) in Lower Burma, and the spread of reformed Sinhalese Buddhism from there to the Thai kingdoms of AYUTHAYA, SUKHOTHAI, and Chiangmai, following the narrative outline of the MuLASĀSANA.

Padarthabhavana: Knowledge of the Truth; the sixth of the Jnana-bhumikas or states of knowledge where the Jnani perceives the inner essence and not the outer physical form of things. Lotus; Chakra; a name for the plexus.

paNcabala. (T. stobs lnga; C. wuli; J. goriki; K. oryok 五力). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "five powers," (1) faith (sRADDHĀ), (2) effort (VĪRYA), (3) mindfulness (SMṚTI), (4) concentration (SAMĀDHI), and (5) wisdom (PRAJNĀ). These five are essential to progress on the path, serving as antidotes to unwholesome states of mind, and specifically to the five hindrances (NĪVARAnA) that obstruct the five factors of meditative absorption (DHYĀNĀnGA): faith serves as an antidote to ill will (VYĀPĀDA); effort serves as an antidote to sloth and torpor (STYĀNĀ-MIDDHA); mindfulness serves as an antidote to either heedlessness (APRAMĀDA) or sensual desire (KĀMACCHANDA); samādhi serves as an antidote to distraction or restlessness and worry (AUDDHATYA-KAUKṚTYA); and wisdom serves as an antidote to skeptical doubt (VICIKITSĀ). In the SAMYUTTANIKĀYA, the Buddha explains that faith is faith in the Buddha's enlightenment; effort is effort at the four exertions (to prevent the arising of unwholesome states that have not yet arisen, to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, to create wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and to maintain wholesome states that have already arisen); mindfulness is the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness (P. SATIPAttHĀNA, Skt. SMṚTYUPASTĀNA); concentration is achievement of the four dhyānas; and wisdom is discerning the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (catvāry āryasatyāni). The five powers constitute five of the thirty-seven aspects of enlightenment (BODHIPĀKsIKADHARMA). In the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ literature, they are described as five states achieved on the forbearance (KsĀNTI) and highest worldly dharmas (LAUKIKĀGRADHARMA) levels of the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA; see NIRVEDHABHĀGĪYA). They are preceded on the heat (usMAN) and peak (MuRDHAN) levels by the five same factors at a lesser stage of development; there they are called the "five faculties," or "dominants" (PANCENDRIYA).

panca bhuta ::: "the five elements", the five elementary states of substance: ::: [akasa, vayu, agni (tejas), apas (jala), prthivi].

paNcasīla. (P. paNcasīla; T. bslab pa lnga; C. wujie; J. gokai; K. ogye 五戒). In Sanskrit, the "five precepts," five rules of conduct or "steps in training" (sIKsĀPADA) that form the foundation for Buddhist morality (sĪLA) for both lay and monastic followers. The five are (1) to abstain from killing living creatures (usually interpreted to mean not killing human beings); (2) to abstain from taking what is not given; (3) to abstain from engaging in sexual misconduct; (4) to abstain from lying (commonly defined as not to lie about the possession of high states of attainment or superhuman powers); and (5) to abstain from consuming intoxicants that cause heedlessness (PRAMĀDA). These rules are commonly administered as part of the ceremony of going for refuge (sARAnA), which is the formal acknowledgment of becoming an adherent of Buddhism. Each of these precepts is administered in the formula, "I undertake the training rule (siksāpada) to abstain from killing living creatures," etc. The precepts are regarded as steps in training that are useful in prompting virtuous actions (KUsALAKARMAN), in restraining unvirtuous deeds of body and speech, and in correcting the intention (CETANĀ) that prompts action. It is generally understood that the practitioner must become adept in maintaining the precepts before he can effectively engage in the cultivation of concentration (SAMĀDHI) and wisdom (PRAJNĀ), the next two stages in the threefold training (TRIsIKsĀ). Taking the precepts is considered karmically efficacious, since an act will be more virtuous if one first takes a vow to desist from an unvirtuous activity and then does so, rather than desisting from the activity without having first taken such a vow. ¶ These five precepts also figure in other important moral formulas. Monks and nuns take the five precepts (with the third precept defined as celibacy), with violation of the first four bringing "defeat" (PĀRĀJIKA) and, in some traditions, expulsion from the SAMGHA. These five precepts (with celibacy as the third) are augmented by three additional precepts to form a short-term code observed by lay disciples fortnightly on the new moon and full moon days (UPOsADHA; P. uposatha); this code is known as the eight "retreat precepts" (S. uposadhasīla; P. uposathasīla), a sort of temporary renunciation (see AstĀnGASAMANVĀGATAM UPAVĀSAM; BAGUAN ZHAI) that essentially turns the layperson into a monk for that day. The three additional precepts are (6) not to eat at an inappropriate time (generally interpreted to mean between noon and the following dawn); (7) not to dance, sing, play music, attend performances, or adorn one's body with garlands, perfumes, or cosmetics; and (8) not to sleep on high or luxurious beds. The same five precepts (with the third again defined as celibacy) are augmented by five additional rules that are kept by novice monks (sRĀMAnERA) and nuns (sRĀMAnERIKĀ) to constitute the "ten precepts" (DAsAsĪLA). The additional five are (6) not to eat at an inappropriate time; (7) not to dance, sing, play music, or attend performances; (8) not to adorn one's body with garlands, perfumes, and cosmetics; (9) not to sleep on high or luxurious beds; (10) not to handle gold and silver, viz. money. Fully ordained monks (BHIKsU) and nuns (BHIKsUnĪ) observe in turn hundreds of specific training rules, all putatively promulgated by the Buddha himself, which are set out in great detail in the PRĀTIMOKsA of various VINAYA traditions. See also sĪLA.

panhellenium ::: n. --> An assembly or association of Greeks from all the states of Greece.

paratantra. (T. gzhan dbang; C. yitaqi xing; J. etakisho; K. ŭit'agi song 依他起性). In Sanskrit, lit., "other-powered," viz., "dependent"; the second of the three natures (TRISVABHĀVA), a central tenet of the YOGĀCĀRA school in which all phenomena are classified as having three natures: an imaginary (PARIKALPITA), dependent (paratantra), and consummate (PARINIsPANNA) nature. In the Yogācāra system, external objects do not exist as materially distinct entities that are separate from the consciousness that perceives them. According to this school, the perception of forms, sounds, smells, and so on is produced not by an external sensory stimulus, but from the ripening of karmic seeds (BĪJA); i.e., from residual impressions (literally "perfumings"; see VĀSANĀ) left by earlier perceptions of a similar type. The paratantra is the category of dependently originated, impermanent phenomena that arise from seeds stored in the foundational consciousness (ĀLAYAVIJNĀNA), seeds that fructify as states of consciousness. Sentient beings do not comprehend the paratantra nature because sense experience is distorted by subject-object bifurcation (see GRĀHYAGRĀHAKAVIKALPA), called the imaginary (parikalpita) nature. The paratantra category encompasses all impermanent phenomena, which are produced in dependence on causes and conditions. The SAMDHINIRMOCANASuTRA describes the paratantra as lacking any intrinsic nature of production (utpattiniḥsvabhāvatā); that is, no impermanent phenomenon can produce itself. They provide for the functioning of SAMSĀRA and the path to NIRVĀnA and enlightenment (BODHI). However, they also serve as the basis of misconceptions (parikalpita) due to ignorance, which falsely imagines objects to be separate entities from the consciousness that perceives them. The absence of this falsely imagined separation with regard to dependent phenomena is called the consummate (parinispanna).

parināmanā. (T. yongs su bsngo ba; C. huixiang; J. eko; K. hoehyang 廻向). In Sanskrit, "dedication," the practice of mentally or ritually directing the merit (PUnYA) produced from a virtuous (KUsALA) deed or deeds (KARMAN) to a particular aim. Merit may be dedicated to the benefit of all sentient beings or to the benefit of a specific person or persons (such as a family member), but the term is used especially to refer to the dedication of the merit accumulated by a BODHISATTVA to the greater goal of achieving buddhahood so that one may be able to liberate all beings from suffering. Merit may also be dedicated toward the goal of a rebirth in a specific realm (such as a PURE LAND or the heavens) in the next lifetime. The dedication of merit is a standard element of Mahāyāna ritual (PuJĀ) and meditative practices and is often praised as a means of protecting virtuous faculties (KUsALAMuLA) from being destroyed by unwholesome states of mind. See also PATTIDĀNA.

parliament ::: n. --> A parleying; a discussion; a conference.
A formal conference on public affairs; a general council; esp., an assembly of representatives of a nation or people having authority to make laws.
The assembly of the three estates of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, viz., the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and the representatives of the commons, sitting in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, constituting the legislature, when


polygraph ::: n. --> An instrument for multiplying copies of a writing; a manifold writer; a copying machine.
In bibliography, a collection of different works, either by one or several authors.
An instrument for detecting deceptive statements by a subject, by measuring several physiological states of the subject, such as pulse, heartbeat, and sweating. The instrument records these parameters on a strip of paper while the subject is asked questions


Pons ::: Part of the brain that plays a role in the regulation of states of arousal, including sleep and dreaming.

pornography "application" Still and moving images, usually of women, in varying states of nudity, posing or performing erotic acts with men, women, animals, machines, or other props. Some say it degrades women, some say it corrupts young boys (who down-load it from the {web} or exchange it on {floppy disks}). Most of it is in the form of {JPEG} images. Many websites offer porn of all sorts, almost always for a subscription. It is said that these are a driving force in the evolution of new technology and techniques for the web. Advertisments for them certainly constitute a significant proportion of all {spam}. There are even pornographic computer games, an early example being {Mac Playmate}. Beware - many institutions, particularly universities, have strict rules against their computers and networks being used to transfer or store such things, and you might get corrupted. (2002-03-08)

pornography ::: (application) Still or moving images, usually of women, in varying states of nudity, posing or performing erotic acts with men, women, animals, machines, all spam. There are even pornographic computer games, an early example being Mac Playmate.Beware - many institutions, particularly universities, have strict rules against their computers and networks being used to transfer or store such things, and you might get corrupted.(2002-03-08)

prabhāsvara. (P. pabhassara; T. 'od gsal; C. guangming; J. komyo; K. kwangmyong 光明). In Sanskrit, "luminous," "resplendent"; referring to an effulgence of light and often used as a metaphor for either deep states of meditation or, especially, the nature of the mind. This notion of the innate effulgence of the mind has a long pedigree in Buddhism, and its locus classicus is the oft-quoted passage in the Pāli AnGUTTARANIKĀYA: "The mind, O monks, is luminous (P. pabhassara), but is defiled by adventitious defilements" (pabhassaraM idaM bhikkave cittaM taN ca kho āgantukehi upakkilesehi upakkilitthaM). A similar sentiment appears in the early MAHĀYĀNA scripture AstASĀHASRIKĀPRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀSuTRA, where it states that the "thought of enlightenment is no thought, since in its essential original nature thought is transparently luminous." Through enlightenment, the mind's innate luminosity is restored to its full intensity so that it shines through all objects, revealing their inherent vacuity and lack of substance. This same strand eventually develops into TATHĀGATAGARBHA thought, which sees the mind as inherently enlightened, the defilements of mind as ultimately extrinsic to the mind (cf. ĀGANTUKAKLEsA), and the prospect of buddhahood as innate in all sentient beings. The concept of the "mind of clear light" (see PRABHĀSVARACITTA) becomes particularly important in ANUTTARAYOGATANTRA, where it is described as the primordial and fundamental form of consciousness, which becomes manifest at particular moments, such as falling asleep, awaking from sleep, orgasm, and especially, at the moment of death. Many practices of the stage of completion (NIsPANNAKRAMA) are devoted to making manifest this mind of clear light and using it to understand the nature of reality. As such, the practice of clear light is one of the six yogas of Nāropa (NA RO CHOS DRUG).

prajNā. (P. paNNā; T. shes rab; C. bore/hui; J. hannya/e; K. panya/hye 般若/慧). In Sanskrit, typically translated "wisdom," but having connotations perhaps closer to "gnosis," "awareness," and in some contexts "cognition"; the term has the general sense of accurate and precise understanding, but is used most often to refer to an understanding of reality that transcends ordinary comprehension. It is one of the most important terms in Buddhist thought, occurring in a variety of contexts. In Buddhist epistemology, prajNā is listed as one of the five mental concomitants (CAITTA) that accompany all virtuous (KUsALA) states of mind. It is associated with correct, analytical discrimination of the various factors (DHARMA) enumerated in the Buddhist teachings (dharmapravicaya). In this context, prajNā refers to the capacity to distinguish between the faults and virtues of objects in such a way as to overcome doubt. PrajNā is listed among the five spiritual "faculties" (PANCENDRIYA) or "powers" (PANCABALA), where it serves to balance faith (sRADDHĀ) and to counteract skeptical doubt (VICIKITSĀ). PrajNā is also one of the three trainings (TRIsIKsĀ), together with morality (sĪLA) and concentration (SAMĀDHI). In this context, it is distinguished from the simple stability of mind developed through the practice of concentration and refers to a specific understanding of the nature of reality, likened to a sword that cuts through the webs of ignorance (see ADHIPRAJNĀsIKsĀ). Three specific types of wisdom are set forth, including the wisdom generated by learning (sRUTAMAYĪPRAJNĀ), an intellectual understanding gained through listening to teachings or reading texts; the wisdom generated by reflection (CINTĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ), which includes conceptual insights derived from one's own personal reflection on those teachings and from meditation at a low level of concentration; and the wisdom generated by cultivation (BHĀVANĀMAYĪPRAJNĀ), which is a product of more advanced stages in meditation. This last level of wisdom is related to the concept of insight (VIPAsYANĀ). The term also appears famously in the term PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ or "perfection of wisdom," which refers to the wisdom whereby bodhisattvas achieved buddhahood, as well as a genre of texts in which that wisdom is set forth.

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

prāna. (T. srog; C. bona; J. hana; K. pana 波那). In Sanskrit, "wind," "breath," or "vital force"; the winds that course through the network of channels (NĀdĪ) in the body, according to tantric physiognomy. There are various types of winds that perform functions such as movement, digestion, respiration, sexual activity, and sustenance of the life force. Much tantric practice is devoted, first, to causing these winds to flow freely through the system of channels and, subsequently, to gathering the various winds into the central channel in order to induce deep states of bliss.

Pranayama (Sanskrit) Prāṇāyāma [from prāṇa breath + āyāma restraining, stopping] The fourth of the eight states of yoga, consisting of various methods of regulating the breath. The three forms of pranayama are puraka (the inhaling); kumbhaka (the retaining); and rechaka (the exhaling).

prātihārya. (P. pātihāriya; T. cho 'phrul; C. shixian; J. jigen; K. sihyon 示現). In Sanskrit, "wonder" or "miracle," miraculous powers generally said to be exclusive to a buddha. In this sense, the term is sometimes distinguished from ṚDDHI, or "magical powers," which results from the attainment of states of DHYĀNA. Among the many miracles ascribed to the Buddha, two are particularly famous and are widely depicted in Buddhist iconography. Both took place at sRĀVASTĪ, where the Buddha defeated a group of TĪRTHIKAs. The first is the so-called "dual miracle" (YAMAKAPRĀTIHĀRYA) in which the Buddha caused both fire and water to emanate from his body. The second is the "great miracle" (MAHĀPRĀTIHĀRYA) in which the Buddha, seated on a great lotus, multiplied himself until the sky was filled with buddhas, some seated, some standing, some walking, some lying down, each teaching the dharma. Three categories of miracles (triprātihārya) are also enumerated. The first, the "miracle of magical power" (rddhiprātihārya) includes the myriad supranormal powers of the Buddha, including the power to fly and to appear and disappear. The second, the "miracle of foretelling" (ādesanāprātihārya), refers to the Buddha's ability to know the thoughts of others. The third, the "miracle of instruction," is the Buddha's unique ability to teach the dharma. Eight deeds of the Buddha, sometimes referred to as miracles, are commonly depicted during the Pāla period. Taking place at the eight "great sites" (MAHĀSTHĀNA), the eight are (1) the miracle of his birth at LUMBINĪ, (2) the defeat of MĀRA and achievement of buddhahood at BODHGAYĀ, (3) the turning of the wheel of the dharma (DHARMACAKRA) at ṚsIPATANA (SĀRNĀTH), (4) miracles performed at sRĀVASTĪ, (5) the descent from the TRĀYASTRIMsA heaven at SĀMKĀsYA, (6) the taming of the elephant NĀLĀGIRI at RĀJAGṚHA, (7) the receipt of the monkey's gift of honey at VAIsĀLĪ, and (8) the passage into PARINIRVĀnA at KUsINAGARĪ. (See also BAXIANG).

pratyaksa. (T. mngon sum; C. xianliang; J. genryo; K. hyollyang 現量). In Sanskrit, "direct perception," cognition that is unmistaken in the sense that it correctly apprehends qualities such as shape and color, and is nonconceptual, in the sense that it does not perceive its object through the medium of an image, as does thought (KALPANĀ). In Buddhist epistemology, direct perception is one of only two forms of valid knowledge (PRAMĀnA), along with inference (ANUMĀNA). Four types of direct perception are enumerated. The first is sensory direct perception, in which the five external sense objects are perceived directly by the sense consciousnesses (VIJNĀNA), in reliance on the five sense organs (INDRIYA). This form of direct perception is to be differentiated from SAMJNĀ, also sometimes translated as "perception." The latter term refers to the specific function of consciousness to apprehend the various characteristics of a given object or to differentiate between two objects. The second kind of direct perception is mental direct perception (MANONUBHAVAPRATYAKsA), which, according to one interpretation, includes a brief and unnoticed moment of direct perception by the mind at the end of sensory direct perception, with that moment of mental direct perception inducing the conceptual cognition of the object. Mental direct perception also includes the five ABHIJNĀ, which result from states of deep concentration. The third type is self-knowing direct perception (svasaMvedana), a function of self-consciousness, which observes a consciousness apprehending its object. It is this form of direct perception that makes possible memory of former moments of consciousness. The fourth type is yogic direct perception (YOGIPRATYAKsA), which occurs only on one of the noble paths (ĀRYAMĀRGA), where the truth is directly perceived through a union of sAMATHA and VIPAsYANĀ.

Printed in the United States of America

Printed in the United States of America

process ::: 1. (operating system, software) The sequence of states of an executing program. A process consists of the program code (which may be shared with other associated resources such as a process identifier, open files, CPU time limits, shared memory, child processes, and signal handlers.One process may, on some platforms, consist of many threads. A multitasking operating system can run multiple processes concurrently or in parallel, and allows a process to spawn child processes.(2001-06-16)2. (business) The sequence of activities, people, and systems involved in carrying out some business or achieving some desired result. E.g. software development process, project management process, configuration management process.(2001-06-16)

process 1. "operating system, software" The sequence of states of an executing {program}. A process consists of the program {code} (which may be shared with other processes which are executing the same program), private data, and the state of the {processor}, particularly the values in its {registers}. It may have other associated resources such as a {process identifier}, open files, {CPU time} limits, {shared memory}, {child processes}, and {signal handlers}. One process may, on some {platforms}, consist of many {threads}. A {multitasking} {operating system} can run multiple processes {concurrently} or in {parallel}, and allows a process to spawn "child" processes. (2001-06-16) 2. "business" The sequence of activities, people, and systems involved in carrying out some business or achieving some desired result. E.g. software development process, project management process, configuration management process. (2001-06-16)

protonotary ::: n. --> A chief notary or clerk.
Formerly, a chief clerk in the Court of King&


pṛsthalabdhajNāna. [alt. tatpṛsthalabdhajNāna] (T. rjes thob ye shes; C. houde zhi; J. gotokuchi; K. hudŭk chi 後得智). In Sanskrit, "subsequent wisdom" or "subsequently obtained wisdom"; a term used to describe one of the states of the noble path (ĀRYAMĀRGA). The attainment of the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA) marks the first achievement of meditative equipoise (SAMĀHITA) in which the meditator has a direct and nonconceptual vision of reality. When the meditator withdraws from that state of direct realization to again perceive various phenomena, this state is called "subsequent wisdom." Reality is no longer being directly and exclusively perceived, but the power of that vision is said to infuse one's subsequent experience of the world, so that while objects may once again appear to be real, the meditator does not assent to that false appearance. Following the attainment of the path of vision, the meditator continues to proceed along the path through periods of meditative equipoise and subsequent wisdom.

purvanivāsānusmṛti. (P. pubbenivāsānussati; T. sngon gyi gnas rjes su dran pa; C. suzhu suinian; J. shukujuzuinen; K. sukchu sunyom 宿住隨念). In Sanskrit, lit. "recollection of former abodes," viz., "memory of past lives."; a cardinal teaching of all schools of Buddhism and an element of meditative attainment in many Buddhist traditions. The term occurs most commonly as a component of one or another list, such as the superknowledges (ABHIJNĀ), knowledges (VIDYĀ), or powers (BALA). Although lists of five, six, and seven abhijNā appear in Buddhist literature, the most common listing is of six, with the memory of past lives being fourth. The same memory of former abodes is sometimes called the first of the three knowledges (TRIVIDYĀ) that are realized at the point of enlightenment, the other two being the divine eye (DIVYACAKsUS) and the knowledge of the destruction of the contaminants (ĀSRAVAKsAYA). In addition, the memory of former abodes occurs as the eighth of the ten powers (bala) of the TATHĀGATA. ¶ In situating the memory of former abodes within broader descriptions of the practice of the path (MĀRGA), one general account describes the path of an average monk, while in another the Buddha relates his own experience. In the SĀMANNAPHALASUTTA of the Pāli DĪGHANIKĀYA, for example, the Buddha describes the benefits of the life of mendicancy, providing a chronological catalogue of the attainments of one who follows the path, starting from the occasion of first hearing the dharma and proceeding to the attainment of NIRVĀnA. Among those attainments are the six abhiNNā/abhijNā, including memory of past lives and culminating with the knowledge of the destruction of the contaminants. Yet another variety of the arhat path is described in great detail in the CulAHATTHIPADOPAMASUTTA of the MAJJHIMANIKĀYA. This account differs from that in the Dīgha with respect to the superknowledges, in that here, having attained the fourth meditative absorption (P. jhāna, S. DHYĀNA), the monk achieves only the last three of the abhiNNā: the knowledge of former abodes, the divine eye, and the knowledge of the destruction of the contaminants. Elsewhere, these three experiences are referred to as the three types of knowledge. In the VISUDDHIMAGGA, BUDDHAGHOSA describes a regimen in which the meditator recalls his or her life in reverse order, beginning with the most recent act of sitting down to meditate, tracing the events of this life back to the moment of conception and back to the moment of death in the previous existence and so on through the eons. Non-Buddhists are said to be able to recollect as far back as forty eons, ordinary sRĀVAKAs one thousand eons, the eighty great srāvakas one hundred thousand eons, sĀRIPUTRA and MAHĀMAUDGALYĀYANA an incalculable age plus one hundred thousand eons, PRATYEKABUDDHAs two incalculable eons plus one hundred thousand eons, and buddhas limitless past lives. In the more detailed "autobiographical" narratives of the Buddha's enlightenment in mainstream sources, the bodhisattva becomes the Buddha by gaining the three types of knowledge: in the first watch of the night, the knowledge of former abodes; in the second watch, the divine eye; and in the third watch of the night, the knowledge of the destruction of the contaminants. In the second watch, he remembers his name, his clan, his caste, his food, his pleasure and pain, and his life span for individual lives over the incalculable past. In general, the achievement of the knowledge of former lives is described as the product of deep states of concentration and, as such, is accessible also to non-Buddhist YOGINs; for this reason it is considered a worldly or mundane (laukika) knowledge. In the MAHĀYĀNA sutras, similar descriptions of the six abhijNā and three vidyā are found. However, the memory of former lives also occurs simply as the product of a certain meritorious deeds. The memory of past lives typically causes the person to practice virtue in order to avoid an unfortunate rebirth. In the SUKHĀVATĪVYuHASuTRA, it is said that all beings reborn in AMITĀBHA's PURE LAND will be endowed with memory of their former abodes going back trillions of eons.

Qlippoth ::: Refers to the Sephiroth of the Kabbalah when devoid of connection to the Causal and to the other spheres in the dance of life. These Qlippothic spheres are thus "shells" and the study of the Qlippoth is a study in hell realm states of consciousness.

quasi-realism ::: A non-cognitivist, expressivist meta-ethical and epistemological theory developed by professor Simon Blackburn. It holds that although propositions supervene on states of mind, they have many realist characteristics, such as only being able to change slowly or in response to changes in natural properties.

quote :::Out of Himself, God produced His manifestation, His means of becoming conscious; and now each manifestation of Himself calls out, "I," not knowing its True Self. But when the individual intelligence frees itself from this delusion, and recognizes its immortal existence, then it becomes master of all states of being; it becomes that ideal being whose bliss cannot be equaled on earth nor surpassed in Heaven. This state in the experience of Intelligence, when the knower becomes known to Himself is called Shuhud; and in this the aim of life is accomplished.

Raja yoga ::: This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery. But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts th
   refore from the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pranayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kundalinı, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi. By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already possessed of the highest supracosmic knowledge and experience in the state of trance, is able in the waking state to acquire directly whatever knowledge and exercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to his activities in the objective world. For the ancient system of Rajayoga aimed not only at Swarajya, self-rule or subjective empire, the entire control by the subjective consciousness of all the states and activities proper to its own domain, but included Samrajya as well, outward empire, the control by the subjective consciousness of its outer activities and environment.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 36-37


rasagrahan.a (rasagrahana; rasa-grahana; rasagrahanam) ::: the seizrasagrahana ing of the rasa or "principle of delight" in things, "an enlightened enjoyment principally by the perceptive, aesthetic and emotive mind, secondarily only by the sensational, nervous and physical being", the first of the three states of bhukti, in which the mind "gets the pure taste of enjoyment" of all experience "and rejects whatever is perturbed, troubled and perverse"; same as (sama) rasa, the first stage of active / positive samata.

ratha ::: (coined from the same root as ratha) the highest intensity ratha ... of each of the three states of bhukti called rasagrahan.a, bhoga and ananda.

rati ::: pleasure; the lowest intensity of each of the three states of bhukti called rasagrahan.a, bhoga and ananda.

ratna ::: (in the Veda) delight; the second intensity of each of the three states of bhukti called rasagrahan.a, bhoga and ananda.

ṛddhi. (P. iddhi; T. rdzu 'phrul; C. shenli; J. jinriki; K. sillyok 神力). In Sanskrit, "psychic powers," any number of supernatural powers regarded as a by-product of deep states of meditation (DHYĀNA). When listed as one of the six supranormal powers (ABHIJNĀ; see also ṚDDHIVIDHĀBHIJNĀ), these psychic powers include: (1) the ability to replicate one's body and, having done so, to make it one again; (2) the ability to pass through solid objects, such as walls and mountains, as if they were air; (3) the ability to walk on water as if it were solid earth; (4) the ability to fly through the air like a bird, even with one's legs crossed; and (5) the ability to touch the sun and the moon with one's hand. Such powers may be attained by any YOGIN, whether Buddhist or non-Buddhist, and are not in themselves an indicator of enlightenment. The Buddha is said to have generally dissuaded his monks from the display of such powers, although Buddhist texts are replete with accounts of such displays, including by the Buddha himself.

readjuster ::: n. --> One who, or that which, readjusts; in some of the States of the United States, one who advocates a refunding, and sometimes a partial repudiation, of the State debt without the consent of the State&

realm ::: A term that refers either to states of consciousness, the bodies that support such states, or both (e.g., the gross realm, the subtle realm, the causal realm).

rest, calm, peaceful. This term is often used to describe the tranquil aspect of the nafs that begins when one rises above the lower states of ammara and lawwama. (used in the Qur'an 89:27) From the Arabic root t-m-'-n meaning to calm, pacify, be tranquil, be still, quiet; to rest from.

Ring-Pass-Not ::: A profoundly mystical and suggestive term signifying the circle or bounds or frontiers within which iscontained the consciousness of those who are still under the sway of the delusion of separateness -- andthis applies whether the ring be large or small. It does not signify any one especial occasion or condition,but is a general term applicable to any state in which an entity, having reached a certain stage ofevolutionary growth of the unfolding of consciousness, finds itself unable to pass into a still higher statebecause of some delusion under which the consciousness is laboring, be that delusion mental or spiritual.There is consciously a ring-pass-not for every globe of the planetary chain, a ring-pass-not for theplanetary chain itself, a ring-pass-not for the solar system, and so forth. It is the entities who labor underthe delusion who therefore actually create their own rings-pass-not, for these are not actual entitativematerial frontiers, but boundaries of consciousness.A ring-pass-not furthermore may perhaps be said with great truth to be somewhat of the nature of aspiritual laya-center or point of transmission between plane and plane of consciousness.The rings-pass-not as above said, however, have to do with phases or states of consciousness only. Forinstance, the ring-pass-not for the beasts is self-consciousness, i.e., the beasts have not yet been enabledto develop forth their consciousness to the point of self-consciousness or reflective consciousness exceptin minor degree. A dog, for example, located in a room which it desires to leave, will run to a door out ofwhich it is accustomed to go and will sit there whining for the door to be opened. Its consciousnessrecognizes the point of egress, but it has not developed the self-conscious mental activity to open thedoor.A general ring-pass-not for humanity is their inability to self-consciously participate in spiritualself-consciousness.

rupadhātu. (T. gzugs khams; C. sejie; J. shikikai; K. saekkye 色界). In Sanskrit and Pāli, the "realm of subtle materiality" or "form realm," which together with the sensuous, or desire, realm (KĀMADHĀTU) and the immaterial, or formless, realm (ĀRuPYADHĀTU) constitute the three realms (TRAIDHĀTUKA) of SAMSĀRA; the term is synonymous with rupāvacara. The subtle-materiality realm is located above the heavens of the sensuous realm, which are situated on and above Mount SUMERU. This realm is divided into four meditative heavens associated with the four meditative concentrations of the subtle-materiality realm (RuPĀVACARADHYĀNA). These meditative heavens are places of rebirth in saMsāra and are accessible only through mastery of a specific rupāvacaradhyāna; the beings reborn there are classified as BRAHMĀ gods. Rebirth in these meditative heavens is the result of a specific kind of virtuous action, called an "immovable action" (S. ANINJYAKARMAN), in which the action has the definite and specific effect of bringing about rebirth in either the subtle-materiality or immaterial heavens. The immovable action that would result in rebirth in, for example, the second concentration of the subtle-materiality realm, is the achievement of that specific state of dhyāna as a human in the immediately preceding lifetime. This realm is called the "subtle-materiality realm" because the beings there are free of the desires of the sensuous realm yet retain at least some semblance of physicality, albeit extremely subtle, and have a vestigial attachment to form (RuPA). Only three of the five sensory objects remain in the subtle-materiality realm: visual objects, auditory objects, and objects of touch; hence, the deities there have only three physical sense organs, of sight, hearing, and touch. Each of the four concentrations of the subtle-materiality realm has its own sublevels, with three levels in the the first heaven, three in the second, three in the third, and eight in the fourth, totaling seventeen. In each ascending level, the heaven is situated farther above Mount Sumeru, the height of its beings grows taller, and their life spans increase. Although the characteristics of the various heavens within the subtle-materiality realm are described in some detail, the greater emphasis in Buddhist literature is on the states of meditative absorption that characterize each, how they are achieved, and how they differ from each other, with particular attention paid to the highest of the four, the fourth dhyāna of the subtle-materiality realm. The first three absorptions are characterized by a feeling of physical rapture (PRĪTI) and mental ease or bliss (SUKHA), whereas the fourth and subtlest of these dhyānas is characterized by one-pointedness of mind (CITTAIKĀGRATĀ) and equanimity (UPEKsĀ). It is therefore considered an ideal state from which to achieve NIRVĀnA: for example, when the Buddha entered PARINIRVĀnA, his mind passed through each of the four subtle-materiality and immaterial absorptions before passing into nirvāna directly from the fourth absorption. The fourth absorption also received particular attention as a place of rebirth. While the first three concentrations each have only three divisions, the fourth concentration has eight, with the additional five reserved for those beings who become ĀRYA, or noble beings, through direct insight into the nature of reality. In the fourfold division of noble persons (ĀRYAPUDGALA; viz., stream-enterer, once-returner, nonreturner, and ARHAT), the nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN) is defined as that noble person who is never again reborn in the sensuous realm. Such a person may be reborn in the subtle-materiality realm, however, and the upper five heavens of the fourth absorption are a special place of rebirth called the pure abodes (sUDDHĀVĀSA) that are reserved just for such beings. See also DEVA.

sābhisaMskāraparinirvāyin. (T. mngon par 'du byed dang bcas pa yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa; C. youxing banniepan; J. ugyohatsunehan; K. yuhaeng panyolban 有行般涅槃). In Sanskrit, "one who achieves NIRVĀnA through effort"; a particular sort of nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN), one of the twenty members of the ĀRYASAMGHA (see VIMsATIPRABHEDASAMGHA). According to the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHĀsYA, the sābhisaMskāraparinirvāyin are nonreturners who, having achieved any of the sixteen birth states of the immaterial realm (ĀRuPYADHĀTU), enter "nirvāna with remainder" (SOPADHIsEsANIRVĀnA) at that support, but only after they have made a conscious effort and applied a little force. This differentiates them from the UPAPADYAPARINIRVĀYIN and the ANABHISAMSKĀRAPARINIRVĀYIN.

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.

sahasrara ::: Sahasrara The 7th chakra, the thousand-petalled spiritual energy center at the crown of the head (the cranial chamber of the soul body), where one experiences the highest states of consciousness.

Samadbi or Yogic trance retires to increasing depths accord* lag as it dran^ farther and farther away from the nonnal or waking state and enters into degrees of consciousness less and less communicable to the waking mind, less and less ready to receive a summons from the waking world. Beyond a certain point the trance becomes complete and it is then almost or quite impossible to awaken or calf back the soul that has receded into them ; it can only come back by its own will or at most by a violent shock of physical appeal dangerous to the sj'stem owing to the abrupt upheaval of return. There are said to be supreme states of trance in which the soul persisting for too long a lime cannot return ; for it loses its hold on the cord which binds it to the consciousness of life, and the body is left, maintained indeed in its set position, not dead by dissolution, but incapable of recovering the ensouled life which had rnhahifed it. finally, the Yogin acquires at a certain stage of development the power of abandoning his body definitively without the ordinary pheno- mena of death, by an act of will, or by a process of withdrawing the pranic life-force through the gate of the upward life-current

samadhi ::: concentration; trance; the last member of the vijñana samadhi catus.t.aya: the placing of the consciousness in particular conditions that give it access to larger fields of experience, so that "one can become aware of things in this world outside our ordinary range or go into other worlds or other planes of existence". The term samadhi includes three principal states corresponding to those of waking (jagrat), dream (svapna) and deep sleep (sus.upti), but it is applied especially to states of consciousness "in which the mind is withdrawn from outward things" and is often equivalent to svapnasamadhi

Samadhi or Yogic trance retires to increasing depths according as it draws farther and farther away from the normal or waking state and enters into degrees of consciousness less and less communicable to the waking mind, less and less ready to receive a summons from the waking world. Beyond a certain point the trance becomes complete and it is then almost or quite impossible to awaken or call back the soul that has receded into them; it can only come back by its own will or at most by a violent shock of physical appeal dangerous to the system owing to the abrupt upheaval of return. There are said to be supreme states of trance in which the soul persisting for too long a time cannot return; for it loses its hold on the cord which binds it to the consciousness of life, and the body is left, maintained indeed in its set position, not dead by dissolution, but incapable of recovering the ensouled life which had inhabited it. Finally, the Yogin acquires at a certain stage of development the power of abandoning his body definitively without the ordinary phenomena of death, by an act of will,1 or by a process of withdrawing the pranic life-force through the gate of the upward life-current (udana), opening for it a way through the mystic brahmarandhra in the head. By departure from life in the state of Samadhi he attains directly to that higher status of being to which he aspires.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 520-21


samādhi. (T. ting nge 'dzin; C. sanmei; J. sanmai; K. sammae 三昧). In Sanskrit, "concentration"; a foundational term in Buddhist meditation theory and practice, which is related to the ability to establish and maintain one-pointedness of mind (CITTAIKĀGRATĀ) on a specific object of concentration. The SARVĀSTIVĀDA school of ABHIDHARMA and the YOGĀCĀRA school list samādhi as one of a group of five determinative (VINIYATA) mental concomitants (CAITTA), whose function is to aid the mind in ascertaining or determining its object. The five are: aspiration or desire-to-act (CHANDA), determination or resolve (ADHIMOKsA), mindfulness or memory (SMṚTI), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom or cognition (PRAJNĀ). According to ASAnGA, these five determinative factors accompany wholesome (KUsALA) states of mind, so that if one is present, all are present. In Pāli ABHIDHAMMA materials, concentration is one of the seven mental factors (P. cetasika) that are invariably associated with all moments of consciousness (CITTA, MANAS, or VIJNĀNA). Concentration occurs in many other important lists, including as the second of the three trainings (TRIsIKsĀ), and the last stage of the eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA). Concentration is distinguished according to the quality of consciousness with which it is associated. "Right concentration" (SAMYAKSAMĀDHI, P. sammāsamādhi) is concentration associated with wholesome (KUsALA) states of mind; it is listed not only as one element of the eightfold noble path, but as one of seven factors of enlightenment (BODHYAnGA, P. bojjhanga), and, in an incipient state, as one of five powers (BALA) and the other categories that together make up the BODHIPĀKsIKADHARMA (thirty-seven factors associated with awakening). High degrees of concentration can be developed through the practice of meditation (BHĀVANĀ). Concentration of such intensity receives the designation "one-pointedness of mind" (cittaikāgratā). When developed to its greatest degree, mental concentration leads to the attainment of DHYĀNA (P. JHĀNA), "meditative absorption." It is also the main mental factor defining the four magical powers (ṚDDHIPĀDA, P. iddhipāda). The cultivation of concentration for the purposes of attaining meditative absorption is called tranquillity meditation (sAMATHA). In the Pāli abhidhamma, three levels of concentration are distinguished in the practice of tranquility meditation: (1) preparatory concentration (PARIKAMMASAMĀDHI) is the degree of concentration established at the beginning of a meditation session. (2) Access or neighborhood concentration (UPACĀRASAMĀDHI) arises just as the practitioner approaches but does not enter the first level of meditative absorption; it is marked by the appearance in the mind of a representational image (PAtIBHĀGANIMITTA) of the object of meditation. (3) "Attainment" or "full" concentration (APPANĀSAMĀDHI) is the level of concentration that arises upon entering and abiding in any of the meditative absorptions. In the MAHĀYĀNA sutras, a wide variety of profound meditative experiences are described as samādhis and are mentioned as attainments of the bodhisattva as he ascends through the ten BHuMIs. The MAHĀVYUTPATTI lists 118 different samādhis that are specified by name in the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀ sutras, such as candravimala (stainless moon), sarvadharmodgata (surpassing all dharmas), siMhavikrīdita (lion's play), anantaprabha (limitless light), and acala (immovable). See also YATHĀBHuTAJNĀNADARsANA.

samadhi ::: Yogic trance (in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness); [in the Gita]: calm, desireless, griefless fixity of the buddhi in self-poise and self-knowledge. ::: samadhih [nominative]

samāpatti. (T. snyom 'jug; C. dengzhi/zhengshou; J. toji/shoju; K. tŭngji/chongsu 等至/正受). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "attainment" or "trance," a state of deep concentration produced through the practice of meditation; the term literally means "correct entrance." Specifically, samāpatti refers to eight levels of attainment, which correlate with the eight meditative absorptions (DHYĀNA), the four absorptions of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPĀVACARADHYĀNA) and the four of the immaterial realm (ĀRuPYĀVACARADHYĀNA). However, unlike the dhyāna model, samāpatti may also add a ninth attainment, called either the attainment of the cessation of perception and sensation (SAMJNĀVEDAYITANIRODHA) or the trance of cessation (NIRODHASAMĀPATTI). The four attainments of the realm of subtle materiality are named for the order in which they occur. Thus, in ascending order, they are the first concentration (prathamadhyāna, P. pathamajjhāna), the second concentration (dvitīyadhyāna, P. dutiyajjhāna), the third concentration (tṛtīyadhyāna, P. tatiyajjhāna), and the fourth concentration (caturthadhyāna, P. catutthajjhāna). The four levels of the immaterial realm are the attainment of the sphere of boundless space (ākāsānantyāyatanasamāpatti, P. ākāsānanNcāyatanasamāpatti), attainment of the sphere of boundless consciousness (vijNānānantyāyatanasamāpatti, P. vinNnNānānNcāyatanasamāpatti), attainment of the sphere of nothingness (ākinNcanyāyatanasamāpatti, P. ākiNcaNNāyatanasamāpatti), and attainment of the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception (naivasaMjNānāsaMjNāyatanasamāpatti, P. nevasanNNānāsaNNāyatanasamāpatti). As indicated earlier, a ninth stage, the attainment of the cessation of perception and sensation (saMjNāvedayitanirodha) or the attainment of cessation (nirodhasamāpatti), is often added to these latter four. These eight or nine states are also known as the "successive dwellings" (anupurvavihāra). By achieving one of these states of absorption through the practice of meditation while still a human being, one will be reborn in the respective level of these realms of existence in the next lifetime. Similar samāpatti schemes, which present stratified levels of meditative attainment, also appear in non-Buddhist yogic systems. See also ASAMJNĀSAMĀPATTI.

saMjNāvedayitanirodha. (P. saNNāvedayitanirodha; T. 'du shes dang tshor ba 'gog pa; C. xiangshou mie; J. sojumetsu; K. sangsu myol 想受滅). In Sanskrit, lit. "the suppression (NIRODHA) of perception (SAMJNĀ) and sensation (vedayita)"; an experience specific to states of deep meditative attainment (e.g., SAMĀPATTI). The term refers to the last in a series of nine stratified meditative attainments (samāpatti), which involve the progressive suppression (S. anupurvanirodha, P. anupubbanirodha) of subtle elements that constitute conscious experience. The series begins with the first DHYĀNA, in which the awareness of all sense objects is temporarily allayed, and culminates in a state "beyond" the last of the four immaterial absorptions (ĀRuPYĀVACARADHYĀNA), where there is the cessation of all sensations and perceptions. SaMjNāvedayitanirodha is understood to be an experience of consciousness in its purest form, without any attributes or objects to distort it. Despite being free of content and/or objects, however, consciousness is still said to persist in some form. In VASUBANDHU's Mahāyānasatadharmavidyādvārasāstra ("Mahāyāna Treatise on Entry into Knowledge of the Hundred Dharmas"), Vasubandhu lists saMjNāvedayitanirodha as one of six unconditioned factors (ASAMSKṚTADHARMA). See also NIRODHASAMĀPATTI.

samyakpradhāna. (P. sammāpadhāna; T. yang dag par spong ba; C. zhengqin; J. shogon; K. chonggŭn 正勤). In Sanskrit, "right effort" or "correct effort"; in Tibetan (which reads the term as PRAHĀnA), "right abandonment." There are four right efforts, which are set forth within the presentation of the second set of dharmas making up the thirty-seven constituents of enlightenment (BODHIPĀKsIKADHARMA). The four pradhānas (efforts or, as prahāna, abandonments) describe effort at incipient stages of the path or religious training; by contrast, right effort (SAMYAKVYĀYĀMA), the sixth constituent of the eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA), denotes the effort or abandonment that occurs during the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA) or the path of cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA), when the path is more fully developed. Pradhāna involves the effort to abandon unwholesome (AKUsALA) mental states-and their resulting actions via body, speech, and mind-that are conducive to suffering. Simultaneously, samyakpradhāna encompasses the effort to cultivate those wholesome (KUsALA) mental states that are conducive to happiness for both oneself and others. These wholesome mental states are characterized by mindfulness (SMṚTI), energy (VĪRYA), rapture (PRĪTI), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and equanimity (UPEKsĀ). At the first stage of practice, the focus is on SMṚTI, which, as the foundations of mindfulness (SMṚTYUPASTHĀNA), involves mindfulness of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS as applied to the body, sensations, states of mind, and wholesome and unwholesome dharmas. At the second stage of the practice, the focus is on the effort needed to develop samādhi. When fully developed in the mind of the awakened person, the practice of mindfulness is called right mindfulness; concentration, rapture, and equanimity are included under right concentration; and energy is called right effort (samyakvyāyāma).

SaMyuttanikāya. (S. SaMyuktāgama; T. Yang dag par ldan pa'i lung; C. Za ahan jing; J. Zoagongyo; K. Chap aham kyong 雜阿含經). In Pāli, "Collection of Related Discourses" (or in its nineteenth-century translation Book of Kindred Sayings); the third of the five divisions of the Pāli SUTTAPItAKA and corresponds roughly to the SAMYUKTĀGAMA of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA and KĀsYAPĪYA schools, which is now extant only in its Chinese translations. The Pāli recension is comprised of some 2,872 individual suttas. Because of questions as to what constitutes a sutta in this case (some are only one sentence in length), enumerations of the number of suttas in the various saMyutta/saMyukta collections vary widely, from just under three thousand to over seven thousand (the longer of the two Chinese recensions contains 1,362 sutras). The SaMyuttanikāya is divided into five chapters, or vaggas, which are subdivided into fifty-six saMyuttas, arranged largely by subject matter. The collection derives its title from this classificatory system. The five vaggas are devoted to: (1) verses (sagātha), suttas that in the majority of cases contain verses; (2) causation (NIDĀNA), suttas that deal primarily with epistemology and psychology; (3) the aggregates (P. khandha, S. SKANDHA) on the five aggregates; (4) the six sense-fields (P. salāyatana, S. sAdĀYATANA), dealing with the six sources of consciousness; and (5) the great division (mahāvagga), which contains suttas on the noble eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA), the states of concentration (DHYĀNA), the establishments of mindfulness (SMṚTYUPASTHĀNA), and other important doctrines.

Sandpiling ::: A technique, the name of which was put forward by the sorceror Jason Miller, for breaking through mundane states of consciousness through a piling of awareness of self upon a single point of focus. This is a technique that can be used to attune to the Mental Plane.

sanmei jing. (S. samādhisutra; J. sanmaikyo; K. sammae kyong 三昧經). In Chinese, "SAMĀDHI scriptures"; a category of MAHĀYĀNA sutras that are primarily or exclusively concerned with the practice or experience of meditation (SAMĀDHI), or whose title contains the term sanmei. The earliest reference to sanmei jing as a scriptural category appears in the oldest extant Chinese scriptural catalogue, CHU SANZANG JIJI ("Compilation of Notices on the Translation of the TRIPItAKA"), compiled by SENGYOU (445-518) around 515; there, Sengyou remarks that Zhu Fahu (DHARMARAKsA) translated several sanmei jings. The Chinese Buddhist canon (DAZANGJING) contains more than fifty sutras that use the term sanmei in their titles. These include sanmei jings whose Sanskrit titles do not use the term samādhi and to which the term sanmei was added when these scriptures were translated into Chinese. There are also other scriptures of uncertain provenance whose titles in earlier Chinese translations did not contain the term sanmei. An examination of successive Chinese Buddhist scriptural catalogues (JINGLU) in fact reveals that there were several sutras that circulated first with one title, and later with a revised title that added sanmei to the original. Furthermore, there are a number of indigenous Chinese Buddhist scriptures (see APOCRYPHA), that were not entered into the canon, which call themselves sanmei jing. This phenomenon began early in the history of Chinese Buddhism. DAO'AN's 374 CE scriptural catalogue (ZONGLI ZHONG-JING MULU), which is no longer extant but portions of which are excerpted in Sengyou's Chu sanzang jiji, lists twenty-six scriptures of dubious authenticity; of these, six are titled sanmei jing. Several sanmei jings, such as the Banzhou sanmeijing (S. PRATYUTPANNABUDDHASAMMUKHĀVASTHITASAMĀDHISuTRA), offer instruction regarding the full range of practices involved in cultivating a specific samādhi technique. The majority of sanmei jings, however, are instead concerned with the various states of mind that the Buddha or BODHISATTVAs attained through samādhi, praising that samādhi, and/or emphasizing the merit gained through keeping and transmitting the text of the sanmei jing. The popularity of the sanmei jing genre in Chinese Buddhism can be at least partially attributed to Chinese Buddhists' faith and interest in the religious practice of copying and reciting scriptures, which most sanmei jings encourage as a means of attaining enlightenment. Higher meditative states like samādhi sometime seem ancillary to the topic of certain sanmei jings: the JINGDU SANMEI JING, for example, offers a detailed account of thirty separate levels of the hells and the incumbent punishments meted out there; in order to avoid the torments of hell, the scripture exhorts laypeople not to meditate, but instead to observe the five precepts (PANCAsĪLA) and perform the "eight-restrictions fast" (BAGUAN ZHAI) on specific Chinese seasonal days.

sarvatraga. (T. kun 'gro; C. bianxing; J. hengyo; K. p'yonhaeng 遍行). In Sanskrit, "all-pervasive" or "omnipresent"; referring specifically to the five omnipresent (sarvatraga) mental concomitants (CAITTA) that are present to varying degrees in all conscious states according to the analysis of the YOGĀCĀRA ABHIDHARMA. These five factors are: sensory contact (SPARsA), sensation (VEDANĀ), volition (CETANĀ), perception or discrimination (SAMJNĀ), and attention (MANASKĀRA). It is not possible to identify consciousness or mind (CITTA) except through these omnipresent factors; each has a specific mental function, and when these functions operate together they produce what is conventionally called a conscious state or mind. Thus manaskāra functions as a basic level of mental activity; cetanā functions to make consciousness nonarbitrary, giving consciousness intention relative to its object; sparsa functions to connect consciousness with its object; vedanā extends mere contact into the realm of sentient experience; and saMjNā functions to differentiate and identify a particular object. These five factors are included among the ten MAHĀBHuMIKA dharmas in the seventy-five dharmas of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school. In the Pāli ABHIDHAMMA, there are seven mental factors (P. cetisika) that are associated with all states of consciousness, these five together with concentration (SAMĀDHI) and mental vitality (JĪVITA).

senate ::: n. --> An assembly or council having the highest deliberative and legislative functions.
A body of elders appointed or elected from among the nobles of the nation, and having supreme legislative authority.
The upper and less numerous branch of a legislature in various countries, as in France, in the United States, in most of the separate States of the United States, and in some Swiss cantons.
In general, a legislative body; a state council; the


Sephiroth ::: Also Sephirot and sometimes described as spheres. The singular form is Sephirah (also Sephira and Sefirah). The ten (sometimes eleven if Da'ath is included) states of conscious experience that are used to describe the roadmap of reality that is the Kabbalah. The various levels of these spheres and their interactions with the others seek to encompass all of the detailed and exotic permutations of consciousness and movements of the Universe.

shijue. (J. shikaku; K. sigak 始覺). In Chinese, "acquired," or "actualized enlightenment," one of the two main subdivisions of enlightenment outlined in the DASHENG QIXIN LUN ("Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna"), along with "original" or "inherent enlightenment" (BENJUE). As the Dasheng qixin lun explains, although enlightenment is in fact innate in the mind of any sentient being, that mind is still subject to "production-and-cessation" (shengmie), viz., the continual process of creation and passing away that is inevitable in the conditioned realm of existence (SAMSĀRA). But because that production-and-cessation aspect of mind is itself grounded on the embryo of buddhahood (TATHĀGATAGARBHA), conventional states of mind inherently retain the capacity to be transformed into "true thusness" (ZHENRU), the ultimate state of reality. This transformation takes place through the process of "actualized enlightenment," that is, undertaking religious cultivation, which in the Dasheng qixin lun specifically means serenity and insight meditation (ZHIGUAN) and no-thought practice (WUNIAN). This process of actualizing enlightenment occurs over four stages of cultivation: (1) the "nonenlightenment" (bujue) of the ordinary worldling who has just entered the path at the level of the ten stages of faith (shixin); (2) the "apparent enlightenment" (xiangsijue) of two-vehicle adherents (ER SHENG) and beginning BODHISATTVAs on the stages of the "three worthies" (sanxian), that is, the ten abodes (shizhu), ten practices (shixing), and ten transferences or dedications (shihuixiang); (3) the "approximate enlightenment" (suifen jue) of DHARMAKĀYA bodhisattvas (fashen pusa) at the stage of the first BHuMI and above; and (4) the "ultimate enlightenment" (jiujingjue), which occurs at the consummation of the ten bhumis (pusa jindi). At the completion of this actualization process, however, one realizes that the enlightenment one has achieved through practice is in fact identical to the enlightened dharma-body (DHARMAKĀYA) that has always been innate; thus "actualized enlightenment" is no different from "original enlightenment." Any apparent differences between these two are but a matter of perspective: the innate luminosity and purity of the tathāgatagarbha and dharmakāya are seen as "original" (viz., "intrinsic") by the sage, but as something that must be "actualized" by the ordinary person.

siksā. (P. sikkhā; T. bslab pa; C. xue; J. gaku; K. hak 學). In Sanskrit, "training," a general term for the practice of the dharma. It occurs in two major contexts. The first is the three trainings (TRIsIKsĀ), three overarching categories of Buddhist practice. They are (1) the training in higher morality (ADHIsĪLAsIKsĀ), which encompasses all forms of restraint of body and speech, including lay and monastic precepts that serve as the foundation for the cultivation of concentration and wisdom; (2) the training in higher meditation (ADHISAMĀDHIsIKsĀ, also called adhicittasiksā), which encompasses all forms of meditative practice directed toward the achievement of states of concentration; and (3) the training in higher wisdom (ADHIPRAJNĀsIKsĀ), which includes all study and meditation directed toward developing insight into the nature of reality. The second major denotation appears in the VINAYA, where the term siksā refers to the proper conduct of a monk, nun, novice, or layperson. In this context, siksā means behavior that conduces to following enjoined conduct. For laymen (UPĀSAKA) and laywomen (UPĀSIKĀ), for example, behavior conducive to keeping the five lay precepts (PANCAsĪLA) would include treating even old and discarded cloth from the robe of a monk or nun with respect, making offerings of food and other requisites to monks and nuns, and refraining from privileging any doctrine above the Buddha's teachings.

sīlavisuddhi. (P. sīlavisuddhi; T. tshul khrims rnam par dag pa; C. jingjie; J. jokai; K. chonggye 淨戒). In Sanskrit, "purity of morality." In Pāli sources, the "purity of morality" was the first of seven "purities" (P. VISUDDHI) that were to be developed along the path to liberation. According to the treatment in BUDDHAGHOSA's VISUDDHIMAGGA, purity of morality refers to the proper observance of morality by a monk and is of four kinds: (1) "Morality of restraint according to the monastic code" (P. pātimokkhasaMvarasīla; see S. PRĀTIMOKsASAMVARA); here the monk is perfect in observance of the rules of discipline laid down in the VINAYA, seeing danger in even minor offenses. (2) "Morality of restraint of the senses" (INDRIYASAMVARA-sīla); the monk guards his senses so that unwholesome states of mind do not arise. (3) "Morality of the purity of livelihood" (P. ājīvapārisuddhisīla); the monk refrains from means of support that are not allowed by the rules of discipline. (4) "Morality with regard to the requisites" (P. paccayasannissitasīla); the monk mindfully makes proper use of the four requisites (see NIsRAYA; PARIsKĀRA) allowed to the monk; namely, alms food (PIndAPĀTA), robes (CĪVARA), dwelling places, and medicine. Alms food is to be consumed merely to support the body. Robes are to be used merely to protect the body from heat and cold. Dwelling places are to be used merely to protect the body from the elements and to encourage solitude. Medicine is to be used merely to alleviate symptoms of illness and pain so that the monk may pursue the religious life.

Silk Road. (C. Silu 絲路; J. Shiruku rodo シルクロード; K. Pidan kil 緋緞). Term coined by the German geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877 to describe the ancient caravan routes through Central Asia that connected China, India, Syria, and the Roman Empire; also called the Silk Route. (Translations or transcriptions of the English term are now widely used in Asian languages as well, as in the CJK examples above.) Because silk was among the most highly prized commodities in this East-West trade, von Richthofen chose it as the symbolic designation for these trade routes. Other commodities that were traded along these routes included spices, livestock, perfumes, precious metals, and ceramics. The term Silk Road does not refer to a single road, but rather to a network of major and minor trade routes running through Central Asia that connected East and West. Looked at broadly, the Silk Road ultimately extended as far west as the Mediterranean Sea and as far east as modern Guangzhou (Canton) in China. In addition to facilitating trade, these routes also served as a principal conduit for cultural and religious interaction between the peoples of the different regions of Asia. Thus, it was via the Silk Road that Buddhism migrated out of its Indian homeland and into Central and East Asia; over the centuries, adherents of other religions, such as Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, and eventually Islam, would follow the same routes into India and China. From the Indian subcontinent, the Silk Road led northwest through KASHMIR to the outpost of Kashgar; there, it split, with a western route leading to SOGDIANA and eventually Damascus in the Middle East, and an eastern route leading through Central Asia into China and the rest of East Asia. There were two main routes through the oasis kingdoms of Central Asia, both skirting the Takla Makan desert in the Tarim basin. Starting at the city of Kashgar in the west, the northern route moved along the oases kingdoms of KUCHA, TURFAN, and KIZIL along the Tian Mountains; the southern route traveled along the base of the Kunlun Mountains through Niya and KHOTAN, until both routes reconnected at DUNHUANG, often the farthest outpost of the Chinese empire. From Dunhuang the route continued east until it terminated in the Chinese co-capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang, whence it connected to domestic feeder routes spreading throughout East Asia. Many of these Central Asian city-states were populated by various Indo-European peoples. The only remaining evidence of the long-lost native languages of these peoples are inscriptions and fragments of religious and civil-government manuscripts, such as the Niya documents, Gandhāran texts in the KHAROstHĪ script, documents written in the TOCHARIAN and Kuchean languages, and so on. Scores of these documents were discovered in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In missions that began shortly after the death of the Buddha, Indian Buddhist monks accompanied the trading caravans that plied the overland Silk Road. These missions lasted for centuries and changed the religious and cultural landscape of Asia. Buddhist inscriptions, sculptures, manuscripts, reliquary mounds (STuPA), and paintings have been discovered along the Silk Road. From northwestern India, Buddhism was taken to Central Asia. We find a host of inscriptions, texts, and images in the regions of modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, and the Islamic states of the former Soviet Union. By the first century CE, there existed a network of Buddhist religious centers stretching from northwestern India, to the Tarim basin, and into China. Buddhism entered East Asia along the Silk Road as well. According to Chinese sources, interaction between Indian and Chinese culture began as early as the first century BCE, when an emperor of the Han dynasty-by some accounts Emperor Wu (156-87 BCE), by others Emperor Ming (MINGDI) (r. 58-76 CE)-is said to have sent an emissary to the west along the Silk Road in response to the expansion of the KUSHAN empire to gather evidence of the new religion of Buddhism. In the second century CE, monks from India and the oasis kingdoms along the Silk Road began translating Indian and Central Asian Buddhist texts into Chinese. One of the earliest of these translators was AN SHIGAO, who translated dozens of Indian works into Chinese. In the centuries that followed, East Asian pilgrims such as FAXIAN, XUANZANG, YIJING, and HYECH'O used the Silk Road to make their way back and forth between East Asia and the Buddhist homeland of India. From India, these pilgrims brought back manuscripts, relics, and insights into proper religious practice. Today the travelogues of these East Asian monks provide invaluable information regarding the development of Buddhism in Asia. Of the regions along the Silk Road where Buddhism flourished, China, Tibet, and Mongolia are the only ones where Buddhism survived beyond the first millennium CE. This decline was the result of a number of historical factors, including the revival of brahmanical Hinduism in India and the expansion of Islam into Central Asia.

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

smectite ::: n. --> A hydrous silicate of alumina, of a greenish color, which, in certain states of humidity, appears transparent and almost gelatinous.

smṛti. (P. sati; T. dran pa; C. nian; J. nen; K. yom 念). In Sanskrit, "mindfulness" or "memory" and often seen in Western sources in the Pāli equivalency sati; a polysemous term, but commonly used in meditative contexts to refer to the ability to remain focused on a chosen object without forgetfulness or distraction. The SARVĀSTIVĀDA school of ABHIDHARMA lists smṛti as one of a group of five determinative (VINIYATA) mental concomitants (CAITTA), whose function is to aid the mind in ascertaining or determining its object. The five are: aspiration or desire-to-act (CHANDA), determination or resolve (ADHIMOKsA), mindfulness or memory (smṛti), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom or cognition (PRAJNĀ). According to ASAnGA, these five determinative factors accompany wholesome (KUsALA) states of mind, so that if one is present, all are present. Mindfulness is crucial to all types of formal meditative practice because of its role in bringing clarity to the perceptual process; it leaves the mind in a purely receptive state that inhibits the unwholesome responses to sensory stimuli, such as greed, hatred, and delusion. Mindfulness also contributes to control of the mind, by eliminating distraction and helping the meditator gain mastery of his thought processes. Smṛti is also a catalyst of the related term "circumspection" or "introspection" (SAMPRAJANYA) and ultimately of wisdom (PRAJNĀ). As the third of the five spiritual faculties (PANCENDRIYA), smṛti helps to balance faith (sRADDHĀ) and wisdom (prajNā)-which could degenerate into blind faith or skepticism, respectively-as well as vigor (VĪRYA) and concentration (SAMĀDHI)-which could degenerate respectively into restlessness and indolence. Smṛti is thus the keystone that ensures the uniform development of all five faculties; for this reason, unlike the other four factors, there can never be too much mindfulness, because it cannot degenerate into a negative state. The emphasis on mindfulness is one of the most distinctive features of Buddhist meditation theory. Consequently, the term appears in numerous lists of virtuous qualities, especially in those pertaining to meditation. For example, in perhaps its most popular usage, right mindfulness (SAMYAKSMṚTI) is the seventh of the eight aspects of the noble eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA). Generally in this context, the cultivation of the "foundations of mindfulness" (SMṚTYUPASTHĀNA) is understood to serve as a basis for the development of liberating wisdom (prajñā). Thus, meditation exercises involving smṛti are often discussed in connection with those related to VIPAsYANĀ, or "insight." In one of the most widely read discourses on mindfulness, the MAHĀSATIPAttHĀNASUTTANTA, the Buddha offers four specific foundations of mindfulness training, namely, on the body (KĀYA), sensations (VEDANĀ), mental states (CITTA), and specific factors (P. dhamma; S. DHARMA). In his Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayanāmatīkā, a commentary on the PRAJNĀPĀRAMITĀHṚDAYASuTRA ("Heart Sutra"), KAMALAsĪLA lists mindfulness as the third of five "powers" (BALA) that are attained on the path of preparation (PRAYOGAMĀRGA). In another popular schema, smṛti is listed as the first of seven "limbs of awakening" or factors of enlightenment (BODHYAnGA); these are seven factors that contribute to enlightenment. See also ANUSMṚTI; SMṚTYUPASTHĀNA; SATIPAttHANASUTTA.

sopadhisesanirvāna. (P. sopādisesanibbāna; T. phung po lhag ma dang bcas pa'i mya ngan las 'das pa/lhag bcas myang 'das; C. youyu niepan; J. uyonehan; K. yuyo yolban 有餘涅槃). In Sanskrit, "nirvāna with remainder"; one of the two kinds of NIRVĀnA, along with the "nirvāna without remainder" (ANUPADHIsEsANIRVĀnA), "with remainder" here meaning the residue of the aggregates (SKANDHA). At the time of his enlightenment under the BODHI TREE, the Buddha achieved the nirvāna with remainder, because he had destroyed all causes for future rebirth, but the "remainder" of his mind and body, viz., a substratum (UPADHI) of existence, persisted. At the time of his death, there was nothing more of the skandhas remaining, thus producing the "nirvāna without remainder," a synonym for PARINIRVĀnA. According to those MAHĀYĀNA schools which assert that there is only one vehicle (EKAYĀNA) and that all sentient beings will achieve buddhahood, ARHATs who appear to enter the nirvāna without remainder at death actually do not do so; for if they did, it would be impossible for them to enter the bodhisattva path. Instead, they enter the uncontaminated realm (ANĀSRAVADHĀTU), where they remain in states of deep concentration (inside lotus flowers according to some texts) until they are roused by the buddhas and exhorted to abandon their "unafflicted ignorance" (AKLIstĀJNĀNA) and proceed on the path to buddhahood. ¶ In a *PRĀSAnGIKA-MADHYAMAKA interpretation, the vision of reality free from all elaborations (PRAPANCA) or dualistic subject-object conceptualization (GRĀHYAGRĀHAKAVIKALPA) in a state of absorption or equipoise (samāhitajNāna)-a state that occurs on the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA) and the path of cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA)-is referred to as "nirvāna without remainder," because there is no appearance of any conventional reality (SAMVṚTI) while the meditator is in that state. In the subsequent state (PṚstHALABDHAJNĀNA), conventional reality reappears; this state is called nirvāna with remainder. In this explanation, upadhi means any appearance of conventional reality.

southerner ::: n. --> An inhabitant or native of the south, esp. of the Southern States of North America; opposed to Northerner.

spirality ::: n. --> The quality or states of being spiral.

spiritual ::: a. --> Consisting of spirit; not material; incorporeal; as, a spiritual substance or being.
Of or pertaining to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental; intellectual.
Of or pertaining to the moral feelings or states of the soul, as distinguished from the external actions; reaching and affecting the spirits.
Of or pertaining to the soul or its affections as


srāvakabhumi. (T. Nyan thos kyi sa; C. Shengwen di; J. Shomonji; K. Songmun chi 聲聞地). In Sanskrit, the "Stage of the Listener" or "Stage of the Disciple," a work by ASAnGA included in the first and main section (Bahubhumika/Bhumivastu, "Multiple Stages") of his massive compendium, the YOGĀCĀRABHuMI. The work, which also circulated as an independent text, deals with practices associated with the sRĀVAKA (disciples) and consists of four major sections (yogasthāna), which treat spiritual lineage (GOTRA), different types of persons (PUDGALA), preparation for practice (PRAYOGA), and the mundane path (LAUKIKAMĀRGA) and supramundane path (LOKATTARAMĀRGA). The first yogasthāna on spiritual lineage is divided into three parts. First, the stage of lineage (gotrabhumi) discusses the spiritual potentiality or lineage (gotra) of the srāvaka from four standpoints: its intrinsic nature, its establishment or definition (vyavasthāna), the marks (LInGA) characterizing the persons belonging to that lineage, and the classes of people in that lineage. Second, the stage of entrance (avatārabhumi) discusses the stage where the disciple enters upon the practice; like the previous part, this section treats this issue from these same four standpoints. Third, the stage of deliverance (naiskramyabhumi) explains the stage where the disciple, after severing the bonds of the sensual realm (KĀMADHĀTU), practices to obtain freedom from passion (VAIRĀGYA) by following either the mundane or supramundane path; this section subsequently discusses thirteen collections or equipment (saMbhāra) necessary to complete both paths, such as sensory restraint, controlling food intake, etc. This stage of deliverance (naiskramyabhumi) continues over the second through fourth yogasthānas to provide an extended treatment of sravāka practice. The second yogasthāna discusses the theoretical basis of sravāka practice in terms of persons (pudgala), divided into nineteen subsections on such subjects as the classes of persons who cultivate the sravāka path, meditative objects, descriptions of various states of concentration (SAMĀDHI), hindrances to meditation, etc. The third yogasthāna concerns the preliminary practices (prayoga) performed by these persons, describing in detail the process of training. This process begins by first visiting a teacher. If that teacher identifies him as belonging to the srāvaka lineage, the practitioner should then cultivate in five ways: (1) guarding and accumulating the requisites of samādhi (samādhisaMbhāra-raksopacaya), (2) selection (prāvivekya), (3) one-pointedness of mind (CITTAIKĀGRATĀ), (4) elimination of hindrances (ĀVARAnA-visuddhi), and (5) cultivation of correct mental orientation (MANASKĀRA-bhāvanā). Among these five, the section on cittaikāgratā contains one of the most detailed discussions in Sanskrit sources of the meditative procedures for the cultivation of sAMATHA and VIPAsYANĀ. In the fourth yogasthāna, the practitioner, who has accomplished the five stages of application (prayoga), proceeds to either the mundane (laukika) or supramundane (lokottara) path. On the mundane path, the practitioner is said to be reborn into the various heavens of the subtle-materiality realm (RuPADHĀTU) or the immaterial realm (ĀRuPYADHĀTU) by cultivating the four subtle-materiality meditative absorptions (RuPĀVACARADHYĀNA) or the four immaterial meditative absorptions (ĀRuPYĀVACARADHYĀNA). On the supramundane path, the sravāka practices to attain the stage of worthy one (ARHAT) by relying on the insight of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (catvāry āryasatyāni). See also BODHISATTVABHuMI.

Sri Aurobindo: "Hell and heaven are often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it constructs about it after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with joyful or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which create the necessary affinities, but the idea of reward or retribution is a crude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error.” Letters on Yoga

sronāparānta. (P. Sunāparanta; C. Shuluna; J. Shurona; K. Surona 輸盧那). The region lying along the Narmadā River and traversing the present western Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, most likely identical to Aparanta. The elder PuRnA (P. Punna) hailed from sronāparānta. According to the Pāli legend, the elder Punna once invited the Buddha to accept the donation of a sandalwood monastery constructed by the inhabitants of Sunāparanta. The Buddha accepted this offer and traveled there by flying, accompanied by a host of 499 arhats. Along the way he descended to Saccabaddha (S. Satyabaddha) mountain and converted the sage dwelling there. The Burmese (Myanmar) identify Sunāparanta as a portion of their homeland named Sunāparanta-Tambdīpa along the northern reaches of the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) river basin in Upper Burma. On the basis of the Punna legend, Burmese chroniclers also claim that Buddhism was established among the Burmese during the lifetime of the Buddha and therefore is older than the Buddhism of Sri Lanka. Later Burmese chroniclers also identify Sunāparanta with Aparanta, thus allowing them to claim that their homeland received the AsOKA-era Buddhist mission of the Yavana (Greek) Dharmaraksita (P. Yonaka Dhammarakkhita).

State: (Lat. status, Ital. stato; the term introduced by Machiavelli) A political organization based upon a common territory and exercising control over the inhabitants of that territory. Essential for a state is the existence of a government, and in the "legal state", a written or unwritten constitution. By the pure theory of law (Kelsen), the state is identified with law. By others (Duguit) considered a mere fiction, devised to conceal the matter of fact preponderance of particular persons or groups. The state is sometimes explained as the positive or actual organization of the legislative or judicial powers. (In America also: one of the commonwealths which form the United States of America, Brazil, Mexico). -- W.E.

States of nature – Refers to those conditions that are likely to occur and over which the decision maker has no control.

states ::: States are fleeting, temporary aspects of phenomena found in all four quadrants. In the Upper Left, for example, there are the three great natural states of waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep; meditative states; and peak experiences (all of which can be accessed by virtually any level of development). Other examples of states include brain states in the Upper Right; cultural states (e.g., mass hysteria) in the Lower Left; and weather states in the Lower Right.

Substantive States: (Lat. substantivus, self-existent) Substantive states of mind in contrast to transitive or relational states are the temporary resting places in the flow of the stream of thought. The term was introduced by W. James (The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, pp. 243-8). -- L.W.

subtle body ::: The mass-energy support (or “body”) for such states of consciousness as meditation with form, savikalpa samadhi, the chonyid bardo, and the dreaming state. The term “subtle” technically refers only to this mass-energy but is sometimes broadly used to refer to states of consciousness supported by the subtle body. See gross body and causal body.

Summation, Psychic: (Lat. summa, sum) Fusion or combination of separate states of mind to form a new whole. See Fusion, Psychic. -- L.W.

Sushupti (Sanskrit) Suṣupti [from su well, good, fine + supti sleep] Fast asleep, deep sleep; the deep sleeping state when human consciousness is plunged into profound self-oblivion, “when the percipient consciousness enters into the purely manasic condition . . .” (OG 72). Sushupti is the third of the four states of consciousness mentioned in yoga philosophy, the others being jagrat, svapna, and turiya.

Suspended Animation Cases of extreme insensibility where the vital activity has temporarily ceased, and the person appears to be dead. Outstanding examples are seen in persons resuscitated from drowning; in cases of those Oriental fakirs who are revived after being buried alive for days or weeks; and in those spiritual adepts who leave their body at will, and consciously go thousands of miles in their mayavi-rupa (thought-body). In the higher degrees of initiation, the trained initiant leaves his protected body while, in his higher nature, he traverses extraterrestrial spheres of existence. The adept comes and goes when the occasion justifies the effort, because his lives of training and aspiration have made him master of his lower nature, and enabled him to live and act in his liberated spiritual principle. These and other states of suspended animation show that the conscious existence of the inner man is not dependent upon his physical body.

svarga. (P. sagga; T. mtho ris; C. tianshang; J. tenjo; K. ch'onsang 天上). In Sanskrit, "heaven," the realm of the divinities within the cycle of rebirth (SAMSĀRA). The terms encompasses the six heavens of the sensuous realm (KĀMADHĀTU) as well as the heavens of the subtle-materiality realm (RuPADHĀTU) and the immaterial realm (ĀRuPYADHĀTU). Although sublime states, none of these are permanent abodes; the beings reborn there eventually die and are reborn elsewhere when the causes that led to their celestial births are exhausted. However, the Buddha repeatedly teaches the virtues that result in rebirth in heaven, and such rebirth has been one of the primary goals of Buddhist practice, especially among the laity, throughout the history of Buddhism. Rebirth as a divinity (DEVA) is presumed to be the reward of wholesome acts (KUsALA-KARMAN) performed in previous lives and is thus considered a salutary, if provisional, religious goal. For example, in his typical "graduated discourse" (P. ANUPUBBIKATHĀ) the Buddha uses the prospect of heavenly rebirth, and its attendant pleasures, as one means of attracting laypersons to the religious life. Despite the many appealing attributes of these heavenly beings, such as their physical beauty, comfortable lives, and long life spans, even heavenly existence is ultimately unsatisfactory because it does not offer permanent release from the continued cycle of birth and death (SAMSĀRA). Since devas are merely enjoying the rewards of their previous good deeds rather than performing new wholesome actions, they are considered to be spiritually stagnant, such that when the karmic effect of the deed that led to rebirth in heaven is exhausted, they are inevitably reborn in a lower realm of existence (GATI), perhaps even in one of the baleful destinies (DURGATI). For these reasons, Buddhist soteriological literature sometimes condemns religious practice performed solely for the goal of achieving rebirth in the heavens. It is only in certain higher level of the heavens, such as the those belonging to the five pure abodes (sUDDHĀVĀSA), that beings are not subject to further rebirth, because they have already eliminated all the fetters (SAMYOJANA) associated with that realm and are destined to achieve ARHATship. ¶ In traditional Indian cosmology, the heavens of the sensuous realm are thought to rest on and extend far above the peak of Mt. SUMERU, the axis mundi of the universe. They are ranked according to their elevation, so the higher the heaven, the greater the enjoyments of their inhabitants. The lowest of these heavens is the heaven of the four heavenly kings (CĀTURMAHĀRĀJAKĀYIKA), who are protectors of the dharma (DHARMAPĀLA). The highest is the heaven of the divinities who have power over the creations of others, or the divinities who partake of the pleasures created in other heavens (PARANIRMITAVAsAVARTIN), which is said to be the heaven where MĀRA resides. TUsITA, the heaven into which sĀKYAMUNI was born as the divinity sVETAKETU in his penultimate life, is the fourth of the kāmadhātu heavens, in ascending order. ¶ The heavens of the subtle-materiality realm are grouped into four categories that correspond to the four stratified levels of DHYĀNA-states of profound meditative concentration. Thus, rebirth into any one of these heavens is dependent on the attainment of the dhyāna to which it corresponds in the immediately preceding lifetime. Each of the four dhyāna has various heavens. The lowest of these heavens is the heaven of brahmā's retainers (BRAHMAKĀYIKA), which corresponds to the first subtle-materiality absorption (RuPĀVACARADHYĀNA), and the highest is the highest heaven (AKANIstHA), which is also classified as one of the "pure abodes," or sUDDHĀVĀSA. ¶ The heavens of the immaterial realm similarly correspond to the four immaterial dhyānas (ĀRuPYĀVACARADHYĀNA), beginning with the sphere of infinite space (ĀKĀsĀNANTYĀYATANA) and so on up to the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception (NAIVASAMJNĀNĀSAMJNĀYATANA). As noted, despite their many enjoyments, none of these realms is eternal and all are thus understood to fall within the realm of saMsāra. For a full account of all the heavens, see DEVA.

Table-turning The spiritualistic or astral phenomenon of motion produced in a table when the sitters at a seance hold their hands over or on it, and varying from risings into the air and movings around the room, to giving tilts in answer to code-questions. Ordinary Occidental intelligence seems incapable of imagining anything between a purely mechanical action and a full-blown human intelligence. The phenomena are usually supposed to be either due to tricks or some kind of unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitters, or to be spirits of the departed. But there are a variety of degrees between physical mechanism and self-conscious volition, just as there are multitudes of living beings in widely differing states of materiality filling the gap between physical organisms and the spirits of the departed. The astral light is filled with an enormous variety of beings, mostly of a low type, not using physical bodies, not human in their nature, but having a sort of consciousness of their own; and the conditions provided by the vitality of the medium and sitters may vitalize, stimulate, and to a certain extent direct, these beings and thus at times cause them to become active in the production of physical phenomena. Again, the human organism in all its ranges itself is composed of a vast number of elements, physical, astral, etc., which in normal life are held together in a unit and in subordination to the general life of the person. Some of these elements may become temporarily extruded, especially in natural mediums or those who have cultivated mediumship; and thus the phenomena may be caused unintelligently or ignorantly by the sitters themselves — and just here is the instrumental cause of nearly all the physical phenomena produced by mediums, or mediums and sitters together.

tanmatras ::: the five subtle properties of Energy or Matter; the five subtle energies whose action puts the sensory consciousness in relation to the gross forms of matter: sound, touch, form, taste and smell; [sometimes considered to be the five elemental states of substance (pancabhuta) ].

Tattvasiddhi. [alt. Tattvasiddhi-nāma-prakarana] (T. De kho na nyid grub pa zhes bya ba'i rab tu byed pa). In Sanskrit, "Proof of Reality"; a work of tantric philosophy, extant in Sanskrit, attributed to the eighth-century Indian master sĀNTARAKsITA. The text presents a philosophical argument in support of the achievement of the states of yogic perception (YOGIPRATYAKsA) and bliss (SUKHA) through tantric practice, citing a number of early tantras by name. In the work, the author argues that bodhisattvas endowed with PRAJNĀ and UPĀYA are not bound by ethical conventions.

. t.aya (lipi chatusthaya) ::: lipi seen in the four states of samadhi: bahirdarsi jagrat, antardarsi jagrat, svapnasamadhi and sus.upti.

The states of matter give clues by means of correspondence to the understanding of the primary elements. Gases are indefinitely expansible and their particles have great freedom and range of movement and are always in rapid motion. It would seem by analogy that the solid state corresponds to the physical planes, the liquid state to the astral or psychic plane, air to mind, and fire to spirit. Air may be called the vehicle of fire, as mind is the vehicle of spirit. Fire is analogous to points or foci of energy; air, being number two, suggests lines of force or radiation, motion. The air which, according to the teaching of the medieval Fire-philosophers, is the domain of sylphs is certainly not our familiar mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, which is merely a correspondence of the element on our plane; it is when on our own astral air plane that these beings may be encountered.

  “The lack of any mutual agreement between writers in the use of this word has resulted in dire confusion. It is commonly made synonymous with soul; and the lexicographers countenance the usage. In Theosophical teachings the term ‘Spirit’ is applied solely to that which belongs directly to Universal Consciousness, and which is its homogeneous and unadulterated emanation. Thus, the higher Mind in Man or his Ego (Manas) is when linked indissolubly with Buddhi, a spirit; while the term ‘Soul,’ human or even animal (the lower Manas acting in animals as instinct), is applied only to Kama-Manas, and qualified as the living soul. This is nephesh, is Hebrew, the ‘breath of life.’ Spirit is formless and immaterial, being, when individualised, of the highest spiritual substance — Suddasatwa [Suddha-sattva], the divine essence, of which the body of the manifesting highest Dhyanis are formed. Therefore, the Theosophists reject the appellation ‘Spirits’ for those phantoms which appear in the phenomenal manifestation of the Spiritualists, and call them ‘shells,’ and various other names. (See Suksham Sarira [sukshma-sarira].) Spirit, in short, is no entity in the sense of having form; for, as Buddhist philosophy has it, where there is a form, there is a cause for pain and suffering. But each individual spirit — this individuality lasting only throughout the manvantaric life-cycle — may be described as a centre of consciousness, a self-sentient and self-conscious centre; a state, not a conditioned individual. This is why there is such a wealth of words in Sanskrit to express the different States of Being, Beings and Entities, each appellation showing the philosophical difference, the plane to which such unit belongs, and the degree of its spirituality or materiality. Unfortunately these terms are almost untranslatable into our Western tongues” (TG 306-7).

Theosis ::: What occurs when higher states of gnosis are stabilized into stages of awareness. The blossoming of gnosis into the most perfect expression of consciousness.

The reason we cannot remain continuously in the waking state, but must seek another aspect of consciousness during sleep, is that “our senses are all dual, and act according to the plane of consciousness on which the thinking entity energizes. Physical sleep affords the greatest facility for its action on the various planes; at the same time it is a necessity, in order that the senses may recuperate and obtain a new lease of life for the Jagrata, or waking state, from the Svapna and Sushupti. . . . As a man exhausted by one state of the life fluid seeks another; as, for example, when exhausted by the hot air he refreshes himself with cool water; so sleep is the shady nook in the sunlit valley of life. Sleep is a sign that waking life has become too strong for the physical organism, and that the force of the life current must be broken by changing the waking for the sleeping state. Ask a good clairvoyant to describe the aura of a person just refreshed by sleep, and that of another just before going to sleep. The former will be seen bathed in rhythmical vibrations of life currents — golden, blue, and rosy; these are the electrical waves of Life. The latter is, as it were, in a mist of intense golden-orange hue, composed of atoms whirling with an almost incredible spasmodic rapidity, showing that the person begins to be too strongly saturated with Life; the life essence is too strong for his physical organs, and he must seek relief in the shadowy side of that essence, which side is the dream element, or physical sleep, one of the states of consciousness” (TBL 58).

..the release from subconscient ignorance and from disease, duration of life at will, and a change in the functioning of the body must be among the ultimate results of a supramental change.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 35, Page: 330 ::: .Supraphysical Worlds ::: This organisation includes, as on our earth, the existence of beings who have or take forms, manifest themselves or are naturally manifested in an embodying substance, but a substance other than ours, a subtle substance tangible only to subtle sense, a supraphysical form-matter. These worlds and beings may have nothing to do with ourselves and our life, they may exercise no action upon us; but often also they enter into secret communication with earth-existence, obey or embody and are the intermediaries and instruments of the cosmic powers and influences of which we have a subjective experience, or themselves act by their own initiation upon the terrestrial world’s life and motives and happenings. It is possible to receive help or guidance or harm or misguidance from these beings; it is possible even to become subject to their influence, to be possessed by their invasion or domination, to be instrumentalised by them for their good or evil purpose. At times the progress of earthly life seems to be a vast field of battle between supraphysical Forces of either character, those that strive to uplift, encourage and illumine and those that strive to deflect, depress or prevent or even shatter our upward evolution or the soul’s self-expression in the material universe. Some of these Beings, Powers or Forces are such that we think of them as divine; they are luminous, benignant or powerfully helpful: there are others that are Titanic, gigantic or demoniac, inordinate Influences, instigators or creators often of vast and formidable inner upheavals or of actions that overpass the normal human measure. There may also be an awareness of influences, presences, beings that do not seem to belong to other worlds beyond us but are here as a hidden element behind the veil in terrestrial nature. As contact with the supraphysical is possible, a contact can also take place subjective or objective—or at least objectivised— between our own consciousness and the consciousness of other once embodied beings who have passed into a supraphysical status in these other regions of existence. It is possible also to pass beyond a subjective contact or a subtle-sense perception and, in certain subliminal states of consciousness, to enter actually into other worlds and know something of their secrets. It is the more objective order of other-worldly experience that seized most the imagination of mankind in the past, but it was put by popular belief into a gross-objective statement which unduly assimilated these phenomena to those of the physical world with which we are familiar; for it is the normal tendency of our mind to turn everything into forms or symbols proper to its own kind and terms of experience.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22 Page: 806-07


The second of the four states of consciousness mentioned in Yoga philosophy, the others being jagrat, sushupti, and turiya. Svapnavastha is the dreaming-sleeping state.

These four distinct states of consciousness into which the human egoic self can enter, are the manifestations during imbodiment of what takes place on a more profound and radical scale at death. Sleep is a small death, and death may be called a larger sleep: in both, the ego, liberated successively form various bonds, travels inwards and upwards through different grades of consciousness and reaches the experiences proper to those planes.

The sun, like each of the planets, is a chain of globes, of which we see only the globe on the fourth cosmic plane — a highly ethereal body composed of the fifth, sixth, and seventh, states of matter (counting upwards) of the fourth cosmic plane.

The term is variable, inasmuch as what would be the ring-pass-not for the human hierarchy would not be so to a superior hierarchy. Similarly the ring-pass-not for the beings below the human kingdom is not a boundary for humans. This has an especial reference to states of consciousness, and the majority of the human host is still unable to extend its consciousness beyond the sphere of man’s immediate activities — which thus at present form for humanity an intangible but very real ring-pass-not. There is a ring-pass-not surrounding globe D, this earth, and a ring of farther extension surrounding the earth planetary-chain, and beyond that still another surrounding the solar system, and a still larger one circumscribing the galaxy, etc.

The trailokya are all, in each case, nonphysical spheres, and pertain to the postmortem states of entities. These three worlds are wholly exoteric groupings — not meaning false, but not sufficiently explained in the exoteric literature to develop the real significances. In theosophy there are seven or ten groupings of the postmortem realms or states. These states cannot be grouped under the Brahmanical three worlds, but under the three Buddhist dhatus or lokas. Rupa-dhatu and arupa-dhatu may be called dhyanas (contemplation), thus designating the deeply contemplative character of the excarnate egos sunken in the profound deeps of consciousness. See also TRIBHUVANA

This is the fint step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consdousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-masterj'.

  “Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but ‘lies asleep.’ The present is only a mathematical line which divides that part of eternal duration which we call the future, from that part which we call the past. Nothing on earth has real duration, for nothing remains without change — or the same — for the billionth part of a second; and the sensation we have of the actuality of the division of ‘time’ known as the present, comes from the blurring of that momentary glimpse, or succession of glimpses, of things that our senses give us, as those things pass from the region of ideals which we call the future, to the region of memories that we name the past” (SD 1:37).

Time Theosophy speaks of absolute undivided time or duration, and of manifested or divided time: the former as causal or noumenal, the latter as effectual or phenomenal, and therefore mayavi or illusional. “Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but ‘lies asleep’ ” (SD 1:37). Duration is ‘olam (occult or hid) in the Qabbalah, signifying duration in eternity or endless perpetuity. Among the Greeks it was called Chronos and even Kronos, and sometimes referred to as Saturn among the Latins; yet its occult or eternally secret activities during periods of manifestation were at times referred to in Hindu philosophic thought as Rudra-Siva, or occasionally as Vishnu.

trisiksā. (P. tisikkhā; T. bslab pa gsum; C. sanxue; J. sangaku; K. samhak 三學). In Sanskrit, the "three trainings"; three overarching categories of Buddhist practice. First is the training in higher morality (ADHIsĪLAsIKsĀ), which encompasses all forms of restraint of body and speech, including lay and monastic precepts that serve as the foundation for the cultivation of the succeeding stages of concentration and wisdom. Second is the training in higher concentration (ADHISAMĀDHIsIKsĀ, also called adhicitta), which encompasses all forms of meditative practice directed toward the achievement of states of concentration. Third is the training in higher wisdom (ADHIPRAJNĀsIKsĀ), which includes all forms study and reflection that are directed toward developing insight into the true nature of reality. These three trainings are said to subsume all of the constituents of the noble eightfold path (ĀRYĀstĀnGAMĀRGA): adhiprajNāsiksā comprises the first two constituents, viz., right views (SAMYAGDṚstI) and right intention (SAMYAKSAMKALPA); adhisīlasiksā, the middle three constituents, viz., right speech (SAMYAGVĀC), right action (SAMYAKKARMĀNTA), and right livelihood (SAMYAGĀJĪVA); and adhisamādhisiksā, the last three constituents, viz., right effort (SAMYAGVYĀYĀMA), right mindfulness (SAMYAKSMṚTI), and right concentration (SAMYAKSAMĀDHI).

turiya &

Universal Mind The sum of the states of kosmic consciousness grouped under the human expressions thought, will, understanding, and feeling, collectively expressed in the Sanskrit as mahat. During deep sleep, the human mind is in abeyance on the physical plane, because our consciousness is not affecting the physical brain which in waking hours expresses it, although during the svapna (sleeping-dreaming) state the brain dreams; and similarly in the cosmos at the manvantaric dawn universal mind “was not” because there was as yet no vehicle for its expression through the cosmic hierarchies, this vehicle being the collective Ah-hi or hosts of dhyani-chohans. Universal mind remained during pralaya in a state of intense spiritual-intellectual activity, as the permanent root of subsequent cosmic mental action arising during manvantara. Universal mind is the manifested One, from the still more abstruse One or kosmic unity, and simultaneously with the evolution of universal mind the cosmic supreme One or hierarch also manifests itself in manvantara as avalokitesvara (Logos or atman) through its veil, universal substance or mulaprakriti — a unity with triple aspects. It is the mother of the manasaputras or sons of mind, and is kosmic buddhi or mahabuddhi.

upapadyaparinirvāyin. [alt. utpattiparinirvāyin] (T. skyes nas yongs su mya ngan las 'das pa; C. sheng ban/sheng banniepan; J. shohatsu/shohatsunehan; K. saeng pan/saeng panyolban 生般/生般涅槃). In Sanskrit, "one who achieves NIRVĀnA at birth," a particular sort of nonreturner (ANĀGĀMIN), one of the twenty members of the ĀRYASAMGHA (see VIMsATIPRABHEDASAMGHA). According to the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHĀsYA, the utpattiparinirvāyin are nonreturners who, having linked up with any of the sixteen birth states of the subtle-materiality realm (RuPADHĀTU), enter the "nirvāna with remainder" (SOPADHIsEsANIRVĀnA) on that support. They are those who make an effort, unlike the ANABHISAMSKĀRAPARINIRVĀYIN, but to whom effort comes naturally, unlike the SĀBHISAMSKĀRAPARINIRVĀYIN.

. upti (manasik sushupti) ::: a condition of the mind resembling deep sleep (sus.upti); the inertia and passivity of the intellect in the deepest states of samadhi.

Vaisvanara (Sanskrit) Vaiśvānara [from viśva all + nara man] Relating to or belonging to all men; omnipresent, universal. In Hindu philosophy, it represents one of the four states of Brahma, and hence is a manifestation of Brahma in and through prakriti. Cosmically it is the astral light, or “in another sense, the living magnetic fire that pervades the manifested solar system. It is the most objective . . . and ever present aspect of the One Life, for it is the Vital Principle” (SD 2:311). In the human being it is represented in the Anu-gita as a sevenfold fire which blazes up in the midst of the five pranas (life-streams) which circulate in the body, and a commentary on this work says that Vaisvanara is often used to denote the self. Blavatsky remarks: “In the astronomical and cosmical key, Vaisvanara is Agni, son of the Sun, or Viswanaras, but in the psycho-metaphysical symbolism it is the Self, in the sense of non-separateness, i.e., both divine and human” (SD 2:568n).

Vasumitra. (T. Dbyig bshes; C. Shiyou; J. Seu; K. Seu 世友) (d.u.). A prominent scholar of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school in KASHMIR, possibly during the second century CE. His SAMAYABHEDOPARACANACAKRA is an important source of information on the various schools and subschools of mainstream Nikāya Buddhism in India. He is also credited with composing the PRAKARAnAPĀDA, one of the "six feet" of the ABHIDHARMAPItAKA of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA, which first introduces the categorization of dharmas according to the more developed Sarvāstivāda lists of RuPA, CITTA, CAITTA, CITTAVIPRAYUKTASAMSKĀRA, and ASAMSKṚTA dharmas; it also adds a new listing of KUsALAMAHĀBHuMIKA, or factors always associated with wholesome states of mind. Vasumitra is frequently cited in the ABHIDHARMAMAHĀVIBHĀsĀ, the massive abhidharma exegesis of the VAIBHĀsIKA school of the Sarvāstivāda, but it is unclear whether the scholar mentioned in the Abhidharmamahāvibhāsā and the author of the texts mentioned earlier are the same figure. Vasumitra is also credited with composing a (now-lost) commentary to the ABHIDHARMAKOsABHĀsYA, which, if true, would move his dates forward into the fourth century.

vicāra. (T. dpyod pa; C. si; J. shi; K. sa 伺). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "sustained thought," "sustained attention," "imagination," or "analysis"; one of the forty-six mental factors (CAITTA) according to the VAIBHĀsIKA school of SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGĀCĀRA school, and one of the fifty-two in the Pāli ABHIDHAMMA. Although etymologically the term contains the connotation of "analysis," vicāra is polysemous in the Buddhist lexicon and refers to a mental activity that can be present both in ordinary states of consciousness and in meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). In ordinary consciousness, vicāra is "sustained thought," viz., the continued pondering of things. It is listed as an indeterminate mental factor (ANIYATA-CAITTA) because it can be employed toward either virtuous or nonvirtuous ends, depending on one's intention and the object of one's attention. Vicāra as a mental activity typically follows VITARKA, wherein vitarka is the "initial application of thought" and vicāra the "sustained thought" that ensues after one's attention has already adverted toward an object. In the context of meditative absorption, vicāra may be rendered as "sustained attention" or "sustained application of attention." With vitarka the practitioner directs his focus toward a chosen meditative object. When the attention is properly directed, the practitioner follows by applying and continuously fixing his attention on the same thing, deeply experiencing (or examining) the object. In meditative absorption, vicāra is one of the five factors that make up the first dhyāna (see DHYĀNĀnGA). According to the VISUDDHIMAGGA, "applied thought" (P. vitakka; S. vitarka) is like a bee flying toward a flower, having oriented itself toward its chosen target, whereas "sustained attention" (vicāra) is like a bee hovering over that flower, fixating on the flower.

vijNānānantyāyatana. (P. viNNānaNcāyatana; T. rnam shes mtha' yas skye mched; C. shi wubian chu; J. shikimuhenjo; K. sik mubyon ch'o 識無邊處). In Sanskrit, "sphere of infinite consciousness"; the second (in ascending order) of the four levels of the immaterial realm (ĀRuPYADHĀTU) and the second of the four immaterial absorptions (ĀRuPYĀVACARADHYĀNA). It is "above" the first level of the immaterial realm, called infinites space (AKĀsĀNANTYĀYATANA), and "below" the third and fourth levels, "nothingness" (ĀKIMCANYĀYATANA) and "neither perception nor nonperception" (NAIVASAMJNĀNĀSAMJNĀYATANA). It is a realm of rebirth as well as a meditative state that is entirely immaterial (viz., there is no physical, or form [RuPA], component to existence), in which the mind seems to expand to the point that it is essentially infinite. Beings reborn in this realm are thought to live as long as forty thousand eons (KALPA). However, as a state of being that is still subject to rebirth, even the realm of infinite consciousness remains part of SAMSĀRA. Like the other levels of the realm of subtle materiality (RuPADHĀTU) and the immaterial realm, one is reborn in this state by achieving the specific level of meditative absorption of that state in the previous lifetime. One of the most famous and influential expositions on the subject of these immaterial states comes from the VISUDDHIMAGGA of BUDDHAGHOSA, written in the fifth century. Although there are numerous accounts of Buddhist meditators achieving immaterial states of SAMĀDHI, they are also used polemically in Buddhist literature to describe the attainments of non-Buddhist YOGINs, who mistakenly identify these exalted states within saMsāra as states of permanent liberation from rebirth. See also DHYĀNASAMĀPATTI; DHYĀNOPAPATTI.

vimoksa. (P. vimokkha; T. rnam par thar pa; C. jietuo; J. gedatsu; K. haet'al 解). In Sanskrit, "liberation" or "deliverance"; the state of freedom from rebirth, achieved by the sRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, or BODHISATTVA paths (MĀRGA). In mainstream Buddhist literature, this liberation is said to be of three types, corresponding to the three "doors to deliverance" (VIMOKsAMUKHA): (1) emptiness (sUNYATĀ), (2) signlessness (ĀNIMITTA), and (3) wishlessness (APRAnIHITA). Another set of eight grades of liberation (vimoksa) is associated with the attainment of meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). In Pāli sources, these grades refer to eight levels in the extension of consciousness that accompany the cultivation of increasingly more advanced states of dhyāna (P. JHĀNA). The eight grades are (1) the perception of material form (RuPA) while remaining in the subtle-materiality realm; (2) the perception of external material forms while not perceiving one's own form; (3) the development of confidence through contemplating the beautiful; (4) passing beyond the material plane with the idea of "limitless space," one attains the plane of limitless space (ĀKĀsĀNANTYĀYATANA), the first level of the immaterial realm; (5) passing beyond the plane of limitless space with the idea of "limitless consciousness," one attains the plane of limitless consciousness (VIJNĀNĀNANTYĀYATANA); (6) passing beyond the plane of limitless consciousness with the idea "there is nothing," one attains the plane of nothingness (ĀKINCANYĀYATANA); (7) passing beyond the plane of nothingness one attains the plane of neither perception nor nonperception (NAIVASAMJNĀNĀSAMJNĀYATANA); and (8) passing beyond the plane of neither perception nor nonperception one attains the cessation of consciousness (viz., NIRODHASAMĀPATTI). In the Mahāyāna ABHIDHARMA, it is said that the first two grades enable bodhisattvas to manifest different forms for the sake of others, the third controls their attitude toward those forms (by seeing that beauty and ugliness are relative), and the remaining five enable them to live at ease in order to help others.

viniyata. (T. yul nges; C. biejing [xinsuo]; J. betsukyo [no shinjo]; K. pyolgyong [simso] 別境[心所]). In Sanskrit, "determinative," or "object-specific"; the second of the six categories of mental concomitants (CAITTA) according to the hundred dharmas (BAIFA) schema of the YOGĀCĀRA school, along with the omnipresent (SARVATRAGA), the wholesome (KUsALA), the root afflictions (MuLAKLEsA), the secondary afflictions (UPAKLEsA), and the indeterminate (ANIYATA). There are five mental factors in the category of determinative mental concomitants; their function is to aid the mind in ascertaining or determining its object. The five are aspiration or desire-to-act (CHANDA), determination or resolve (ADHIMOKsA), mindfulness (SMṚTI), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom (PRAJNĀ). According to ASAnGA, these five determinative factors accompany wholesome (kusala) states of mind, so that if one is present, all are present.

virginia ::: n. --> One of the States of the United States of America. ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the State of Virginia.

visaMyogaphala. (T. bral ba'i 'bras bu; C. liji guo; J. rikeka; K. igye kwa 離繫果). In Sanskrit, "separation effect"; a term used to describe liberation from rebirth and the reality of NIRVĀnA. This is one of the five effects (PHALA) enumerated in the VAIBHĀsIKA school of SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA and the YOGĀCĀRA system. Liberation (VIMOKsA) and nirvāna are forms of cessation (NIRODHA) and as such are unconditioned phenomena (ASAMSKṚTADHARMA) and permanent (NITYA) because they do not change moment by moment. Specifically, they are classified as "analytical cessations" (PRATISAMKHYĀNIRODHA), that is, states of cessation that arise through the process of insight. In the Buddha's delineation of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (catvāry āryasatyāni), the third truth of cessation (NIRODHASATYA) is followed by the fourth truth of the path (MĀRGASATYA). Later commentators would explain that cessation and path stand in a relationship of effect and cause, respectively. However, this is not possible in the literal sense, because an impermanent and conditioned phenomenon such as the path cannot serve as the cause for a permanent and unconditioned phenomenon such as cessation. In order to preserve this distinction but nonetheless acknowledge the role of religious practice in bringing about the state of nirvāna, the Vaibhāsika school proposed the category of visaMyogaphala, which is essentially an effect that has no cause. Thus, the practice of the path leads to a permanent separation from the KLEsAs, and because that state of separation is permanent, it not formally the effect of a cause.

VISIBLE WORLD Molecular world, the three lower states of aggregation of the physical world (49:5-7).

The visible world can be said to be the special world of minerals as regards consciousness. (K 1.11.5)

Man&


Vitala (Sanskrit) Vitala Better place, i.e., better for matter, in that its substance is more material or differentiated than atala which precedes it; the second on the descending scale of the seven talas, corresponding to taparloka. Vitala is related on earth to the state of samadhi, and in one sense also to human buddhic consciousness. No adept, save one, can be higher than this in the tala side of his consciousness and continue living on earth. All the different talas and their corresponding lokas are connected both with states of consciousness and with varieties of vehicles on which these various consciousnesses work. Every tala with its respective loka forms a bipolar sphere containing its own hosts of conscious entities imbodied in vehicles appropriate to the loka-tala or tala-loka in which they are.

vitarka. (P. vitakka; T. rtog pa; C. xun; J. jin; K. sim 尋). In Sanskrit, "thoughts," "applied thought," or "applied attention"; one of the forty-six mental concomitants (CAITTA) according to the VAIBHĀsIKA school of SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, one of the fifty-one according to the YOGĀCĀRA school, and one of the fifty-two in the Pāli ABHIDHAMMA. Although etymologically the term contains the connotation of "investigation," vitarka is polysemous in the Buddhist lexicon and refers to a mental activity that could be present both in ordinary states of consciousness as well as during meditative absorption (DHYĀNA). Generically, vitarka can simply denote thoughts, and specifically "distracted thoughts," as in the VITAKKASAntHĀNASUTTA. In ordinary consciousness, it is perhaps best translated as "applied thought" or "initial application of thought" and refers to the momentary advertence toward the chosen object of attention. Vitarka is listed in the ABHIDHARMA as an indeterminate mental factor (ANIYATA-CAITTA), because it can be employed toward either virtuous or nonvirtuous ends, depending on one's intentions and the object of one's attention. In meditative absorption, vitarka is one of the five constituents (DHYĀNĀnGA) that make up the first DHYĀNA, and is perhaps best translated in that context as "applied attention" or "initial application of attention." In dhyāna, vitarka involves directing one's focus onto the single chosen meditative object. According to the Pāli VISUDDHIMAGGA, "applied attention" is like a bee flying toward a flower, having oriented itself toward its chosen target, whereas "sustained attention" (VICĀRA) is like a bee hovering over that flower, having closer contact with and fixing itself upon the flower.

vyapti ::: the pervasion of all by a universal consciousness; a stream of conscious connection between beings arising from a fundamental unity; (also called receptive vyapti) the reception of thoughts, feelings, etc., entering into one"s mind from others, one of the two siddhis of knowledge whose combination constitutes telepathy; (also called effective or communicative vyapti) the transmission of thoughts or states of consciousness to others, an agent of vasita. vyaptih., prakamyam, aisvaryam, isita, vasita, mahima, laghima, vyaptih, an.ima, iti as.t.asiddhih. (vyaptih, prakamyam, aishwaryam, ishita,

xindi. (S. cintābhumikā; J. shinji; K. simji 心地). In Chinese, lit. "mind-ground" or "mind as ground"; a common metaphor used in MAHĀYĀNA literature to suggest that mind or thought is the source, or "ground," of all phenomena. The Dasheng bensheng xindi guan jing ("Sutra on the Great-Vehicle Contemplation of the Innate Mind Ground"), for example, metaphorically refers to the minds of the sentient beings of the three realms of existence as a "mind-ground," since all phenomena-whether mundane (LAUKIKA) or supramundane (LOKOTTARA), and including all virtuous and nonvirtuous dharmas, as well as the five rebirth destinies (GATI) and the states of a PRATYEKABUDDHA, BODHISATTVA, or even a buddha-are generated from the mind of sentient beings, just as all grains and fruits are generated from soil. A commentary to the MAHĀVAIROCANĀBHISAMBODHISuTRA (Dari jing shu) says that the mind is also metaphorically referred to as a "ground," since the practice of bodhisattvas relies on the mind, just as activities of ordinary people rely on the ground. In the FANWANG JING ("Brahmā's Net Sutra"), the mind-ground refers to the bodhisattva precepts (PUSA JIE), which help to restrain the activities of body, speech, and mind; the precepts are the mind-ground because the activities of mind, or thought, are the basis for actions performed via body and speech. The buddha Vairocana says in the sutra that he achieved complete, perfect enlightenment (SAMYAKSAMBODHI) only after cultivating the mind-ground over a hundred incalculable eons (ASAMKHYEYAKALPA). The Korean monk WoNHYO (617-686), in his Pommanggyong Posal kyebon sagi ("Personal Exposition on the Bodhisattva Precepts Text of the 'Brahmā's Net Sutra'"), described three different denotations of mind-ground in terms of the abider and the ground on which that abider resides. These are (1) the fifty stages of the bodhisattva path (the ten BODHISATTVABHuMI, plus the forty stages preliminary to the bhumis), which is the ground on which the thought of enlightenment (BODHICITTA) of the bodhisattva abides; (2) the three categories of precepts (sĪLATRAYA), which is the ground on which the enlightened mind abides; and (3) the realm of reality (DHARMADHĀTU), which is the ground on which the practitioner abides. In the CHAN ZONG, the mind that was transmitted by BODHIDHARMA, the putative founder of Chan, is termed the mind-ground, and his teaching of the one (enlightened) mind is called the dharma teaching of the mind-ground (xindi famen). HUANGBO XIYUN (d. 850) says in his CHUANXIN FAYAO that the "dharma teaching of the mind-ground means that all dharmas are constructed depending upon this mind." Finally, GUIFENG ZONGMI in his CHANYUAN CHUCHUANJI TUXU ("Prolegomenon to the Comprehensive References to the Fountainhead of Chan Collection") equates mind-ground with the buddha-nature (FOXING): "the originally enlightened true nature of sentient beings is called both buddha-nature and mind-ground."

yogipratyaksa. (T. rnal 'byor mngon sum; C. dingguan zhi; J. jokanchi; K. chonggwan chi 定觀知). In Sanskrit, "yogic direct perception"; a specific variety of direct perception (PRATYAKsA) that is typically presumed to derive from meditative practice (BHĀVANĀ; YOGA). A direct intuition of the real obtained through meditative practice, this type of understanding was accepted as a valid means of knowledge by most of the traditional Indian religious schools. In Buddhism, the psychological analysis of the notion of yogipratyaksa and the related yogijNāna (yogic knowledge or cognition) was undertaken by DHARMAKĪRTI (c. 600-670) in his PRAMĀnAVĀRTTIKA and NYĀYABINDU, as well as by his commentators. Dharmakīrti's predecessor DIGNĀGA (c. 480-540) had posited that there were only two reliable sources of knowledge (PRAMĀnA): direct perception (PRATYAKsA) and logical inference (ANUMĀNA). Dharmakīrti, however, subdivided direct perception (pratyaksa) into four subtypes, viz., sensory cognition (indriyajNāna), mental discrimination (MANOVIJNĀNA), self-awareness (SVASAMVEDANA), and yogic cognition (yogijNāna). In Dharmakīrti's analysis, yogic cognition (yogijNāna) is a form of yogic perception (yogipratyaksa), because it fulfills the two conditions of perception (pratyaksa): (1) it is devoid of conceptual construction (KALPANĀ); and (2) it is a cognition that is "nonerroneous" (abhrānta), viz., real. The treatment of yogipratyaksa in the literature thus focuses on how yogipratyaksa fulfills these two conditions of perception. Yogic knowledge is devoid of conceptual construction (kalpanā), Dharmakīrti maintains, because it is nonconceptual (akalpa; NIRVIKALPA) and thus "vivid" or "distinct" (spasta). This type of perception is therefore able to perceive reality directly, without the intercession of mental images or concepts. Since yogic cognition is said to be devoid of conceptual construction, this raises the issue of its second condition, its lack of error. Why is meditatively induced perception true and reliable? How does a meditator's yogic perception differ from the hallucinations of the deranged, since both of them presume they have a vivid cognition of an object? The reason, Dharmakīrti maintains, is that the objects of yogic knowledge are "true" or "real" (bhuta; sadbhuta), whereas hallucinations are "false" or "unreal" objects (abhuta; asadbhuta). The only true objects of yogic knowledge offered by Dharmakīrti are the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS: that is, the perception of these truths is true and reliable because they enable one to reach the goal of enlightenment, not because they involve a perception of an ultimate substance. In this sense, Dharmakīrti's understanding of yogijNāna is more focused on the direct realization of the soteriological import of the four noble truths than on extraordinary sensory ability. Therefore, yogic direct perception is qualitatively different from the various forms of clairvoyance that are the byproducts of deep states of concentration that may be achieved by both Buddhist and non-Buddhist practitioners. Yogipratyaksa is a form of insight (VIPAsYANĀ) posssessed only by noble persons (ĀRYAPUDGALA); and among the five paths it occurs only on the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA) and above. See also DARsANA.

Zongmen huomen. (J. Shumon wakumon; K. Chongmun hongmun 宗門或問). In Chinese, "Some Inquiries into the [Chan] Tradition," composed by the CHAN master ZHANRAN YUANDENG in the CAODONG ZONG. In 1605, Zhanran replied to inquiries he had received from Chan neophytes about the school's distinctive teachings and practices and edited together fifty-two of these exchanges as the Zongmen huomen. (The zongmen of the title is a common designation for the CHAN ZONG, especially in Song-dynasty and later materials.) As Zhanran explains in his preface, he wrote this text because it is difficult for neophytes to understand Chan since there are so many different Chan teachings and practices. For example, to the question of what is most essential in Chan meditation and how one should begin in Chan practice, Zhanran answers that one must aspire to investigate the matter of birth-and-death. As to how to investigate the matter of birth-and-death, he answers that one has to arouse three states of mind: (1) the mind of great faith; (2) the mind of ferocious effort (cf. YONGMAENG CHoNGJIN) and nonretrogression; and (3) the mind of great doubt (see YIQING). (Cf. SANYAO). In the course of his exposition, Zhanran also covers other Buddhist practices, including recitation of the Buddha's name (NIANFO), but he is adamant that Chan is the best and most direct way to enlightenment. In addition to the series of exchanges, Zhanran also appends the following related texts to the Zongmen huomen: the Canchan shinan ("Difficulties in Investigating Chan"), Huomen ("Some Inquiries"), Buyi ("Appended Sayings"), Daming Dingzi men ("Clear Replies to Dingzi's Inquiries"), and the Daguan heshang zhaoyang zhuan ("Tale of the Monk Daguan's Invitation to Disaster"), a fervent defense of the renowned Chan master DAGUAN ZHENKE (a.k.a. ZIBO), who died amid political intrigue at court.



QUOTES [21 / 21 - 1301 / 1301]


KEYS (10k)

   9 Sri Aurobindo
   4 The Mother
   1 Ramakrishna
   1 Peter Ouspensky
   1 ken-wilber
   1 Ken Wilber
   1 James Austin
   1 Sri Ramana Maharshi
   1 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
   1 Saint Thomas Aquinas

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

  104 Frederick Lenz
   31 Barack Obama
   20 George W Bush
   18 Kurt Vonnegut
   17 Anonymous
   13 Sam Harris
   13 Rush Limbaugh
   11 Mike Pence
   10 Oliver Sacks
   9 Neal Stephenson
   9 John McCain
   8 Sri Aurobindo
   7 Tony Judt
   7 Nelson Mandela
   7 Max Allan Collins
   7 Angela Merkel
   6 John Adams
   6 Joe Biden
   6 Herman Cain
   6 Donald Trump

1:In a special sense... the three great natural states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep contain an entire spectrum of spiritual enlightenment. ~ ken-wilber,
2:The 3 states of waking, dream and sleep cannot be real. They simply come and go. The real will always exist. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,
3:Bondage and freedom are states of the outer mind, not of the inner spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad,
4:There are desirable states of the soul which it is dangerous to rest in after they have been mastered. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation,
5:The One is attained when man arrives at ripeness in one of these three states of his spirit, "All is myself, All is thou," "Thou art the Master, I the servant." ~ Ramakrishna, the Eternal Wisdom
6:There are two states of life: one is hidden in which those conceived live in the womb; the other is open where one lives after birth outside the womb ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Job, ch. 3).,
7:Both states of consciousness, sleep and the waking state, are equally subjective. Only by beginning to remember himself does a man really awaken. And then all surrounding life acquires for him a different aspect and a different meaning. ~ Peter Ouspensky,
8:The Isha Upanishad also speaks of the golden lid hiding the face of the Truth by removing which the Law of the Truth is seen and the highest knowledge in which the One Purusha is known (so'ham asmi) is described as the kalyan.atama form of the Sun. All this seems to refer to the supramental states of which the Sun is the symbol.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - I, Integral Yoga and Other Paths -IV,
9:States of consciousness there are in which Death is only a change in immortal Life, pain a violent backwash of the waters of universal delight, limitation a turning of the Infinite upon itself, evil a circling of the good around its own perfection; and this not in abstract conception only, but in actual vision and in constant and substantial experience. To arrive at such states of consciousness may, for the individual, be one of the most important and indispensable steps of his progress towards self-perfection.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,
10:It may yet be said that a logical succession of the states of progress would be very much in this order. First, there is a large turning in which all the natural mental activities proper to the individual nature are taken up or referred to a higher standpoint and dedicated by the soul in us, the psychic being, the priest of the sacrifice, to the divine service; next, there is an attempt at an ascent of the being and a bringing down of the Light and Power proper to some new height of consciousness gained by its upward effort into the whole action of the knowledge.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent Of The Sacrifice - I, [T1],
11:And all the time the experience lasted, one hourone hour of that time is longI was in a state of extraordinary joyfulness, almost in an intoxicated state. The difference between the two states of consciousness is so great that when you are in one, the other seems unreal, like a dream. When I came back what struck me first of all was the futility of life here; our little conceptions down here seem so laughable, so comical. We say that some people are mad, but their madness is perhaps a great wisdom, from the supramental point of view, and their behaviour is perhaps nearer to the truth of thingsI am not speaking of the obscure mad men whose brains have been damaged, but of many other incomprehensible mad men, the luminous mad: they have wanted to cross the border too quickly and the rest has not followed. ~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 1, 1958-02
12:The up and down movement which you speak of is common to all ways of Yoga. It is there in the path of bhakti, but there are equally alternations of states of light and states of darkness, sometimes sheer and prolonged darkness, when one follows the path of knowledge. Those who have occult experiences come to periods when all experiences cease and even seem finished for ever. Even when there have been many and permanent realisations, these seem to go behind the veil and leave nothing in front except a dull blank, filled, if at all, only with recurrent attacks and difficulties. These alternations are the result of the nature of human consciousness and are not a proof of unfitness or of predestined failure. One has to be prepared for them and pass through. They are the day and night of the Vedic mystics.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,
13:But if in passing from one domain to another we renounce what has already been given us from eagerness for our new attainment, if in reaching the mental life we cast away or belittle the physical life which is our basis, or if we reject the mental and physical in our attraction to the spiritual, we do not fulfil God integrally, nor satisfy the conditions of His selfmanifestation. We do not become perfect, but only shift the field of our imperfection or atmost attain a limited altitude. However high we may climb, even though it be to the Non-Being itself, we climb ill if we forget our base. Not to abandon the lower to itself, but to transfigure it in the light of the higher to which we have attained, is true divinity of nature. Brahman is integral and unifies many states of consciousness at a time; we also, manifesting the nature of Brahman, should become integral and all-embracing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,
14:[...]For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states of his being, - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone self-existent, not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable, not existing by them, but they exist because of Him. It follows that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any aspect. His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and ineffable, because he is himself magically, mysteriously, transcendently marvellous and ineffable. He can then be sought after for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of one aspect of another of his. The only thing needed for that is, first, to arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine in himself and, secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital and each thing else begins to feel too that that was what it was wanting and the surface hunt after Ananda or what else was only an excuse for drawing the nature towards that supreme magnet. ...
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,
15:Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of meditation is the art of shifting the focus of attention to ever subtler levels, without losing one's grip on the levels left behind. In a way it is like having death under control. One begins with the lowest levels: social circumstances, customs and habits; physical surroundings, the posture and the breathing of the body, the senses, their sensation s and perceptions; the mind, its thoughts and feelings; until the entire mechanism of personality is grasped and firmly held. The final stage of meditation is reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the 'I-am-so-and-so', beyond 'so-l-am', beyond 'I-am-the-witness-only', beyond 'there-is', beyond all ideas into the impersonally personal pure being. But you must be energetic when you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation. Limit your interests and activities to what is needed for you and your dependents' barest needs.
Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind had built around you. Believe me, you will not regret. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,
16:Why do we forget things?

   Ah! I suppose there are several reasons. First, because one makes use of the memory to remember. Memory is a mental instrument and depends on the formation of the brain. Your brain is constantly growing, unless it begins to degenerate, but still its growth can continue for a very, very long time, much longer than that of the body. And in this growth, necessarily some things will take the place of others. And as the mental instrument develops, things which have served their term or the transitory moment in the development may be wiped out to give place to the result. So the result of all that you knew is there, living in itself, but the road traversed to reach it may be completely blurred. That is, a good functioning of the memory means remembering only the results so as to be able to have the elements for moving forward and a new construction. That is more important than just retaining things rigidly in the mind.
   Now, there is another aspect also. Apart from the mental memory, which is something defective, there are states of consciousness. Each state of consciousness in which one happens to be registers the phenomena of a particular moment, whatever they may be. If your consciousness remains limpid, wide and strong, you can at any moment whatsoever, by concentrating, call into the active consciousness what you did, thought, saw, observed at any time before; all this you can remember by bringing up in yourself the same state of consciousness. And that, that is never forgotten. You could live a thousand years and you would still remember it. Consequently, if you don't want to forget, it must be your consciousness which remembers and not your mental memory. Your mental memory will be wiped out inevitably, get blurred, and new things will take the place of the old ones. But things of which you are conscious you do not forget. You have only to bring up the same state of consciousness again. And thus one can remember circumstances one has lived thousands of years ago, if one knows how to bring up the same state of consciousness. It is in this way that one can remember one's past lives. This never gets blotted out, while you don't have any more the memory of what you have done physically when you were very young. You would be told many things you no longer remember. That gets wiped off immediately. For the brain is constantly changing and certain weaker cells are replaced by others which are much stronger, and by other combinations, other cerebral organisations. And so, what was there before is effaced or deformed.
   ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,
17:The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine Purusha who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a pure, clear state of mind and heart is established.
   This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery. But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts therefore from the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pranayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kundalini, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.
   By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already possessed of the highest supracosmic knowledge and experience in the state of trance, is able in the waking state to acquire directly whatever knowledge and exercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to his activities in the objective world.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga, 36,
18:Something happened to you before you were born, and this is what it was:
   STAGE ONE: THE CHIKHAI
   The events of the 49-day Bardo period are divided into three major stages, the Chikhai, the Chonyid, and the Sidpa (in that order). Immediately following physical death, the soul enters the Chikhai, which is simply the state of the immaculate and luminous Dharmakaya, the ultimate Consciousness, the BrahmanAtman. This ultimate state is given, as a gift, to all individuals: they are plunged straight into ultimate reality and exist as the ultimate Dharmakaya. "At this moment," says the Bardo Thotrol, "the first glimpsing of the Bardo of the Clear Light of Reality, which is the Infallible Mind of the Dharmakaya, is experienced by all sentient beings.''110 Or, to put it a different way, the Thotrol tells us that "Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light-Buddha Amitabha. Knowing this is sufficient. Recognizing the voidness of thine own intellect to be Buddhahood ... is to keep thyself in the Divine Mind."110 In short, immediately following physical death, the soul is absorbed in and as the ultimate-causal body (if we may treat them together).
   Interspersed with this brief summary of the Bardo Thotrol, I will add my commentaries on involution and on the nature of the Atman project in involution. And we begin by noting that at the start of the Bardo experience, the soul is elevated to the utter heights of Being, to the ultimate state of Oneness-that is, he starts his Bardo career at the top. But, at the top is usually not where he remains, and the Thotrol tells us why. In Evans-Wentz's words, "In the realm of the Clear Light [the highest Chikhai stage] the mentality of a person . . . momentarily enjoys a condition of balance, of perfect equilibrium, and of [ultimate] oneness. Owing to unfamiliarity with such a state, which is an ecstatic state of non-ego, of [causal] consciousness, the . . . average human being lacks the power to function in it; karmic propensities becloud the consciousness-principle with thoughts of personality, of individualized being, of dualism, and, losing equilibrium, the consciousness-principle falls away from the Clear Light."
   The soul falls away from the ultimate Oneness because "karmic propensities cloud consciousness"-"karmic propensities'' means seeking, grasping, desiring; means, in fact, Eros. And as this Erosseeking develops, the state of perfect Oneness starts to "break down" (illusorily). Or, from a different angle, because the individual cannot stand the intensity of pure Oneness ("owing to unfamiliarity with such a state"), he contracts away from it, tries to ''dilute it," tries to extricate himself from Perfect Intensity in Atman. Contracting in the face of infinity, he turns instead to forms of seeking, desire, karma, and grasping, trying to "search out" a state of equilibrium. Contraction and Eros-these karmic propensities couple and conspire to drive the soul away from pure consciousness and downwards into multiplicity, into less intense and less real states of being. ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project,
19:Depression, unless one has a strong will, suggests, "This is not worth while, one may have to wait a lifetime." As for enthusiasm, it expects to see the vital transformed overnight: "I am not going to have any difficulty henceforth, I am going to advance rapidly on the path of yoga, I am going to gain the divine consciousness without any difficulty." There are some other difficulties.... One needs a little time, much perseverance. So the vital, after a few hours - perhaps a few days, perhaps a few months - says to itself: "We haven't gone very far with our enthusiasm, has anything been really done? Doesn't this movement leave us just where we were, perhaps worse than we were, a little troubled, a little disturbed? Things are no longer what they were, they are not yet what they ought to be. It is very tiresome, what I am doing." And then, if one pushes a little more, here's this gentleman saying, "Ah, no! I have had enough of it, leave me alone. I don't want to move, I shall stay in my corner, I won't trouble you, but don't bother me!" And so one has not gone very much farther than before.
   This is one of the big obstacles which must be carefully avoided. As soon as there is the least sign of discontentment, of annoyance, the vital must be spoken to in this way, "My friend, you are going to keep calm, you are going to do what you are asked to do, otherwise you will have to deal with me." And to the other, the enthusiast who says, "Everything must be done now, immediately", your reply is, "Calm yourself a little, your energy is excellent, but it must not be spent in five minutes. We shall need it for a long time, keep it carefully and, as it is wanted, I shall call upon your goodwill. You will show that you are full of goodwill, you will obey, you won't grumble, you will not protest, you will not revolt, you will say 'yes, yes', you will make a little sacrifice when asked, you will say 'yes' wholeheartedly."
   So we get started on the path. But the road is very long. Many things happen on the way. Suddenly one thinks one has overcome an obstacle; I say "thinks", because though one has overcome it, it is not totally overcome. I am going to take a very obvious instance, of a very simple observation. Someone has found that his vital is uncontrollable and uncontrolled, that it gets furious for nothing and about nothing. He starts working to teach it not to get carried away, not to flare up, to remain calm and bear the shocks of life without reacting violently. If one does this cheerfully, it goes quite quickly. (Note this well, it is very important: when you have to deal with your vital take care to remain cheerful, otherwise you will get into trouble.) One remains cheerful, that is, when one sees the fury rise, one begins to laugh. Instead of being depressed and saying, "Ah! In spite of all my effort it is beginning all over again", one begins to laugh and says, "Well, well! One hasn't yet seen the end of it. Look now, aren't you ridiculous, you know quite well that you are being ridiculous! Is it worthwhile getting angry?" One gives it this lesson cheerfully. And really, after a while it doesn't get angry again, it is quiet - and one relaxes one's attention. One thinks the difficulty has been overcome, one thinks a result has at last been reached: "My vital does not trouble me any longer, it does not get angry now, everything is going fine." And the next day, one loses one's temper. It is then one must be careful, it is then one must not say, "Here we are, it's no use, I shall never achieve anything, all my efforts are futile; all this is an illusion, it is impossible." On the contrary, one must say, "I wasn't vigilant enough." One must wait long, very long, before one can say, "Ah! It is done and finished." Sometimes one must wait for years, many years....
   I am not saying this to discourage you, but to give you patience and perseverance - for there is a moment when you do arrive. And note that the vital is a small part of your being - a very important part, we have said that it is the dynamism, the realising energy, it is very important; but it is only a small part. And the mind!... which goes wandering, which must be pulled back by all the strings to be kept quiet! You think this can be done overnight? And your body?... You have a weakness, a difficulty, sometimes a small chronic illness, nothing much, but still it is a nuisance, isn't it? You want to get rid of it. You make efforts, you concentrate; you work upon it, establish harmony, and you think it is finished, and then.... Take, for instance, people who have the habit of coughing; they can't control themselves or almost can't. It is not serious but it is bothersome, and there seems to be no reason why it should ever stop. Well, one tells oneself, "I am going to control this." One makes an effort - a yogic effort, not a material one - one brings down consciousness, force, and stops the cough. And one thinks, "The body has forgotten how to cough." And it is a great thing when the body has forgotten, truly one can say, "I am cured." But unfortunately it is not always true, for this goes down into the subconscient and, one day, when the balance of forces is not so well established, when the strength is not the same, it begins again. And one laments, "I believed that it was over! I had succeeded and told myself, 'It is true that spiritual power has an action upon the body, it is true that something can be done', and there! it is not true. And yet it was a small thing, and I who want to conquer immortality! How will I succeed?... For years I have been free from this small thing and here it is beginning anew!" It is then that you must be careful. You must arm yourself with an endless patience and endurance. You do a thing once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times if necessary, but you do it till it gets done. And not done only here and there, but everywhere and everywhere at the same time. This is the great problem one sets oneself. That is why, to those who come to tell me very light-heartedly, "I want to do yoga", I reply, "Think it over, one may do the yoga for a number of years without noticing the least result. But if you want to do it, you must persist and persist with such a will that you should be ready to do it for ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes if necessary, in order to succeed." I do not say it will be like that, but the attitude must be like that. Nothing must discourage you; for there are all the difficulties of ignorance of the different states of being, to which are added the endless malice and the unbounded cunning of the hostile forces in the world.... They are there, do you know why? They have been.... ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,
20:
   Why do we forget our dreams?


Because you do not dream always at the same place. It is not always the same part of your being that dreams and it is not at the same place that you dream. If you were in conscious, direct, continuous communication with all the parts of your being, you would remember all your dreams. But very few parts of the being are in communication.

   For example, you have a dream in the subtle physical, that is to say, quite close to the physical. Generally, these dreams occur in the early hours of the morning, that is between four and five o'clock, at the end of the sleep. If you do not make a sudden movement when you wake up, if you remain very quiet, very still and a little attentive - quietly attentive - and concentrated, you will remember them, for the communication between the subtle physical and the physical is established - very rarely is there no communication.

   Now, dreams are mostly forgotten because you have a dream while in a certain state and then pass into another. For instance, when you sleep, your body is asleep, your vital is asleep, but your mind is still active. So your mind begins to have dreams, that is, its activity is more or less coordinated, the imagination is very active and you see all kinds of things, take part in extraordinary happenings.... After some time, all that calms down and the mind also begins to doze. The vital that was resting wakes up; it comes out of the body, walks about, goes here and there, does all kinds of things, reacts, sometimes fights, and finally eats. It does all kinds of things. The vital is very adventurous. It watches. When it is heroic it rushes to save people who are in prison or to destroy enemies or it makes wonderful discoveries. But this pushes back the whole mental dream very far behind. It is rubbed off, forgotten: naturally you cannot remember it because the vital dream takes its place. But if you wake up suddenly at that moment, you remember it. There are people who have made the experiment, who have got up at certain fixed hours of the night and when they wake up suddenly, they do remember. You must not move brusquely, but awake in the natural course, then you remember.

   After a time, the vital having taken a good stroll, needs to rest also, and so it goes into repose and quietness, quite tired at the end of all kinds of adventures. Then something else wakes up. Let us suppose that it is the subtle physical that goes for a walk. It starts moving and begins wandering, seeing the rooms and... why, this thing that was there, but it has come here and that other thing which was in that room is now in this one, and so on. If you wake up without stirring, you remembeR But this has pushed away far to the back of the consciousness all the stories of the vital. They are forgotten and so you cannot recollect your dreams. But if at the time of waking up you are not in a hurry, you are not obliged to leave your bed, on the contrary you can remain there as long as you wish, you need not even open your eyes; you keep your head exactly where it was and you make yourself like a tranquil mirror within and concentrate there. You catch just a tiny end of the tail of your dream. You catch it and start pulling gently, without stirring in the least. You begin pulling quite gently, and then first one part comes, a little later another. You go backward; the last comes up first. Everything goes backward, slowly, and suddenly the whole dream reappears: "Ah, there! it was like that." Above all, do not jump up, do not stir; you repeat the dream to yourself several times - once, twice - until it becomes clear in all its details. Once that dream is settled, you continue not to stir, you try to go further in, and suddenly you catch the tail of something else. It is more distant, more vague, but you can still seize it. And here also you hang on, get hold of it and pull, and you see that everything changes and you enter another world; all of a sudden you have an extraordinary adventure - it is another dream. You follow the same process. You repeat the dream to yourself once, twice, until you are sure of it. You remain very quiet all the time. Then you begin to penetrate still more deeply into yourself, as though you were going in very far, very far; and again suddenly you see a vague form, you have a feeling, a sensation... like a current of air, a slight breeze, a little breath; and you say, "Well, well...." It takes a form, it becomes clear - and the third category comes. You must have a lot of time, a lot of patience, you must be very quiet in your mind and body, very quiet, and you can tell the story of your whole night from the end right up to the beginning.

   Even without doing this exercise which is very long and difficult, in order to recollect a dream, whether it be the last one or the one in the middle that has made a violent impression on your being, you must do what I have said when you wake up: take particular care not even to move your head on the pillow, remain absolutely still and let the dream return.

   Some people do not have a passage between one state and another, there is a little gap and so they leap from one to the other; there is no highway passing through all the states of being with no break of the consciousness. A small dark hole, and you do not remember. It is like a precipice across which one has to extend the consciousness. To build a bridge takes a very long time; it takes much longer than building a physical bridge.... Very few people want to and know how to do it. They may have had magnificent activities, they do not remember them or sometimes only the last, the nearest, the most physical activity, with an uncoordinated movement - dreams having no sense.

   But there are as many different kinds of nights and sleep as there are different days and activities. There are not many days that are alike, each day is different. The days are not the same, the nights are not the same. You and your friends are doing apparently the same thing, but for each one it is very different. And each one must have his own procedure.

   Why are two dreams never alike?

Because all things are different. No two minutes are alike in the universe and it will be so till the end of the universe, no two minutes will ever be alike. And men obstinately want to make rules! One must do this and not that.... Well! we must let people please themselves.

   You could have put to me a very interesting question: "Why am I fourteen years old today?" Intelligent people will say: "It is because it is the fourteenth year since you were born." That is the answer of someone who believes himself to be very intelligent. But there is another reason. I shall tell this to you alone.... I have drowned you all sufficiently well! Now you must begin to learn swimming!

   ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 36?,
21:[The Gods and Their Worlds]

   [...] According to traditions and occult schools, all these zones of realities, these planes of realities have got different names; they have been classified in a different way, but there is an essential analogy, and if you go back far enough into the traditions, you see only the words changing according to the country and the language. Even now, the experiences of Western occultists and those of Eastern occultists offer great similarities. All who set out on the discovery of these invisible worlds and make a report of what they saw, give a very similar description, whether they be from here or there; they use different words, but the experience is very similar and the handling of forces is the same.

   This knowledge of the occult worlds is based on the existence of subtle bodies and of subtle worlds corresponding to those bodies. They are what the psychological method calls "states of consciousness", but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. The occult procedure consists then in being aware of these various inner states of being or subtle bodies and in becoming sufficiently a master of them so as to be able to go out of them successively, one after another. There is indeed a whole scale of subtleties, increasing or decreasing according to the direction in which you go, and the occult procedure consists in going out of a denser body into a subtler body and so on again, up to the most ethereal regions. You go, by successive exteriorisations, into bodies or worlds more and more subtle. It is somewhat as if every time you passed into another dimension. The fourth dimension of the physicists is nothing but the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge. To give another image, one can say that the physical body is at the centre - it is the most material, the densest and also the smallest - and the inner bodies, more subtle, overflow more and more the central physical body; they pass through it, extending themselves farther and farther, like water evaporating from a porous vase and forming a kind of steam all around. And the greater the subtlety, the more the extension tends to unite with that of the universe: one ends by universalising oneself. And it is altogether a concrete process which gives an objective experience of invisible worlds and even enables one to act in these worlds.

   There are, then, only a very small number of people in the West who know that these gods are not merely subjective and imaginary - more or less wildly imaginary - but that they correspond to a universal truth.

   All these regions, all these domains are filled with beings who exist, each in its own domain, and if you are awake and conscious on a particular plane - for instance, if on going out of a more material body you awake on some higher plane, you have the same relation with the things and people of that plane as you had with the things and people of the material world. That is to say, there exists an entirely objective relation that has nothing to do with the idea you may have of these things. Naturally, the resemblance is greater and greater as you approach the physical world, the material world, and there even comes a time when the one region has a direct action upon the other. In any case, in what Sri Aurobindo calls the overmental worlds, you will find a concrete reality absolutely independent of your personal experience; you go back there and again find the same things, with the differences that have occurred during your absence. And you have relations with those beings that are identical with the relations you have with physical beings, with this difference that the relation is more plastic, supple and direct - for example, there is the capacity to change the external form, the visible form, according to the inner state you are in. But you can make an appointment with someone and be at the appointed place and find the same being again, with certain differences that have come about during your absence; it is entirely concrete with results entirely concrete.

   One must have at least a little of this experience in order to understand these things. Otherwise, those who are convinced that all this is mere human imagination and mental formation, who believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have thought them to be like that, and that they have certain defects and certain qualities because men have thought them to be like that - all those who say that God is made in the image of man and that he exists only in human thought, all these will not understand; to them this will appear absolutely ridiculous, madness. One must have lived a little, touched the subject a little, to know how very concrete the thing is.

   Naturally, children know a good deal if they have not been spoilt. There are so many children who return every night to the same place and continue to live the life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoilt with age, you can keep them with you. At a time when I was especially interested in dreams, I could return exactly to a place and continue a work that I had begun: supervise something, for example, set something in order, a work of organisation or of discovery, of exploration. You go until you reach a certain spot, as you would go in life, then you take a rest, then you return and begin again - you begin the work at the place where you left off and you continue it. And you perceive that there are things which are quite independent of you, in the sense that changes of which you are not at all the author, have taken place automatically during your absence.

   But for this, you must live these experiences yourself, you must see them yourself, live them with sufficient sincerity and spontaneity in order to see that they are independent of any mental formation. For you can do the opposite also, and deepen the study of the action of mental formation upon events. This is very interesting, but it is another domain. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you become aware of how far you can delude yourself. So you must study both, the dream and the occult reality, in order to see what is the essential difference between the two. The one depends upon us; the other exists in itself; entirely independent of the thought that we have of it.

   When you have worked in that domain, you recognise in fact that once a subject has been studied and something has been learnt mentally, it gives a special colour to the experience; the experience may be quite spontaneous and sincere, but the simple fact that the subject was known and studied lends a particular quality. Whereas if you had learnt nothing about the question, if you knew nothing at all, the transcription would be completely spontaneous and sincere when the experience came; it would be more or less adequate, but it would not be the outcome of a previous mental formation.

   Naturally, this occult knowledge or this experience is not very frequent in the world, because in those who do not have a developed inner life, there are veritable gaps between the external consciousness and the inmost consciousness; the linking states of being are missing and they have to be constructed. So when people enter there for the first time, they are bewildered, they have the impression they have fallen into the night, into nothingness, into non-being!

   I had a Danish friend, a painter, who was like that. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of the body; he used to have interesting dreams and thought that it would be worth the trouble to go there consciously. So I made him "go out" - but it was a frightful thing! When he was dreaming, a part of his mind still remained conscious, active, and a kind of link existed between this active part and his external being; then he remembered some of his dreams, but it was a very partial phenomenon. And to go out of one's body means to pass gradually through all the states of being, if one does the thing systematically. Well, already in the subtle physical, one is almost de-individualised, and when one goes farther, there remains nothing, for nothing is formed or individualised.

   Thus, when people are asked to meditate or told to go within, to enter into themselves, they are in agony - naturally! They have the impression that they are vanishing. And with reason: there is nothing, no consciousness!

   These things that appear to us quite natural and evident, are, for people who know nothing, wild imagination. If, for example, you transplant these experiences or this knowledge to the West, well, unless you have been frequenting the circles of occultists, they stare at you with open eyes. And when you have turned your back, they hasten to say, "These people are cranks!" Now to come back to the gods and conclude. It must be said that all those beings who have never had an earthly existence - gods or demons, invisible beings and powers - do not possess what the Divine has put into man: the psychic being. And this psychic being gives to man true love, charity, compassion, a deep kindness, which compensate for all his external defects.

   In the gods there is no fault because they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint: as gods, it is their manner of being. But if you take a higher point of view, if you have a higher vision, a vision of the whole, you see that they lack certain qualities that are exclusively human. By his capacity of love and self-giving, man can have as much power as the gods and even more, when he is not egoistic, when he has surmounted his egoism.

   If he fulfils the required condition, man is nearer to the Supreme than the gods are. He can be nearer. He is not so automatically, but he has the power to be so, the potentiality.

   If human love manifested itself without mixture, it would be all-powerful. Unfortunately, in human love there is as much love of oneself as of the one loved; it is not a love that makes you forget yourself. - 4 November 1958

   ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, 355
,

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:Tantra involves radical change, a change in states of awareness. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
2:The desire for pleasure, the fear of pain, both are states of distress. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
3:Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove
4:The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove
5:A Socialist United States of Europe seems to me the only worth-while political objective today ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove
6:There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. ~ barack-obama, @wisdomtrove
7:Each of the ten thousand states of mind presents you with a different view of essence and experience. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
8:The pathway to enlightenment leads to states of ecstasy, knowledge, and a pretty ironic sense of humor. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
9:It is impossible to move on to new states of mind unless you seek the forgiveness of those you've offended. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
10:Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove
11:The December - January period is the strongest time of the year. It is an easy time to shift states of mind. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
12:The United States of America will sound as pompously in the world or in history as The Kingdom of Great Britain. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove
13:Compassion is one of the highest states of consciousness that you can choose to assist you in times of enormous pain. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove
14:There are places where it is easy to see, places of illumination, where one moves into illumined states of attention. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
15:There are ten thousand states of mind. Most people spend their entire lives confined to a few of these states of mind. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
16:According to Zen Buddhist cosmology there are ten thousand different states of mind to view and understand life through. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
17:Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
18:Heaven and hell aren’t afterlife rewards for good and bad behaviour, they are states of consciousness we inhabit here and now. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove
19:From the highest state of mind you have a window whereby you could perhaps move beyond all states of mind, to enlightenment. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
20:We experimented and we experienced many altered states of awareness. We used the power plants. I did that for a year or two. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
21:Learning takes us through many states of life, but it fails utterly in the hour of danger and temptation. Then faith alone saves. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove
22:The ten thousand states of mind are hallucinatory. Hallucinations are real. Dreams are real. But there are some things more real. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
23:States of consciousness are catching, because we resonate together. So when I connect deeply with someone, they often begin to wake up. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove
24:I explored alternate states of consciousness at one period of my life through psychedelics, as was the fashion with all my friends. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
25:Everything is a state of mind. Astral travel is the ability to wander through different states of mind and develop psychic perceptions. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
26:In a special sense... the three great natural states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep contain an entire spectrum of spiritual enlightenment. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove
27:The witness of the three states of consciousness [waking, dream and deep sleep] and of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is the Self ~ adi-shankara, @wisdomtrove
28:Advanced practice is the entrance into the ten thousand states of mind. Most people exist in five or six of these states in their whole lifetime. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
29:Spiritual evolution is a movement from the states of mind that reflect life less accurately to the states of mind that reflect life more accurately. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
30:Human experience depends on everything that can influence states of the human brain, ranging from changes in our genome to changes in the global economy. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove
31:The United States of America has no intention of finishing second in space. This effort is expensive-but it pays its way for freedom and for America. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove
32:Things that are impossible - are everyday experiences when you live in advanced states of mind. You live in a world of constant miraculous awareness. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
33:Kundalini is seen as a serpent that can shoot up the shushumna, past the chakras, opening them all and bringing you into different states of awareness. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
34:principle; this is the number of possible states of your brain. To put this quantity in perspective, the number of atoms in the universe is estimated to be ~ rick-hanson, @wisdomtrove
35:The states of utter clarity, immense love, utter fearlessness; these are mere words at the present, outlines without colour, hints at what can be. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
36:Q: Are you ever glad or sad? Do you know joy and sorrow?  Maharaj: Call them as you please. To me they are states of mind only, and I am not the mind. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
37:For most people the prohibitions are a good thing. But If you are able to maintain very powerful states of mind, then you'll find yourself in everything you see. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
38:We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove
39:Some of the most exalted states of consciousness I experienced were in bed with someone, alone, or with my spiritual teacher. There was never a difference for me. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
40:Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove
41:Through the study of Zen you can learn to move from lower to higher states of mind at will. Higher states of mind offer you a much more accurate picture of reality. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
42:In order to fulfil the desire for happiness, most people engage in a relentless search in the realm of objects, substances, activities, states of mind and relationships. ~ rupert-spira, @wisdomtrove
43:In Zen we classify ten thousand different states of mind, different ways of seeing life. There is something beyond the ten thousand states of mind that we call nirvana. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
44:The ten thousand states of mind that we talk about in Zen are all levels of perception. You can think of each of the ten thousand states of mind as a dimensional plane. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
45:The teaching process is lengthy because there are many, many states of mind to go through. And in each state of mind there is a different aggregate of self to be explored. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
46:If you have more personal power and you are in higher states of mind, then naturally you can see things and adhere to them or avoid them. Personal power is really the issue. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
47:In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove
48:The skeptics who say it can't be done are simply in extremely limited states of mind. They can't even perceive the possibility of anybody doing something that they can't do. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
49:We call it the transmission of the lamp in Zen. That's when we take enlightened states of mind and literally, you can transfer them, just like you can hand somebody flowers. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
50:Beyond the ten thousand states of mind is the still point. It exists within them all, yet beyond them. It is not affected by them. It gives birth to them. This is the riddle. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
51:Most persons spend their lives stuck in relatively low states of mind. In these states of mind their views of themselves and the world around them are often severely limited. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
52:The teaching of the ten thousand states of mind, particularly as one advances further, is done through transmission. This is where we differ from teaching algebra or calculus. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
53:Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove
54:After an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. ~ alexander-hamilton, @wisdomtrove
55:The spiritual idea of distances of space is the same as of distances of good or distances of truth, which are affinities and likenesses according to states of goodness and truth. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove
56:Expression and communication in the peak–experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic, as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being. ~ abraham-maslow, @wisdomtrove
57:The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreebly to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove
58:There is no ultimate objective reality within the ten thousand states of mind. Most people don't like to hear this. But there are ten thousand realities, and each is definitely unifying. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
59:A saint is someone who has been very selfless and, over a period of lifetimes, generated a tremendous amount of good karma, which has caused them to enter into very lovely states of mind. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
60:Our difficulties launch us into new states of consciousness where we are inspired to step out of the reality of our smallest thoughts and step into the limitless freedom of our biggest dreams. ~ debbie-ford, @wisdomtrove
61:As the proportion of people reaching higher states of consciousness increases, this inertia will decrease, and at the same time a supportive momentum in the new direction will start building up. ~ peter-russell, @wisdomtrove
62:A teacher will alter the balance of power by actually lifting a person into other states of mind. In those states of mind the teaching will take place in non-verbal ways through direct experience. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
63:The way you learn is by sitting with the Master, as he moves into those states of attention, you feel that and follow him. He generates tremendous energy when he's doing anything. You are taught inwardly. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
64:When you sit and meditate and begin to experience expanded states of mind, you will be afraid. The light makes most people very, very afraid. The only way to overcome the fear is walking down into the light. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
65:Feel the underlying meaning of the teachings that are espoused by me or anyone else. The word's don't mean much. Words are supposed to be catalysts for higher states of attention. That is where the action is. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
66:People enter states of consciousness where they think they've become enlightened. The best thing to do, if you've gone through one of those phases, is to be sensible, laugh at yourself for how foolish you were. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
67:Son&
68:It is not the pursuit of greater and greater states of happiness and bliss that leads to enlightenment, but the yearning for Reality and the rabid dissatisfaction with living anything less than a fully authentic life. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove
69:Selectively pick a teacher, one that you respect, not just someone who can talk with wonderful poetic figures about enlightenment, but someone who has the personal power to bring you into altered states of awareness. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
70:All acts suppose certain dispositions, and habits of mind and heart, which may be in themselves states of enjoyment or of wretchedness, and which must be fruitful in other consequences besides those particular acts. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove
71:How can there be two selves in one body? The &
72:I represent a party which does not yet exist: the party Revolution-Civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, then the United States of the World. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove
73:Meditation without selfless giving is not enough. You may go into very high states of consciousness but the rough edges will still be there - there may be lots of selfish motives lurking within the self - that you don't see. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
74:My revenge is fraternity! No more frontiers! The Rhine for everyone! Let us be the same Republic, let us be the United States of Europe, let us be the continental federation, let us be European liberty, let us be universal peace! ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove
75:The majority of the ten thousand states of mind cannot be discussed. It is rather a question of teaching a person to step outside the conceptual framework they have and transmitting blocks of awareness to an individual psychically. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
76:Indianapolis, Indiana is the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder of an Indian. The kind of people who'll hang a white man for murdering an Indian&
77:Just like there are different roads that lead to different places, so there are different levels of awareness that lead to different places and we shift in and out of them. These are the ten thousand states of mind that we study in Zen. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove
78:A day will come when all nations on our continent will form a European brotherhood... A day will come when we shall see... the United States of America and the United States of Europe face to face, reaching out for each other across the seas. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove
79:The world and the mind are states of being. The supreme is not a state. It pervades, all states, but it is not a state of something else. It is entirely uncaused, independent, complete in itself, beyond time and space, mind and matter. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
80:I am in the state of detached but affectionate awareness. When this awareness turns upon itself, you may call it the Supreme State. But the fundamental reality is beyond awareness, beyond the three states of becoming, being and not-being. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
81:The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove
82:Synchronicity takes the coincidence of events in space and time as meaning something more than mere chance, namely, a peculiar interdependence of objective events among themselves as well as with the subjective (psychic) states of the observer or observers. ~ carl-jung, @wisdomtrove
83:A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible-indeed, inevitable-the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody. ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove
84:One's life story cannot be told with complete veracity. A true autobiography would have to be written in states of mind, emotions, heartbeats, smiles and tears; not in months and years, or physical events. Life is marked off on the soul by feelings, not by dates. ~ hellen-keller, @wisdomtrove
85:My friends, we did it. We weren't just marking time, we made a difference. We made (America) stronger - we made (America) freer - and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad. Not bad at all. And so, goodbye. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove
86:Nervous states of the worst sort control me without pause. Everything that is not literature bores me and I hate it. I lack all aptitude for family life except, at best, as an observer. I have no family feeling and visitors make me almost feel as though I were maliciously being attacked. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove
87:It is my personal conviction that almost any one of the newborn states of the world would far rather embrace Communism or any other form of dictatorship than acknowledge the political domination of another government, even though that brought to each citizen a far higher standard of living. ~ dwight-eisenhower, @wisdomtrove
88:Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul... when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued with the same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove
89:Dying is not perpetual unconscious sleep. It's a further waking up to a higher state of consciousness, which is predicated on the lesser states of consciousness. Deep sleep is the ground from which consciousness expands, through the dreaming state to the waking state, and then to the after-death state. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove
90:I can say-not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots-that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove
91:Since my subjects have always been my sensations, my states of mind and the profound reactions that life has been producing in me, I have frequently objectified all this in figures of myself, which were the most sincere and real thing that I could do in order to express what I felt inside and outside of myself. ~ frida-kahlo, @wisdomtrove
92:In all states of dilemma or of difficulty, prayer is an available source. The ship of prayer may sail through all temptations, doubts and fears, straight up to the throne of God; and though she may be outward bound with only griefs, and groans, and sighs, she shall return freighted with a wealth of blessings! ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove
93:The Negro is not the man farthest down. The condition of the coloured farmer in the most backward parts of the Southern States of America, even where he has the least education and the least encouragement, is incomparably better than the condition and opportunities of the agricultural population in Sicily. ~ booker-t-washington, @wisdomtrove
94:The morbid states of health, the irritableness of disposition arising from unstrung nerves, the impatience, the crossness, the fault-finding of men, who, full of morbid influences, are unhappy themselves, and throw the cloud of their troubles like a dark shadow upon others, teach us what eminent duty there is in health. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove
95:Q: I can distinguish two states of mind: &
96:We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us. ~ alain-de-botton, @wisdomtrove
97:No external activity can reach the inner self; worship and prayers remain on the surface only; to go deeper meditation is essential, the striving to go beyond the states of sleep, dream and waking. In the beginning the attempts are irregular, then they recur more often, become regular, then continuous and intense, until all obstacles are conquered. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove
98:The same comparison holds true within the United States itself: Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious literalism, are especially plagued by [high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and infant mortality], while the comparatively secular states of the Northeast conform to European standards. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove
99:To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future; the freedom to get beyond ourselves... in states of mind that allow us to rise above our immediate surroundings and see the beauty and value of the world we live in. ~ oliver-sacks, @wisdomtrove
100:But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crimes. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:~ Giannina Braschi, United States of Banana. (2011), p.23,
2:In God We Trust. ~ United States of America national motto,
3:Traits don't change, states of mind do. ~ Elizabeth Strout,
4:I don't know what to do
two states of mind in me ~ Sappho,
5:Clarified states of consciousness are contagious. ~ Ervin Laszlo,
6:We must build a kind of United States of Europe. ~ Winston Churchill,
7:Satan has his sights on the United States of America. ~ Rick Santorum,
8:We must build a kind of United States of Europe. ~ Winston S Churchill,
9:"All states of consciousness are available right now." ~ Thaddeus Golas,
10:Happy! That is indefinable as far as states of being go. ~ Sylvia Plath,
11:No black or white America-just United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
12:For the United States of America, the best is yet to come. ~ Barack Obama,
13:The United States of America is a threat to world peace. ~ Nelson Mandela,
14:Ochopee, smallest post office in the United States of America. ~ Tim Dorsey,
15:There are no bad people; there are only bad states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
16:Nothing mattered except states of mind, chiefly our own. ~ John Maynard Keynes,
17:This is the United States of America and it's always a busy time. ~ Jean Schmidt,
18:Childhood and adulthood were not factors of age but states of mind. ~ Alex Shakar,
19:Tantra involves radical change, a change in states of awareness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
20:In ten years I will become president of the United States Of America. ~ Tom DeLonge,
21:May God bless the United States of America and all who call it home. ~ Bill Clinton,
22:What is perfect health? The unraveling of all imagined states of mind ~ Byron Katie,
23:I float through states of consciousness in the search for my gravity. ~ Truth Devour,
24:May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. ~ Hillary Clinton,
25:The preachers are the greatest problem in the United States of America. ~ Paul Washer,
26:In God We Trust. ~ United States of America national motto, as well as E PLURIBUS UNUM,
27:I think fear is one of the natural states of most actors, to be honest. ~ James McAvoy,
28:The next Euro-elections will be a step towards a United States of Europe ~ Daniel Hannan,
29:More die in the United States of too much food than of too little ~ John Kenneth Galbraith,
30:The United States of America does not have friends; it has interests. ~ John Foster Dulles,
31:More die in the United States of too much food than of too little. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith,
32:I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next president of the United States of America. ~ Al Gore,
33:By heritage and by choice, the United States of America will make that stand. ~ George W Bush,
34:There is no confidence in the Arab world today in the United States of America. ~ John McCain,
35:The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. ~ John McCain,
36:There is an irreplaceable ally. It's called the United States of America. ~ Benjamin Netanyahu,
37:We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing. ~ Gore Vidal,
38:In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. ~ Al Gore,
39:Life is a series of sensations connected to different states of consciousness ~ Remy de Gourmont,
40:May He guide us now. And may God continue to bless the United States of America. ~ George W Bush,
41:There's a gaping difference between the United States of America and Putin's Russia. ~ Paul Ryan,
42:Donald Trump cannot, cannot be the man who leads the United States of America. ~ Elizabeth Warren,
43:I’ve always felt there are two states of existence: being in Paris and being out of it. ~ Ann Mah,
44:Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world. ~ Sam Harris,
45:Everyone does not know the secrets of Truth
The States of Truth are not evidential. ~ Idries Shah,
46:God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America. ~ Otto von Bismarck,
47:I'm a black man in the United States of America, so I always feel like there's a target on me. ~ Wale,
48:The great man presides over all his states of consciousness with obstinate rigor. ~ Leonardo da Vinci,
49:The United States of America is engaged in a war against an extremist group of folks. ~ George W Bush,
50:But Nikki White was a citizen of the world’s richest country, the United States of America. ~ T R Reid,
51:Enlightenment is not a state of mind, yet all states of mind are contained within it. ~ Frederick Lenz,
52:May God bless the state of Israel and may God bless the United States of America. ~ Benjamin Netanyahu,
53:The fuck you say. Like some kind of Secret Service for the United States of the Undead? ~ Sam Sisavath,
54:We have so many words for states of mind, and so few words for the states of the body. ~ Jeanne Moreau,
55:Donald Trump and I both accept that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. ~ Mike Pence,
56:God has a special providence for fools, drunkards, and the United States of America. ~ Otto von Bismarck,
57:I was swimming for the United States of America. I was swimming to beat Stephen Holland. ~ Bobby Hackett,
58:The United States of America have taken their name from the United States of the Netherlands. ~ Seth Low,
59:My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America. ~ Donald Trump,
60:In the United States of Entertainment there is no greater sin than to bore the audience ~ Bernard Goldberg,
61:The enlightened being can look through states of mind, but they are also outside of them. ~ Frederick Lenz,
62:This is the United States of America that I'm representing. I'm not representing the globe. ~ Donald Trump,
63:I am about the people of the United States of America and the people of Houston, Texas. ~ Sheila Jackson Lee,
64:Sarah Palin knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America. ~ John McCain,
65:The painter goes through states of fullness and evaluation. That is the whole secret of art. ~ Pablo Picasso,
66:The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy. ~ George Washington,
67:We aren't anything in particular. There is no self. There are only ideas and states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
68:And the United States of America should have been at the front of that line. And was not. ~ Kimberley Strassel,
69:A Socialist United States of Europe seems to me the only worth-while political objective today ~ George Orwell,
70:Government without a tough and vibrant media is not an option for the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
71:The Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
72:The entire exhibitions industry in the United States of America has filed for bankruptcy. ~ Jeffrey Katzenberg,
73:There are more whooping cranes in the United States of America than there are women in Congress. ~ Joanna Russ,
74:Iraq does not pose an imminent threat to the United States of any of its neighboring nations. ~ Dennis Kucinich,
75:Perfection is not a final state. It is a state of mind. There are ten thousand states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
76:There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
77:The scientific approach to life is not necessarily appropriate to states of visceral anguish. ~ Anthony Burgess,
78:Man, it just cost me five dollars to beat my own meat... God bless the United States of America. ~ Doug Stanhope,
79:Your states of mind do not occur randomly. They occur because of vibratory and karmic patterns. ~ Frederick Lenz,
80:Figure a man's only good for one oath at a time. I took mine to the Confederate States of America. ~ Frank Nugent,
81:In the States of New England, from the first, the condition of the poor was provided for; ~ Alexis de Tocqueville,
82:It’s not right in the United States of America that a little kid shouldn’t be safe in school. ~ Madeleine L Engle,
83:There hasn't been a military force like the United States of America in the history of the world. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
84:To get asked to do stuff like 'United States Of Tara' and 'Caprica' is terrific. I can't complain. ~ Patton Oswalt,
85:Enlightenment doesn't simply mean being in heavenly states of mind. It doesn't mean being a saint. ~ Frederick Lenz,
86:In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama, and the United States of America. ~ Lupe Fiasco,
87:I think we all share the same goal, which is a United States of America that inspires people and leads. ~ Tom Vilsack,
88:There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America. ~ Otto von Bismarck,
89:Each of the ten thousand states of mind presents you with a different view of essence and experience. ~ Frederick Lenz,
90:I had been experiencing brief flashes of disassociation, or shallow states of non-ordinary reality. ~ Carlos Castaneda,
91:Negative states of mind, such as anger, resentment, fear, envy, and jealousy, are products of the ego. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
92:BIBLIOBLISS. Transported into states of transcendent pleasure while immersed in reading a favorite book. ~ Rob Brezsny,
93:Time is passing...yet for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. ~ George W Bush,
94:I have already observed that universal suffrage has been adopted in all the states of the Union; ~ Alexis de Tocqueville,
95:our positive states of mind can act as antidotes to our negative tendencies and delusory states of mind ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
96:The pathway to enlightenment leads to states of ecstasy, knowledge, and a pretty ironic sense of humor. ~ Frederick Lenz,
97:This is what I wanted to hear from you: confess what you are smuggling: moods, states of grace, elegies! ~ Italo Calvino,
98:The Buddhists say there are 121 states of consciousness. Of these, only three involve misery or suffering. ~ Jenny Offill,
99:These days we are all pained by the disaster caused by the hurricane in the United States of America. ~ Pope Benedict XVI,
100:I don't think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States of America. ~ Reince Priebus,
101:Reality imposes its law on man, laws that he can only escape in dreams or in states of trance—or in insanity. ~ Erich Fromm,
102:So fuck the army, and fuck the War Department, and fuck the United States of America, and fuck you boys too. ~ Stephen King,
103:I am not a spokesperson for the church and the church is not a spokesperson for the United States of America. ~ John F Kerry,
104:I don't want to pit Red America against Blue America. I want to be President of the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
105:It is impossible to move on to new states of mind unless you seek the forgiveness of those you've offended. ~ Frederick Lenz,
106:Literary' feelings are responses to poems, not just states of emotion which occur in their presence. ~ Terry Eagleton,
107:Pursuit and possession are accompanied by states of consciousness so wide apart that they can never be united. ~ Jack London,
108:The diplomatic representatives of the United States of America to other nations are almost entirely Jews. ~ Julius Streicher,
109:Happiness and suffering are states of mind, and so their main causes cannot be found outside the mind. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
110:Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe. ~ George Washington,
111:The December - January period is the strongest time of the year. It is an easy time to shift states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
112:Enlightened people live in very charged states of attention, with a tremendous power circuiting through them. ~ Frederick Lenz,
113:I truly have come to believe that there are only two states of being that generate our thoughts: LOVE or FEAR. ~ Brenda Strong,
114:...there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation. ~ Dalai Lama,
115:Altogether, the idea of meditation is not to create states of ecstasy or absorption, but to experience being. ~ Ch gyam Trungpa,
116:He that said it was not good for man to be alone, placed the celibate amongst the inferior states of perfection. ~ Robert Boyle,
117:I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn't mean I won't run. ~ Joe Biden,
118:The United States of America will sound as pompously in the world or in history as The Kingdom of Great Britain. ~ Thomas Paine,
119:I am the President of the United States of America, clothed in immense power! You will procure me these votes. ~ Abraham Lincoln,
120:such manner as shall seem most likely to conduce to the furtherance of the interests of the Confederate States of ~ Bruce Catton,
121:Humans tended to use the terms free and freedom to indicate states of being that were anything but. ~ Robert Repino,
122:My fellow Republicans, when Donald Trump becomes president of the United States of America, the change will be huge. ~ Mike Pence,
123:If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. ~ Nelson Mandela,
124:I think the Justice Department needs to be the final protector of the people of the United States of America. ~ Sheila Jackson Lee,
125:Staple a green card to their diploma - welcome to the United States of America! We want those people in our country. ~ Mitt Romney,
126:The 3 states of waking, dream and sleep cannot be real. They simply come and go. The real will always exist. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,
127:The United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime. ~ Mike Pence,
128:We have to truly become a united people of the United States of America, and divisiveness cannot make that happen. ~ Stevie Wonder,
129:Compassion is one of the highest states of consciousness that you can choose to assist you in times of enormous pain. ~ Debbie Ford,
130:Everything that I will ever accomplish, I owe to God, to my parent's sacrifices, and to the United States of America. ~ Marco Rubio,
131:Materialism ends up denying the existence of any irreducible subjective qualitative states of sentience or awareness. ~ John Searle,
132:Sexual arousal and penal erections are associated with both altered states of consciousness and sleep. ~ James David Lewis Williams,
133:We're the Fascist States of America today, not the United States of America, because the corporations are in power. ~ Jesse Ventura,
134:We dance past states of saints in somebody else's religion. To m they're just rock shaped into glorified nobodies. ~ Chuck Palahniuk,
135:When the United States of America does things in its best interests, it is hated. I'm sorry, that just ticks me off. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
136:Once you have mastered the ten thousand states of mind, it's paranirvana, the absorption into the stillness forever. ~ Frederick Lenz,
137:Veronica to Stoker: "Does this mean you will stop torturing me by displaying yourself in various states of undress? ~ Deanna Raybourn,
138:All tragedies are finished bya death, All comedies are ended bya marriage; The future states of both are left to faith. ~ Robert Byron,
139:There are places where it is easy to see, places of illumination, where one moves into illumined states of attention. ~ Frederick Lenz,
140:There are ten thousand states of mind. Most people spend their entire lives confined to a few of these states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
141:We remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
142:He rejected the policy of seeking a direct accommodation with the Nazis at the expense of the smaller states of Europe. ~ Martin Gilbert,
143:According to Zen Buddhist cosmology there are ten thousand different states of mind to view and understand life through. ~ Frederick Lenz,
144:All states of mind have different views. On the higher plateau, opportunities will open to you because you can see them. ~ Frederick Lenz,
145:Fifty percent of the United States of America is underneath the ocean. And we have better maps of Mars than those areas. ~ Robert Ballard,
146:Happiness is only gained when your mind is in extended states of attention, when your mind is merging with the infinite. ~ Frederick Lenz,
147:We were fighting for them in wars against people that we had more in common with than with the United States of Banana. ~ Giannina Braschi,
148:Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to announce that I’m officially running for President of the United States of America. ~ Katy Evans,
149:There is not a black America and a white America; a Latino America, an Asian America. There is the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
150:Any country that makes U.S. service members get on their knees will feel the full force and fury of the United States of America. ~ Ted Cruz,
151:meditation is not just about creating states of well-being; it is about destroying the belief in an inherently existent self. ~ Mark Epstein,
152:Today I'm a candidate for the office of president of the United States of America. My kids can't believe I just said that. ~ Jon Huntsman Jr,
153:From the highest state of mind you have a window whereby you could perhaps move beyond all states of mind, to enlightenment. ~ Frederick Lenz,
154:Knowing the truth about what you believe and longing for the time before you knew it are not mutually exclusive states of being. ~ Erin Keane,
155:Mamaw always had two gods: Jesus Christ and the United States of America. I was no different, and neither was anyone else I knew. ~ J D Vance,
156:We experimented and we experienced many altered states of awareness. We used the power plants. I did that for a year or two. ~ Frederick Lenz,
157:Enlightenment is the ability to freely transact within the ten thousand states of mind without a continuous self or awareness ~ Frederick Lenz,
158:Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full. ~ Carl Jung,
159:This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism. ~ Tony Blair,
160:Bondage and freedom are states of the outer mind, not of the inner spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad, A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad,
161:some of the boys she went with in Baltimore were "terrible speeds" and came to dances in states of artificial stimulation; ~ F Scott Fitzgerald,
162:This is the United States of America. It means we respond to our fellow Americans in times of crisis and emergency and disaster. ~ Bob Menendez,
163:Music imitates (represents) the passions or states of the soul, such as gentleness, anger, courage, temperance, and their opposites. ~ Aristotle,
164:No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship. ~ Barack Obama,
165:The starting point for creativity is silence... the creative soil of silence, where can be found the seed-states of all things. ~ David Spangler,
166:Mamaw always had two gods: Jesus Christ and the United States of America. I was no different, and neither was anyone else I knew. I’m ~ J D Vance,
167:Africa can and will only advance through African integration, which can be realized through the Federal United States of Africa ~ Cheikh Anta Diop,
168:I completely agree with Helmut Kohl. I am not an advocate of the "United States of Europe," nor am I an integration fanatic. ~ Jean Claude Juncker,
169:Learning takes us through many states of life, but it fails utterly in the hour of danger and temptation. Then faith alone saves. ~ Mahatma Gandhi,
170:No country can allow its safety to be wholly dependent on faithful observance by other states of rules to which they are obliged. ~ Arthur Balfour,
171:Prosperous suburbia was one of the end-states of history. Once achieved, only plague, flood, or nuclear war could threaten its grip. ~ J G Ballard,
172:The ten thousand states of mind are hallucinatory. Hallucinations are real. Dreams are real. But there are some things more real. ~ Frederick Lenz,
173:I can assure you, as a practitioner of Buddhism, that there are ten thousand states of mind, at least, give or take a few billion. ~ Frederick Lenz,
174:There are ten thousand states of mind. The culmination of the states of mind you have gone through will create your next lifetime. ~ Frederick Lenz,
175:from the mind the inner states of the body, those that constitute the flow of life as it wanders in the journey of each day. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
176:I explored alternate states of consciousness at one period of my life through psychedelics, as was the fashion with all my friends. ~ Frederick Lenz,
177:The tyranny of public opinion (and what an opinion!) is as fatuous in the small towns of France as it is in the United States of America. ~ Stendhal,
178:Damasio argues that the core of our self-awareness rests on the physical sensations that convey the inner states of the body: ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
179:I just want everybody to understand and fully know that the United States of America stands behind Japan, its great ally, 100 percent. ~ Donald Trump,
180:Nashville may be famed for its country music, but this may well be the capital of rock and roll music in the United States of America. ~ Paul Stanley,
181:YANKEE, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of our Union, a New Englander. In the Southern States the word is unknown. ~ Ambrose Bierce,
182:Bryan Costales, George Jansen, and Claus Aßmann. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media ~ Anonymous,
183:The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims. ~ John Adams,
184:The only democracies left in continental Europe were the tiny neutral states of Sweden and Switzerland, both dependent on German goodwill. ~ Tony Judt,
185:Horizontality is a desire to give up, to sleep. Verticality is an attempt to escape. Hanging and floating are states of ambivalence. ~ Louise Bourgeois,
186:I think politics should be expressed in this way and not in other ways. And not just politics - sentiments, even certain states of being. ~ Sergio Leone,
187:Everything is a state of mind. Astral travel is the ability to wander through different states of mind and develop psychic perceptions. ~ Frederick Lenz,
188:I think when the United States of America put a man on the moon in 1969, that was one of the greatest accomplishments mankind has ever done. ~ Doug Liman,
189:Man is able to speculate and reason about the mental states of other men, because he recognizes these states within himself. As ~ William Walker Atkinson,
190:Maybe I’ll just sit here parked for a while, he decided, and alpha meditate or go into various different altered states of consciousness. ~ Philip K Dick,
191:The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons. ~ George W Bush,
192:While envisaging the destruction of imperialism, it is necessary to identify its head, which is no other than the United States of America. ~ Che Guevara,
193:Einstein, in the special theory of relativity, proved that different observers, in different states of motion, see different realities. ~ Leonard Susskind,
194:Success will come about because you are in a higher state of mind. If you create good karma, then you will go into higher states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
195:What we are seeking is the nexus of all possible worlds and states of mind, which is within us. The source of yin and yang is within you. ~ Frederick Lenz,
196:Reincarnation is simply changing awareness. What you are reincarnating into are different states of mind. The whole show is on the inside. ~ Frederick Lenz,
197:What I don't like in movies dealing with the illustration of altered states of consciousness is that usually you see the guy from the outside. ~ Gaspar Noe,
198:If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace. ~ Nelson Mandela,
199:In a special sense... the three great natural states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep contain an entire spectrum of spiritual enlightenment. ~ Ken Wilber,
200:Son, this is the United States of America. Some would say it’s unconstitutional to try to prevent psychopaths from fulfilling their potential. ~ Dean Koontz,
201:The causal body holds the structure. The causal body is the coding. So you are not just scattered all over the ten thousand states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
202:The purpose of Buddhist practice is universal awakening, not dramatic experiences of opening any more than passive states of serenity. ~ Taigen Dan Leighton,
203:There are desirable states of the soul which it is dangerous to rest in after they have been mastered. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Renunciation,
204:All the Democrats do is bicker. They're not concerned about the war or the fate of the United States of America. They're desperate characters. ~ Jackie Mason,
205:Bottom line is President Obama has said that it is a top priority of the United States of America to ensure that Iran never achieves a nuclear. ~ Mitt Romney,
206:Let me say this on a personal note. Without the United States of America, I would in all probably not be able to stand here before you today. ~ Angela Merkel,
207:Ostara, if one dies while in these othere states of consciousness, one dies indeed. this begs the question, are dreams truly only ever dreams? ~ Nancy Holder,
208:The wisdom obtained in the higher states of consciousness is different from that obtained by inference and testimony as it refers to particulars. ~ Patanjali,
209:The witness of the three states of consciousness [waking, dream and deep sleep] and of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is the Self ~ Adi Shankara,
210:Eighty-six percent of the gun death of children under the age of 14 internationally is right here in the United States of America. It is madness. ~ Nita Lowey,
211:Most of the states of Europe had no prospect of social transformation, and thus little ability to rival or counter the Nazis and the Soviets. ~ Timothy Snyder,
212:Ritual use of psychedelic plants and substances has been a particularly effective technology for inducing holotropic states of consciousness. ~ Stanislav Grof,
213:The United States of America needs to begin to exercise strong leadership to protect the vulnerable citizens and over 100,000 children in Aleppo. ~ Mike Pence,
214:For the Mexican people, for the Mexican government, the very good relationship with the United States of America is, of course, essential. ~ Enrique Pena Nieto,
215:The dreams of eternity are the states of mind. When we wake up from the dreams there's only enlightenment. There could never be anything else. ~ Frederick Lenz,
216:Too small is our world to allow discrimination, bigotry and intolerance to thrive in any corner of it, let alone in the United States of America. ~ Eliot Engel,
217:Populism is everywhere. We have religious populism in the Muslim-majority countries as much as we have populism in the United States of America. ~ Tariq Ramadan,
218:Support Group featured a rotating cast of characters in various states of tumor-driven unwellness. Why did the cast rotate? A side effect of dying. ~ John Green,
219:The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government ~ Thomas Jefferson,
220:The United States of America will never be intimidated by thugs and assassins. The killers will fail, and the Iraqi people will live in freedom. ~ George W Bush,
221:You can get stuck in one state of mind or a general area of mind for a thousand lifetimes. Some states of mind afford better views than others. ~ Frederick Lenz,
222:Fichte would identify all states of our minds with states of our body - perhaps not merely of our brain, but the whole body as an acting organism. ~ Allen W Wood,
223:I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the decade beginning January 1, 1990, as the Decade of the Brain. ~ George H W Bush,
224:Advanced practice is the entrance into the ten thousand states of mind. Most people exist in five or six of these states in their whole lifetime. ~ Frederick Lenz,
225:I will never apologize for the United States of America - I don't care what the facts are. Said after 'Vincennes' shot down an Iranian Airliner. ~ George H W Bush,
226:The United States of America is a nation where people are not united because of those three glaring frailties: racism, injustices and inequities. ~ Yuri Kochiyama,
227:We are hated because we are free. We are hated because of the idea that is the United States of America. We are hated because of our Constitution. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
228:All around the United States of America - in the cities and the counties - our public education is suffering and has been suffering. Cuts, cuts, cuts. ~ Bill Cosby,
229:I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. ~ Thomas Jefferson,
230:Everything is dependent upon your state of mind. That is all there is, states of mind, ten thousand of them. Beyond all states of mind is nirvana. ~ Frederick Lenz,
231:Spiritual evolution is a movement from the states of mind that reflect life less accurately to the states of mind that reflect life more accurately. ~ Frederick Lenz,
232:Almost a century has passed since Japan first entered the world community by concluding a treaty of amity with the United States of America in 1854. ~ Shigeru Yoshida,
233:At least until you land.’ ‘I’ve come to realise that falling and living have certain things in common. For a start, both are very temporary states of being. ~ Jo Nesb,
234:Far from making peace, wars invariably serve as classrooms and laboratories where men and techniques and states of mind are prepared for the next war. ~ Wendell Berry,
235:Human experience depends on everything that can influence states of the human brain, ranging from changes in our genome to changes in the global economy. ~ Sam Harris,
236:Love, joy, and peace are deep states of Being, or rather three aspects of the state of inner connectedness with Being. As such, they have no opposite. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
237:The United States of America has no intention of finishing second in space. This effort is expensive-but it pays its way for freedom and for America. ~ John F Kennedy,
238:I think it's fair to say that diplomacy today requires much more of that if you're the United States of America than it did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. ~ Hillary Clinton,
239:pendulating between states of exploration and safety, between language and body, between remembering the past and feeling alive in the present. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
240:Son, this is the United States of America. Some would say it’s unconstitutional to try to prevent psychopaths from fulfilling their potential.” Sometimes ~ Dean Koontz,
241:The only place I want to travel to is the United States Of America from 2008 to 2016. Anywhere else is a horribly dangerous time for women and minorities. ~ Adam Pally,
242:Things that are impossible - are everyday experiences when you live in advanced states of mind. You live in a world of constant miraculous awareness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
243:Artificial lights gleaming brilliantly in the dark, all along ever street, because Earth residents seem to consider day and night as mere states of mind. ~ Claudia Gray,
244:Eros once again limb-loosener whirls me sweetbitter, impossible to fight off, creature stealing up...I don't know what I should do: two states of mind in me... ~ Sappho,
245:Governments often keep their populace in permanent states of vigilance or anxiety against foreign enemies as a control mechanism—the politics of fear. ~ Graham E Fuller,
246:Harry and Ron slouched into the Great Hall in states of deepest gloom, Hermione behind them, wearing a well-you-did-break-school-rules sort of expression. ~ J K Rowling,
247:Kundalini is seen as a serpent that can shoot up the shushumna, past the chakras, opening them all and bringing you into different states of awareness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
248:We're not the States of America; we're the United States of America. If states don't get what they need, we're not going to have a successful plan, period. ~ Anna Eshoo,
249:When you sit with an enlightened teacher physically, the teacher moves in and out of different states of mind. That is how you learn to do it yourself. ~ Frederick Lenz,
250:An enlightened person lives in the world, passes through the ten thousand states of mind, but they are not bound by them. They can go beyond perception. ~ Frederick Lenz,
251:My administration will not answer to donors or lobbyists or special interests, but we will serve the citizens of the United States of America, believe me. ~ Donald Trump,
252:Samsara is the world appearance, the cycle of rebirth, the physically manifest universes and states of mind that you perceive through the medium of ego. ~ Frederick Lenz,
253:The choice is his [Saddam Hussein's]. And if he does not disarm, the United States of America will lead a coalition and disarm him, in the name of peace. ~ George W Bush,
254:Loyalty. We're still loyal to the United States of America. Why? Because we too are Americans. We don't agree, but we will show our loyalty by our obedience. ~ Jamie Ford,
255:As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where – where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. ~ Sarah Palin,
256:That is why, for instance, horses in New England (as in East Anglia) neigh, while those in the middle states of America (and the Midlands of England) whinny. ~ Bill Bryson,
257:There are many other areas. And I am confident that each of them is of interest to both the people of the United States of America and the Russian people. ~ Vladimir Putin,
258:The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more — if more should be required — the future of human civilization is at stake. ~ Al Gore,
259:Americans have seen fit to elect twelve generals to the U.S. presidency, but even before there was a United States of America generals ruled the earth. Take ~ Winston Groom,
260:And more than that, the United States of America was a whole new type of nation. Nothing like America had ever been tried before in the history of the world. ~ Brad Meltzer,
261:I, for one, begin with intent. ... There is no question that Saddam Hussein had intent to do harm to the Western alliance and to the United States of America. ~ Tommy Franks,
262:I will maintain the presence of a Mexican Army, and the Navy and police in the states of the Mexican Republic, where the problem of crime has increased. ~ Enrique Pena Nieto,
263:My aunt and overprivileged cousin only recognize two states of being: glitter and grunge. And if you weren’t glitter, well, that only left one other option. ~ Rachel Vincent,
264:Certainty and similar states of ‘knowing what we know’ arise out of involuntary brain mechanisms that, like love or anger, function independently of reason. ~ Robert A Burton,
265:COUNTER CALIPHATE Copyright © 2015 by Trevor Scott United States of America trevorscott.com Cover image of shooter by abishome Background cover image by author ~ Trevor Scott,
266:This is the United States of America and unfortunately, race still matters to a lot of people. The evil head of racism doesn't hide, it sticks its head up. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick,
267:I look forward to a United States of Europe in which the barriers between the nations will be greatly minimised and unrestricted travel will be possible. ~ Winston S Churchill,
268:An atom is a hierarchy of different states of information that define the statistical likelihood of finding a particle here or there at the time of observation. ~ Deepak Chopra,
269:People who are capable of practicing tantra are individuals who have meditated for many, many years and developed very strong and powerful states of attention. ~ Frederick Lenz,
270:There's a huge difference in the attitude of the people of the United States of America toward women in politics. It has taken an enormous turn toward equality. ~ Barbara Boxer,
271:United States of America? More like United States of Extraordinary Injustice Against Certain Segments of the Population All Because Rednecks Are Scared of Butt Sex. ~ T J Klune,
272:Good karma leads to rebirth also. The desire for higher states of mind is a desire. When you are fixated on higher states of mind, you don't become enlightened. ~ Frederick Lenz,
273:I was always a doubter when it came to religion. How irrational of me, then, to love a zealot. But then, both love and zealotry are irrational states of mind. ~ Octavia E Butler,
274:Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple A country. ~ Barack Obama,
275:Meditation erases conditioning. It allows a person to channel the kundalini energy through their subtle physical body and reach enlightened states of awareness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
276:There is no doubt in my mind when history was written, the final page will say: 'Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world.' ~ George W Bush,
277:What we focus on we become. If you are just focusing on unhappy things, you will become unhappy. If you focus on happy states of mind, then it will grow in you. ~ Frederick Lenz,
278:For most people the prohibitions are a good thing. But If you are able to maintain very powerful states of mind, then you'll find yourself in everything you see. ~ Frederick Lenz,
279:I have thus defined the concept of the “Background” as the set of nonintentional or preintentional capacities that enable intentional states of function. But ~ John Rogers Searle,
280:In altered states of consciousness, the nervous system itself becomes a ‘sixth sense’ that produces a variety of images including entoptic phenomena. ~ James David Lewis Williams,
281:I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time. ~ Barack Obama,
282:One of the richest countries in the world - the United States of America - is facing a real ethical dilemma in terms of providing equitable access to health care. ~ Mary Robinson,
283:The One is attained when man arrives at ripeness in one of these three states of his spirit, “All is myself, All is thou,” “Thou art the Master, I the servant.” ~ Sri Ramakrishna,
284:I have many projects in various states of development. Some are on paper and some are in my head. But as I go on, I feel the need to be guided in my choices. ~ Abdellatif Kechiche,
285:More than anything else, the welfare states of the mid-20th century established the profound indecency of defining civic status as a function of economic good fortune. ~ Tony Judt,
286:Some of the most exalted states of consciousness I experienced were in bed with someone, alone, or with my spiritual teacher. There was never a difference for me. ~ Frederick Lenz,
287:States of profound happiness, like all other forms of intoxication, are apt to befuddle the wits; intense enjoyment of the present always makes one forget the past. ~ Stefan Zweig,
288:We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we are so deeply interconnected with one another. ~ Ram Dass,
289:An enlightened person is not in touch with all the ten thousand states of mind simultaneously always. It would be very hard to go shopping let alone drive the car. ~ Frederick Lenz,
290:Let me tell you what the Cain Doctrine would be, as it relates to Israel if I were president. You mess with Israel, you are messing with the United States of America! ~ Herman Cain,
291:These truths may seem simple and self-apparent and the words easy to say, but the states of mind that you live in as you progress are beautiful beyond description. ~ Frederick Lenz,
292:Everybody is in various states of needing to transcend something. I believe in mental health care, but when we call people "crazy," we exclude them from our circle. ~ John Darnielle,
293:If only we would wake from (these) states of oblivion with some certain sense that there was no mystery to life at all, that cruelty was purely impersonal, but we don't. ~ Anne Rice,
294:Let the states of equilibrium and harmony exist in perfection, and a happy order will prevail throughout heaven and earth, and all things will be nourished and flourish. ~ Confucius,
295:Melanie Klein wrote that children go through states of mind comparable to mourning, and that this early mourning is revived when grief is experience in later life. ~ Helen Macdonald,
296:No one can bring you into higher states of attention permanently. I can take an individual and i can change their awareness. That's easy. But how long will it last? ~ Frederick Lenz,
297:Through the study of Zen you can learn to move from lower to higher states of mind at will. Higher states of mind offer you a much more accurate picture of reality. ~ Frederick Lenz,
298:We are living in the United States of Alzheimer's. A whole country has lost its memory. When it can't remember yesterday, a country forgets what it once wanted to be. ~ Studs Terkel,
299:Among civilized peoples, especially the very wealthy population of the United States of America, women have become objects of luxury who consume but do not produce. ~ Vilfredo Pareto,
300:Even rational, data-driven scientists could be sent into prolonged states of hysteria when presented with evidence that their favorite foods might be killing them. ~ T Colin Campbell,
301:I spoke in the United States of America and in Canada and other countries already have good results with immigration, that it cannot be compared everything to Europe. ~ Geert Wilders,
302:The first society in history whose leaders were neither Attilas nor Witch Doctors, a society led, dominated and created by the Producers, was the United States of America. ~ Ayn Rand,
303:The return to the Organization of the United States of America, the bearers of a great and diversified democratic culture that has inspired many other peoples. ~ Carlo Azeglio Ciampi,
304:Reform, prosperity, and peace, these are major challenges to the United States of America. I don't think I need any on-the-job training. I'm ready to go at it right now. ~ John McCain,
305:God has opened many doors of opportunity throughout my lifetime, but I believe the greatest of those doors was allowing me to be born in the United States of America. ~ Benjamin Carson,
306:If the United States of America or Britain is having elections, they don't ask for observers from Africa or from Asia. But when we have elections, they want observers. ~ Nelson Mandela,
307:Whenever you engage in a selfless action that contributes to the welfare of others, this will create a vibratory pattern that will lead you into higher states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
308:In Zen we classify ten thousand different states of mind, different ways of seeing life. There is something beyond the ten thousand states of mind that we call nirvana. ~ Frederick Lenz,
309:The people of Iraq are grateful for what the people of the United States of America and our armed forces and our coalition forces are giving them the opportunity to do. ~ Johnny Isakson,
310:There is a movement to get an international criminal court in the world, voted for by hundreds of states-but with the noticeable absence of the United States of America. ~ Harold Pinter,
311:The ten thousand states of mind that we talk about in Zen are all levels of perception. You can think of each of the ten thousand states of mind as a dimensional plane. ~ Frederick Lenz,
312:Selfless actions create a higher karma, which brings you into higher states of mind. When you are in higher states of mind you will see things that you never saw before. ~ Frederick Lenz,
313:Tantric Zen is all about the practice of zazen meditation. If you meditate well, you'll be in very powerful states of mind and then it really doesn't matter what you do. ~ Frederick Lenz,
314:This President has made, I regret to say, a colossal error of judgment. And judgment is what we look for in the president of the President of the United States of America. ~ John F Kerry,
315:FEARON, HENRY BRADSHAW. Sketches of America (1817-1818). Narrative of a Journey of 5,000 Miles through the Eastern and Western States of America. Second Edition, London: 1818. ~ Anonymous,
316:the secret of successful meditative experience is to relax into the process, allowing constructive adjustments of mental states and states of consciousness to occur naturally. ~ Anonymous,
317:The European Union Treaty... within a few years will lead to the creation of what the founding fathers of modern Europe dreamed of after the war, the United States of Europe. ~ Helmut Kohl,
318:The teaching process is lengthy because there are many, many states of mind to go through. And in each state of mind there is a different aggregate of self to be explored. ~ Frederick Lenz,
319:To be in thousands of states of mind simultaneously as you perform simple physical tasks gives you a reverence for life. Each of these outer manifestations of life is God. ~ Frederick Lenz,
320:To stop thought, you have to go above it. We are collecting energy. When it is freed, it is like a flood and the water will rise and we are in altered states of attention. ~ Frederick Lenz,
321:God bless every soul that we lost. God bless the families who have to endure that loss, and God guide us to our reunion in heaven, and God bless the United States of America. ~ Rudy Giuliani,
322:If you have more personal power and you are in higher states of mind, then naturally you can see things and adhere to them or avoid them. Personal power is really the issue. ~ Frederick Lenz,
323:In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way. ~ Alan Watts,
324:Liberal progressivism evolved after our Constitution. It has repeatedly failed all over the world so why do we think it could be successful here in the United States of America? ~ Allen West,
325:Poland is an ally of the United States of America. It was our duty to show that we are a reliable, loyal, and predictable ally. America needed our help, and we had to give it. ~ Adam Michnik,
326:The Buddhists say there are 121 states of consciousness. Of these, only three involve misery or suffering. Most of us spend our time moving back and forth between these three. ~ Jenny Offill,
327:The United States of America became the envy of the world because we welcomed the best and brightest minds from anywhere on the planet and gave them the opportunity to succeed. ~ Naveen Jain,
328:True states of realization occur when you throw away all the teachings. All of the teachings, absolutely. Everything. Then you are investigation itself finding out what you are. ~ A H Almaas,
329:We call it the transmission of the lamp in Zen. That's when we take enlightened states of mind and literally, you can transfer them, just like you can hand somebody flowers. ~ Frederick Lenz,
330:We should be building a nation and it should be called the United States of America. We are spending all our money nation-building in other places and they don't even want us. ~ Donald Trump,
331:A few weeks ago we were reminded that other peoples - in particular the United States of America - fought so that we Germans could live in liberty. That we should never forget. ~ Horst Kohler,
332:Beyond the ten thousand states of mind is the still point. It exists within them all, yet beyond them. It is not affected by them. It gives birth to them. This is the riddle. ~ Frederick Lenz,
333:Japan is an important ally of ours. Japan and the United States of the Western industrialized capacity, 60 percent of the GNP, two countries. That's a statement in and of itself. ~ Dan Quayle,
334:Most persons spend their lives stuck in relatively low states of mind. In these states of mind their views of themselves and the world around them are often severely limited. ~ Frederick Lenz,
335:The skeptics who say it can't be done are simply in extremely limited states of mind. They can't even perceive the possibility of anybody doing something that they can't do. ~ Frederick Lenz,
336:Congratulations, you may already be a winner! Your case has been selected from hundreds of other appellate cases to be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States of America. ~ Paul Beatty,
337:Happiness comes from living in the moment, this moment, now, right here. If you are in obscure states of mind, you won't see what this moment is. You won't realize its beauty. ~ Frederick Lenz,
338:Here at home, for goodness's sakes, we have to finally pass a law prohibiting people on the terrorist watch list from being able to buy a gun in the United States of America. ~ Hillary Clinton,
339:The number one killer of children in Rwanda is malaria. Since the United States of America stood up and working with Rwandans, we have been able to cut those deaths by two-thirds. ~ Bill Frist,
340:The teaching of the ten thousand states of mind, particularly as one advances further, is done through transmission. This is where we differ from teaching algebra or calculus. ~ Frederick Lenz,
341:The United States of America stands for: the ability for people to worship freely, the ability for people to vote and to express their opinion freely is something we hold dear. ~ George W Bush,
342:One thing is clear: The Iraqi people are showing incredible courage. The United States of America must understand that it's in our interests that we help this democracy succeed. ~ George W Bush,
343:President Roosevelt's leadership put the world on notice that the United States of America - with the freest, most dynamic economy the world had ever seen - was open for business. ~ John Hoeven,
344:The black people's struggle has vanquished racism. It was God who created colour. Today Obama, a son of Kenya, a son of Africa, has made it in the United States of America. ~ Muammar al Gaddafi,
345:I am passionately interested in understanding how my country works. And if you want to know about this thing called the United States of America you have to know about the Civil War. ~ Ken Burns,
346:There was a time when you came forth from infinity, your essence that is. You've always existed, and you'll always exist. But there are different states of mind in the universe. ~ Frederick Lenz,
347:To every woman who gave birth, to every citizen and taxpayer, it's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women of the United States of America! ~ Patricia Arquette,
348:But I'm here to say that when we do speak out, we're going to do so because the United States of America does believe, and will always stand for, a certain set of universal values. ~ Barack Obama,
349:In case nobody has told you," she said, "this is the United States of America, where nobody has a right to rely on anybody else--where everybody learns to make his or her own way. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
350:I think they should let gays in the military because we are the United States of America. And if a gay person wants to serve his or her country, why should they not be allowed to? ~ Jesse Ventura,
351:The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom. ~ John Locke,
352:We have to engage in a dialogue with Donald Trump because he is the elected president of the United States of America. But we have to emphatically oppose his foreign policy ideas. ~ Martin Schulz,
353:Football represents and embodies everything that's great about this country, because the United States of America is built on winners, not losers or people who didn't bother to play. ~ Woody Hayes,
354:I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes. ~ Edward Witten,
355:Right now, the United States of America is the patient. And the patient is in critical condition and will not be cured by political correctness and will not be cured by timidity. ~ Benjamin Carson,
356:The descendants of European immigrants do not govern the United States of America today. The foreign and domestic policies of the country are made by the Jews and their lackeys. ~ Julius Streicher,
357:Europe thus divided into nationalities freely formed and free internally, peace between States would have become easier: the United States of Europe would become a possibility. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte,
358:In the past, Ive visited remote places - North Korea, Ethiopia, Easter Island - partly as a way to visit remote states of mind: remote parts of myself that I wouldnt ordinarily explore. ~ Pico Iyer,
359:Our bilateral relations are very good, they’re very close. In the areas of business, of the economy, the United States of America last year were our most important trading partner. ~ Angela Merkel,
360:When my father began his work in the 1970s it was a very different EU. I pay tribute to what he did. But it has now become a very different proposition: the United States of Europe. ~ Boris Johnson,
361:After an unequivocal experience of the inefficacy of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. ~ Alexander Hamilton,
362:I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an Atheist. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America. ~ John F Kerry,
363:In a world of democracies, the most deserving basis of national differences is that the different states of the world should represent a form of moral specialisation within humanity. ~ Roberto Unger,
364:I pledge allegiance to the frog of the United States of America and to the wee public for witches hands one Asian, under God, in the vestibule with little tea and just rice for all. ~ Bette Bao Lord,
365:Israel is extraordinary blessed to have [Benjamin Netanyahu] as prime minister at this pivotal time in history and so is the United States of America to hear his voice against this deal. ~ Lou Dobbs,
366:All the sparrows on the rooftops are crying about the fact that the most imperialist nation that is supporting the colonial regime in the colonies is the United States of America. ~ Nikita Khrushchev,
367:The only way to protect our people, the only way to secure the peace, the only way to control our destiny is by our leadership -- so the United States of America will continue to lead ~ George W Bush,
368:The spiritual idea of distances of space is the same as of distances of good or distances of truth, which are affinities and likenesses according to states of goodness and truth. ~ Emanuel Swedenborg,
369:The Yoga Sutras offers a clear roadmap for the evolution of consciousness from ordinary states of awareness such as waking, dreaming, and sleeping - to higher states of consciousness. ~ Deepak Chopra,
370:I am aware of what the position is in the United States of America. If somebody gives to charity, then he gets a tax incentive, provided the charity is registered in terms of the law. ~ Nelson Mandela,
371:If anybody ran a business like that they would be out of business quickly, and Barack Obama's leadership is driving this business, the United States of America, toward a fiscal cliff. ~ Chris Christie,
372:True motherhood is the noblest call of the world, and we look with sorrow upon the practice here in our own United States of limiting families, a tendency creeping into our own Church. ~ David O McKay,
373:Certain drugs provide brief excursions into altered states of consciousness. The problem is that the perceptions and understandings that come from these experiences don't tend to last. ~ Frederick Lenz,
374:Expression and communication in the peak–experiences tend often to become poetic, mythical, and rhapsodic, as if this were the natural kind of language to express such states of being. ~ Abraham Maslow,
375:I believe that the flag of the Confederate States of America is a painful symbol and reminder of racial injustice and slavery which Abraham Lincoln denounced from here over 150 years ago. ~ Howard Dean,
376:It's probably why the 330,000 members of the fraternal order of police endorsed Donald Trump as the next president of the United States of America, because they see his commitment to them. ~ Mike Pence,
377:A democratically elected congressman of the United States of America should not be talking of an ethnic divide in Afghanistan, should not be interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs. ~ Hamid Karzai,
378:But the brain’s representation of the body has another major implication: because we can depict our own body states, we can more easily simulate the equivalent body states of others. ~ Ant nio R Dam sio,
379:These then are tales of metamorphosis, brought about by neurological chance, but metamorphosis into alternative states of being, other forms of life, no less human for being so different. ~ Oliver Sacks,
380:Some pleasures are intrinsically ethical—feelings like love, gratitude, devotion, and compassion. To inhabit these states of mind is, by definition, to be brought into alignment with others. ~ Sam Harris,
381:The liberty enjoyed by the people of these states of worshiping Almighty God agreebly to their conscience, is not only among the choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights. ~ George Washington,
382:There is no ultimate objective reality within the ten thousand states of mind. Most people don't like to hear this. But there are ten thousand realities, and each is definitely unifying. ~ Frederick Lenz,
383:A saint is someone who has been very selfless and, over a period of lifetimes, generated a tremendous amount of good karma, which has caused them to enter into very lovely states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
384:Fitz stood, signaling to a group of women in various states of dishabille nearby. “Okay, Mr. FBI man. It’s time for you to experience a last night of bachelorhood, Nashville-style.”   Taylor ~ J T Ellison,
385:Very few people become enlightened in any given lifetime. On the planet earth their might be a dozen who are fully enlightened and several thousand who live in enlightened states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
386:In Buddhism we meditate. We make our minds quiet by learning to focus on the chakras, release internal energy that we call kundalini, and bring ourselves into high states of consciousness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
387:If you have done your homework, then the slightest motion from the teacher can cause you to spin into hundreds of different states of mind. That can only happen for the prepared individual. ~ Frederick Lenz,
388:In certain almost supernatural states of the soul, the profundity of life reveals itself entirely in the spectacle, however ordinary it may be, before one's eyes. It becomes its symbol. ~ Charles Baudelaire,
389:Like everything else”—Meg spoke to the few remaining cauliflower heads—“ it’s falling apart. It’s not right in the United States of America that a little kid shouldn’t be safe in school. ~ Madeleine L Engle,
390:Mr. president, I've been a citizen of the United States of America for thirty three years and was never invited to the White House. It sure gives me pleasure to be invited to the Black House. ~ Muhammad Ali,
391:Our difficulties launch us into new states of consciousness where we are inspired to step out of the reality of our smallest thoughts and step into the limitless freedom of our biggest dreams. ~ Debbie Ford,
392:Raising the debt ceiling is not additional spending. It is simply saying, you, the United States of America, can continue to borrow the money you need to pay the bills you have already rung up. ~ Jay Carney,
393:There are some beings who reach a point where they no longer want to move through the ten thousand states of mind. There is something else. It is beyond subject and object. That is nirvana. ~ Frederick Lenz,
394:The result of this is a kind of "ambience of intoxication." Like fish in water, people in a culture swim in the virtually invisible medium of culturally sanctioned yet artificial states of mind. ~ Anonymous,
395:Well, I'm just about at the elevator up to the family quarters. But bear with me for just a minute more as I confirm who I am . It's obvious: I'm the president of the United States of America! ~ Herman Cain,
396:When it comes time to protecting the homeland, the United States of America must be right 100 percent of the time. And the enemy, which desires to strike us again, only has to be right once. ~ George W Bush,
397:Denial may be neither a matter of telling the truth nor intentionally telling a lie. There seem to be states of mind, or even whole cultures, in which we know and don't know at the same time. ~ Stanley Cohen,
398:Formal logic, or logistics, is simply the axiomatics of states of equilibrium of thought, and the positive science corresponding to this axiomatics is none other than the psychology of thought. ~ Jean Piaget,
399:Nirvikalpa samadhi is a state of no mind, beyond the ten thousand states of mind, where there is nothing but perfection, where the self no longer exists...the ego dissolves into immortality. ~ Frederick Lenz,
400:There is no moral equivalent between that butcher and thug and KGB colonel Vladimir Putin and the United States of America, the country that Ronald Reagan used to call a shining city on a hill. ~ John McCain,
401:I created the Huffington Post in the United States of America which is a left of center blog. I created my blogs which are mostly right of center and I believe in open debate in our society. ~ Andrew Breitbart,
402:My sister and the baby she was carrying died in the United States of America. They died in the country that spends more money on pregnancy and birth technology than any other country in this world. ~ Robin Lim,
403:The distrust and suspicion which men everywhere evidence toward their adversaries, at all states of historical development, may be regarded as the immediate precursor to the notion of ideology. ~ Karl Mannheim,
404:The essence of Buddhism is simply that the mind is forever. We are always experiencing different states of mind in one form or another, in one body or another, in one life or another, forever. ~ Frederick Lenz,
405:The world is a very dangerous place. But the world is not too dangerous of a place for the United States of America provided we act according to our principles, provided we act intelligently. ~ Martin O Malley,
406:With the practice of meditation you can move into other states of mind, sort of ungluing the glue that binds you to a particular perceptual mode, a way of seeing life which is an illusory one. ~ Frederick Lenz,
407:As the proportion of people reaching higher states of consciousness increases, this inertia will decrease, and at the same time a supportive momentum in the new direction will start building up. ~ Peter Russell,
408:I think the zenith of popular songwriting to the United States of America was that period that started in the '20s and went into the '50s. It was the period of the great American standard song. ~ Linda Ronstadt,
409:No city, no town, no community of more than one thousand people or two
hundred buildings to the square mile, shall be built or permitted to exist
anywhere in the United States of America. ~ Leigh Brackett,
410:We get so involved with the latest craze or having the latest car or the most high-powered house that we lose touch with that which makes us happy - what makes us happy are quiet states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
411:When I experienced altered states of consciousness, my whole philosophical structure crumbled, and that terrified me. And what scared me the most was the realisation that death was not the end! ~ Susan Schneider,
412:Everyone worries, everyone feels at least a little bit doomed basically all the time, even the richest, most successful, most secure among us live in perpetually anxious states of barely hanging on ~ Ben Fountain,
413:Karma is engendered by states of mind. If you are in a happy state of mind, that will engender one kind of karma. If you are in an unhappy state of mind, that will engender another kind of karma. ~ Frederick Lenz,
414:Most people exist in very clouded states of mind. It's sort of like when you're underwater in a big swimming pool and you open your eyes, and you can't see very far and everything is distorted. ~ Frederick Lenz,
415:There are war-torn countries, people full of poverty, who still voted, 60, 70 percent. If here in the United States of America, we voted at 60 percent, 70 percent, it would transform our politics. ~ Barack Obama,
416:We must become the United States of America that represents every community, that represents every individual. And we will ultimately become a stronger nation, but right now we are a divided nation. ~ Al Sharpton,
417:We print money. The people that print the money is actually us. The government of the United States of America. By its very nature, we control that, and this system is there as representation of us. ~ J C Chandor,
418:Americans believe with all their heart, the vast majority of them, and the vast majority of Floridians, that the United States of America is simply the single greatest nation in all of human history. ~ Marco Rubio,
419:A plasma is the “fourth state of matter.” Solids, liquids, and gases make up the three familiar states of matter, but the most common form of matter in the universe is plasma, a gas of ionized atoms. ~ Michio Kaku,
420:A teacher will alter the balance of power by actually lifting a person into other states of mind. In those states of mind the teaching will take place in non-verbal ways through direct experience. ~ Frederick Lenz,
421:In all the new states of the Union, land monopolization has gone on at an alarming rate, but in none of them so fast as in California, and in none of them, perhaps, are the evil effects so manifest. ~ Henry George,
422:Our strength as a nation comes in our unity. We are the United States of America, not the divided states. And those who want to divide us are trying to divide us, and we shouldn't let them do it. ~ Benjamin Carson,
423:The social states of human kinds Are made by multitudes of minds, And after multitudes of years A little human growth appears Worth having, even to the soul Who sees most plain it's not the whole. ~ John Masefield,
424:The year 1783 dawned full of promise. On February 3, the government of Great Britain formally acknowledged the independence of what were once its American colonies as the United States of America. ~ Brian Kilmeade,
425:My mom used to say that in the United States of Asgard, you can feel the moments when the threads of destiny knot together, to push you or pull you or crush you. But only if you're paying attention. ~ Tessa Gratton,
426:The Constitution of the United States of America clearly affirms the right of every American citizen to bear arms. And as Americans, we will not give up a single right guaranteed under the Constitution. ~ Malcolm X,
427:The war on drugs was an ideology the government came up with, and there never really was a war on drugs. I mean, to stop the importation of drugs into the United States of America is an impossibility. ~ George Jung,
428:We know what we have to face and we know that we are ready to face it. Whatever is asked of us I am sure we can accomplish it. We are the free and unconquerable people of the United States of America. ~ Susan Quinn,
429:Love, joy, and peace are deep states of Being, or rather three aspects of the state of inner connectedness with Being. As such, they have no opposite. This is because they arise from beyond the mind. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
430:The United States of America was built on the backs of Black and brown people, and it still stands on our necks. This is why I’m judging this country for the racism that permeates everything about it. ~ Luvvie Ajayi,
431:This is the basis, and I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist, I am being tried for fighting for the right of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America ~ Paul Robeson,
432:In certain almost supernatural states of mind, the profundity of life is revealed in its entirety in the spectacle, common as it may be, that we have before our eyes. It becomes the symbol of it. ~ Charles Baudelaire,
433:What we do and what we experience has a direct correlation with our habitual states of consciousness and mental states. The more spiritually aware we are, the more harmonious and fulfilling are our lives. ~ Roy Davis,
434:Every force field is simultaneously a field of information because even physics now acknowledges that an atom is not only a hierarchy of different states of energy, or different states of force fields. ~ Deepak Chopra,
435:Meditation simply means entering into states of mind which are happiness, profound happiness, simple happiness, beautiful happiness, complicated, uncomplicated - There are ten thousand states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
436:Religious phenomena are naturally arranged in two fundamental categories: beliefs and rites. The first are states of opinion, and consist in representations; the second are determined modes of action. ~ Emile Durkheim,
437:Delusions are states of mind which, when they arise within our mental continuum, leave us disturbed, confused and unhappy. Therefore, those states of mind which delude or afflict us are called 'delusions.' ~ Dalai Lama,
438:In our daily life a certain way of thinking makes us happy, and a certain way of thinking makes us unhappy. In other words, there are certain states of mind which bring us problems, and they can be removed. ~ Dalai Lama,
439:[President] needs to engage them in a very personal way. And he needs to tell them that this is something that America, the United States of America, needs. Not Republican. It's not Democrat. It's America. ~ John Kasich,
440:The United States of Andrew Jackson or George Washington is not the United States of Frederick Douglass or Sitting Bull. But we present our history from the perspective of the winners, from those in power ~ Chris Hedges,
441:When you live in a psychic state of mind, you are happy. You don't have to do anything. Life is always beautiful, but we don't see it when we enter into lower states of mind that are, in effect, cloudy. ~ Frederick Lenz,
442:Doc went automotively groping in this weirdness east on Olympic, trying not to flinch at what came popping up out of the gloom in the way of city buses and pedestrians in altered states of consciousness. ~ Thomas Pynchon,
443:That risk is the progressive socialist takeover of our country, the “fundamental transformation of the United States of America” that Obama proclaimed just five days before the general election in 2008. The ~ Aaron Klein,
444:Just remembering what you did in previous lives doesn't mean a thing. It's nice to remember that you had higher states of mind, but that won't necessarily get you there. It might even make things painful. ~ Frederick Lenz,
445:The task of the proletariat is to create a still more powerful fatherland with a far greater power of resistance, the Republican United States of Europe, as the foundation of the United States of the World. ~ Leon Trotsky,
446:The way you learn is by sitting with the Master, as he moves into those states of attention, you feel that and follow him. He generates tremendous energy when he's doing anything. You are taught inwardly. ~ Frederick Lenz,
447:We return. We return from fighting. We return fighting. Make way for Democracy! We saved it in France, and by the Great Jehovah, we will save it in the United States of America, or know the reason why.15 ~ Timothy B Tyson,
448:Art and Religion are, then, two roads by which men escape from circumstance to ecstasy. Between aesthetic and religious rapture there is a family alliance. Art and Religion are means to similar states of mind. ~ Clive Bell,
449:Some statements concern the conscious states of the animal, what he is to himself as an inner life; others concern his original and acquired ways of response, his behavior, what he is an outside observer ~ Edward Thorndike,
450:Son--they say there isn't any royalty in this country, but do you want me to tell you how to be king of the United States of America? Just fall through the hole in a privy and come out smelling like a rose. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
451:the slaves in the seven cotton states of the lower South had received in the form of food, clothing, and shelter only 22 percent of the income produced by the plantations and farms on which they worked. ~ James M McPherson,
452:The advent of the civil rights movement during the 50s and 60s made it very plain crystal clear to me that we had an obligation to do what we could to make real the Constitution of the United States of America. ~ John Lewis,
453:Nullification is the Jeffersonian idea that the states of the American Union must judge the constitutionality of the acts of their agent, the federal government, since no impartial arbiter between them exists. ~ Thomas Woods,
454:When you sit and meditate and begin to experience expanded states of mind, you will be afraid. The light makes most people very, very afraid. The only way to overcome the fear is walking down into the light. ~ Frederick Lenz,
455:Feel the underlying meaning of the teachings that are espoused by me or anyone else. The word's don't mean much. Words are supposed to be catalysts for higher states of attention. That is where the action is. ~ Frederick Lenz,
456:The other view is of the official United States, the United States of armies and interventions. The United States that in 1953 overthrew the nationalist government of Mossadegh in Iran and brought back the shah. ~ Edward Said,
457:You are moving in and out of different advanced states of mind through your practice of meditation and mindfulness. It's that level of excellence that gives you joy in life, not the fact that you won or lost. ~ Frederick Lenz,
458:If the culprits are Muslim, they have twisted the teachings of Islam. Whoever performed, or is behind, the terrorist attacks in the United States of America does not represent Islam. God is not behind assassins. ~ Muhammad Ali,
459:Mental states of every kind, - sensations, feelings, ideas, - which were at one time present in consciousness and then have disappeared from it, have not with their disappearance absolutely ceased to exist. ~ Hermann Ebbinghaus,
460:People enter states of consciousness where they think they've become enlightened. The best thing to do, if you've gone through one of those phases, is to be sensible, laugh at yourself for how foolish you were. ~ Frederick Lenz,
461:Anyone else who misspent their largely-sexless adolescence playing role playing games would be aware that games nights are often accompanied by peculiar states of consciousness and even the odd poltergeist effect. ~ Gordon White,
462:Hystericals have not only fixed ideas; they have also persistent emotions, and emotions are complex states of the whole organism in which both the physiological and the psychological phenomena are intimately blended. ~ Anonymous,
463:The statement that although the past can be recorded, the future cannot, is translatable into the statistical statement: Isolated states of order are always postinteraction states, never preinteraction states. ~ Hans Reichenbach,
464:The three states of the caterpillar, larva, and butterfly have, since the time of the Greek poets, been applied to typify the human being,--its terrestrial form, apparent death, and ultimate celestial destination. ~ Humphry Davy,
465:We fall into states of illusion - we forget all this. We get caught up in desires, frustrations, political movements, philosophies, religions, the getting of a living, the pain of a body, the pleasure of a body. ~ Frederick Lenz,
466:It is not the pursuit of greater and greater states of happiness and bliss that leads to enlightenment, but the yearning for Reality and the rabid dissatisfaction with living anything less than a fully authentic life. ~ Adyashanti,
467:Some applauding Steve Harvey for the instructions he gave, others simply horrified by the instructions that one feels necessary to give in this the freest land in all the earth, in 2016, the United States of America. ~ Chris Hayes,
468:When 9/11 happened, the world, certainly in the United States of America, there was a unity. There was this sense of unity. And I have to say just from a personal level, it really felt good. We all felt the same way. ~ Goldie Hawn,
469:As for the Yankees, they had no other ambition than to take possession of this new continent of the sky, and to plant upon the summit of its highest elevation the star- spangled banner of the United States of America. ~ Jules Verne,
470:—Dedalus, you're an antisocial being, wrapped up in yourself. I'm not. I'm a democrat and I'll work and act for social liberty and equality among all classes and sexes in the United States of the Europe of the future. ~ James Joyce,
471:I was speechless. Never had I dreamed that the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and the enchanting technology of a motion-picture camera would be combined to form such an atrocity. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
472:There should be no bitterness or hate where the sole thought is the welfare of the United States of America. No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people. ~ Franklin D Roosevelt,
473:A democratic Europe of nation states could be a force for liberty, enterprise and open trade. But, if creating a United States of Europe overrides these goals, the new Europe will be one of subsidy and protection ~ Margaret Thatcher,
474:I really truly worry that the debt is one of the single biggest threat to the United States of America, that we're talking about a problem that is multi-trillion in its depth and I think we ought to be cutting more. ~ Jason Chaffetz,
475:Sometimes when you are with an enlightened teacher, you will feel both pleasant and unpleasant things magnified. That happens when you meditate with someone who goes into very strong states of altered consciousness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
476:The European Union and the United States of America are the big important economic areas for us, which is why I always have come up strongly in favor of concluding a trade agreement with the United States of America. ~ Angela Merkel,
477:When you are just thinking a lot of silly thoughts and having a lot of worries, you waste a tremendous energy and power and you put yourself into very limited states of mind. You slow down your evolutionary process. ~ Frederick Lenz,
478:An enlightened being comes into the world because they can help. They are off the wheel. They will experience different states of mind. They will suffer. They will know joy. But ultimately, they are free of all that. ~ Frederick Lenz,
479:I'll never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don't care what the facts are.
[after the Navy warship USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in a commercial air corridor, killing 290 civilians] ~ George W Bush,
480:It is our job to continue imagining higher, and even higher, states of being - higher thoughts, word and deeds - in order that we might continue creating ourselves anew in the next grandest version of ourselves. ~ Neale Donald Walsch,
481:PRIEST, WILLIAM. Travels in the United States of America (1793-1797). London: 1802. PROUD, ROBERT. History of Pennsylvania (1681-1742). Also Description of the Province from 1760-1770. 2 Vols. Philadelphia: 1797 and 1798. ~ Anonymous,
482:Selectively pick a teacher, one that you respect, not just someone who can talk with wonderful poetic figures about enlightenment, but someone who has the personal power to bring you into altered states of awareness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
483:All acts suppose certain dispositions, and habits of mind and heart, which may be in themselves states of enjoyment or of wretchedness, and which must be fruitful in other consequences besides those particular acts. ~ John Stuart Mill,
484:I cannot understand how the education of this United States of America has been fooled time and time again. Either make it separate but equal or integrate, therefore it will be equal. And it has been separate and unequal. ~ Bill Cosby,
485:These teachings are like a raft, to be abandoned once you have crossed the flood. Since you should abandon even good states of mind generated by these teachings, How much more so should you abandon bad states of mind! ~ Gautama Buddha,
486:Having an awakened mind means using the mental processes of attention, awareness, and intention to activate new states of mind that, with repeated practice, can become intentionally sculpted traits in a person’s life. ~ Daniel J Siegel,
487:I represent a party which does not yet exist: the party Revolution-Civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, then the United States of the World. ~ Victor Hugo,
488:We have this unfortunate habit in the United States of dividing terrorism into different categories. External, foreign terrorism, which manifests itself overseas or in the United States, or domestic terrorism. ~ Malcolm Wrightson Nance,
489:What's important to do is we must deal frontally with this threat of radical Islamists, especially from ISIS. This is the most sophisticated terror group that has ever threatened the world or the United States of America. ~ Marco Rubio,
490:The same network is suppressed in states of hypnosis, in which the person is fully awake and responsive, but external awareness is altered (by way of hypnotic suggestion, attention to certain stimuli can be diminished). ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
491:Diet is a matter of personal preference, but if you're interested in the advanced states of meditation, eating mammals should be avoided. They have a more evolved consciousness and can affect your attention field greatly. ~ Frederick Lenz,
492:The states of consciousness are all that psychology needs to do her work with. Metaphysics or theology may prove the Soul to exist; but for psychology the hypothesis of such a substantial principle of unity is superfluous. ~ William James,
493:In the United States of America, we are so liberal-minded on so many different aspects, but for some reason there's always going to be this weird connection with nudity being a bad thing. American's can be so prude sometimes. ~ Erin Wasson,
494:There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America - there's the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
495:I am a subject of the British Crown, but whenever I have to choose between the interests of England and Canada it is manifest to me that the interests of my country are identical with those of the United States of America. ~ Wilfrid Laurier,
496:The act of photography is like going on a hunt in which photographer and camera merge into one indivisible function. This is a hunt for new states of things, situations never seen before, for the improbable, for information. ~ Vilem Flusser,
497:There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
498:I do not mean to moralise but to those who do, I would give this advice : if you mean ultimately to deprive the best things and states of all all honour and worth then continue to talk about them as you have been doing! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,
499:In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America. ~ Stephenie Meyer,
500:Meditation without selfless giving is not enough. You may go into very high states of consciousness but the rough edges will still be there - there may be lots of selfish motives lurking within the self - that you don't see. ~ Frederick Lenz,
501:Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America. I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility. ~ Mitt Romney,
502:My next book is also set in the eighteenth century. It's about the Revolution, with the focus on the year 1776. It's about Washington and the army and the war. It's the nadir, the low point of the United States of America. ~ David McCullough,
503:Do you realize there was a time when the United States of America actually made sense? A time when you could look at a Norman Rockwell painting of a GI peeling potatoes for Mom and get all choked up and nobody'd laugh at you? ~ James K Morrow,
504:The very idea of higher states of consciousness is absurd. Comparing one state of consciousness to another and saying one is "higher" and the other is "mundane" is like eating a banana and complaining it's not a very good apple. ~ Brad Warner,
505:My revenge is fraternity! No more frontiers! The Rhine for everyone! Let us be the same Republic, let us be the United States of Europe, let us be the continental federation, let us be European liberty, let us be universal peace! ~ Victor Hugo,
506:The United States of America is more than just an ally,’ Brandhaug began with an imperceptible smile. He said it with the same intonation that you use to explain to a non-Norwegian that Norway has a king and that the capital is Oslo. ~ Jo Nesb,
507:Alice experienced one of her swift certainties then. She wasn’t sure where they came from, these insights into other people’s states of mind, only that they arrived unexpectedly and fully formed. She just knew things sometimes. To ~ Kate Morton,
508:Emotions and the feelings are not a luxury, they are a means of communicating our states of mind to others. But they are also a way of guiding our own judgments and decisions. Emotions bring the body into the loop of reason. ~ Ant nio R Dam sio,
509:In the United States of North America, every independent movement of the workers was paralysed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labour cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded. ~ Karl Marx,
510:I played no sports well. Because I was a boy in the United States Of America, I was forced into Little League and played horrible Little League baseball, and played football and basketball in school situations where I was forced to. ~ Ira Glass,
511:Man is a flux of states of consciousness, a flow of passing thoughts, each thought of self another self, a myriad thoughts, a myriad selves, a continual becoming but never being, a will-of-the-wisp flitting of ghosts in ghostland. ~ Jack London,
512:Now you have a choice: we can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
513:Start meditating with your eyes open, focusing as a warm-up, then focus on a chakra, then just let go and merge. Don't sit there and think or move into sleepy states of awareness, but move into high-powered states of attention. ~ Frederick Lenz,
514:Technic is the result of a need new needs demand new technics total control denial of the accident States of order organic intensity energy and motion made visible memories arrested in space, human needs and motives acceptance ~ Jackson Pollock,
515:The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. ~ Joel Barlow, in the Treaty of Tripoli, arranged during the presidential term of George Washington, and signed by President John Adams (1796),
516:History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.” Gerald R. Ford, thirty-eighth President of the United States of America. Served 1974–1977. The ~ Max Allan Collins,
517:I love Obama, and I love the fact that it's a black president of the United States of America, but he's not the first black president. Robert Mugabe is a black president ,too, so let's not get to talking about precedents being set. ~ Lupe Fiasco,
518:New Age thinkers usually enter the ditch on the other side of the road: They idealize altered states of consciousness and draw specious connections between subjective experience and the spookier theories at the frontiers of physics. ~ Sam Harris,
519:Not the free individual but the lost individual; not Independence but isolation; not self-discovery but self-obsession; not the conquer but to be conquered; these are major states of mind in contemporary imaginative literature. ~ Robert A Nisbet,
520:Certainly, the sensory deprivation afforded by the remote, silent and totally dark chambers, such as the Diverticule of the Felines in Lascaux and the Horse’s Tail in Altamira, induces altered states of consciousness. ~ James David Lewis Williams,
521:The most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings. ~ Barack Obama,
522:Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can be produced; but "lies asleep." ~ H P Blavatsky,
523:What I like about Paper Girls in particular is that because we're approaching it more from a female perspective, we're able to consider the emotional states of these characters a little bit more, and think more of their interiority. ~ Cliff Chiang,
524:While I may not be able to describe to you exactly what enlightenment is like, I can tell you that it is wonderful beyond understanding. The experience of enlightenment frees your mind from painful and limited states of awareness. ~ Frederick Lenz,
525:Barclays Bank in England purchased bankrupt Lehman Brothers Tuesday along with its Manhattan tower, saving nine thousand jobs. It's humiliating. The United States of America is 232 years old and we're having to go to mom for money. ~ Argus Hamilton,
526:Don’t imagine that I write just to write, or to publish, or to produce art. I write because this is the final goal, the supreme refinement, the temperamentally illogical refinement, of my cultivation of states of mind and feeling. ~ Fernando Pessoa,
527:Fear and anxiety and sadness are not necessarily always undesirable or unhelpful states of mind; rather, they are often representatives of the necessary pain of psychological growth. And to deny that pain is to deny our own potential. ~ Mark Manson,
528:Gnosticism has always been difficult to define, largely because it is a system of thought based upon and frequently amended by experiences of nonordinary states of consciousness, and thus it is resistant to theological rigidity. ~ Stephan A Hoeller,
529:Indianapolis, Indiana is the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder of an Indian. The kind of people who'll hang a white man for murdering an Indian--that's the kind of people for me. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
530:The Abbe de Saint-Pierre suggested an association of all the states of Europe to maintain perpetual peace among themselves. Is this association practicable, and supposing that it were established, would it be likely to last? ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau,
531:The archaeology of grief is not ordered. It is more like earth under a spade, turning up things you had forgotten. Surprising things come to light: not simply memories, but states of mind, emotions, older ways of seeing the world. ~ Helen Macdonald,
532:The majority of the ten thousand states of mind cannot be discussed. It is rather a question of teaching a person to step outside the conceptual framework they have and transmitting blocks of awareness to an individual psychically. ~ Frederick Lenz,
533:The second assault on Fallujah was a monument to brutality and atrocity made in the United States of America. Like the Spanish city of Guernica during the 1930s, and Grozny in the 1990s Fallujah is our monument of excess and overkill. ~ Dahr Jamail,
534:I was born in Europe... and I've traveled all over the world. I can tell you that there is no place, no country, that is more compassionate, more generous, more accepting, and more welcoming than the United States of America. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger,
535:Spirituality is a word that is bandied about a lot. So I think it might mean different things to different people. I know that the United States of America is something of a religious country, but not necessarily a spiritual country. ~ Charles Lloyd,
536:When even one American—who has done nothing wrong—is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth—then all Americans are in peril.” Harry S. Truman, thirty-third President of the United States of America. Served 1945–1953. ~ Max Allan Collins,
537:All models divide naturally...into two a priori parts: one is kinematics, whose aim is to parameterize the forms of the states of the process under consideration, and the other is dynamics, describing the evolution in time of these forms. ~ Rene Thom,
538:Strategies in the book involve ways to use the mind to go beyond the mind, ways to understand states of consciousness that are beyond thought, and ways to identify ourselves other than through our mind, through our intuition, and so forth. ~ Ram Dass,
539:The Patriot Act has increased the flow of information within our government, and it has helped break up terror cells in the United States of America and the United States Congress was right to renew the terrorist act. The Patriot Act. ~ George W Bush,
540:We got a rally a little while later - to talk to the rally because what I heard at that meeting [in Flint] - it was almost impossible for me to believe that I was listening to people in the United States of America in the year 2016. ~ Hillary Clinton,
541:I've set a clear doctrine: America makes no distinction between the terrorists and the countries that harbor them. If you harbor a terrorist, you're just as guilty as the terrorists, and you're an enemy of the United States of America. ~ George W Bush,
542:See we just had a misunderstanding. I thought we lived in the U.S. of A., the United States of America. But actually we live in the U.S. of A., the United States of Advertising. Freedom of expression is guaranteed? If you've got the money! ~ Bill Hicks,
543:There is no real peace in Europe, if the states are reconstituted on a basis of national sovereignty. (…) They must have larger markets. Their prosperity is impossible, unless the States of Europe form themselves in a European Federation. ~ Jean Monnet,
544:I like playing human beings - I don't believe in good or bad. I don't believe in black and white. I believe in different tonalities. I believe in different layers of emotions and states of mind. I believe in characters that can be human. ~ Demian Bichir,
545:Just like there are different roads that lead to different places, so there are different levels of awareness that lead to different places and we shift in and out of them. These are the ten thousand states of mind that we study in Zen. ~ Frederick Lenz,
546:People of the United States of America, your Congress is bought, your Congress is incapable of making legislation on healthcare, banking, trade, or taxes because if they do it, they will lose their political funding and they won’t do it. ~ Dylan Ratigan,
547:We're talking about the lawyers for the United States of America. And I think it's very, very important that the lawyers be comfortable being very candid and open about their views on very sensitive issues affecting the United States. ~ Alberto Gonzales,
548:Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan... We will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God. ~ Franklin D Roosevelt,
549:Self-discovery is realistic. It's not built on ideas and philosophies. It's what works. Philosophies are nice if you like philosophies. But self-discovery is predicated on something that really brings you into enlightened states of mind. ~ Frederick Lenz,
550:Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than those of A GOOD CITIZEN, AN OPEN AND RESOLUTE FRIEND, AND A VIRTUOUS SUPPORTER OF THE RIGHTS OF MANKIND AND OF THE FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA. ~ Thomas Paine,
551:A day will come when all nations on our continent will form a European brotherhood... A day will come when we shall see... the United States of America and the United States of Europe face to face, reaching out for each other across the seas. ~ Victor Hugo,
552:If we're to have a future in the 21st century, we'll want to be able to say, "Now what was the 20th century like in the United States of America, the most powerful of all countries of that century? What was it like to be an ordinary person?" ~ Studs Terkel,
553:Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen; an open and resolute friend; and a virtuous supporter of the RIGHTS of MANKIND, and of the FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA. ~ Thomas Paine,
554:There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection. ~ Pope Gregory I,
555:There are three states of legality in Irish law. There is all this stuff which comes under That's grand, then it moves into Ah now don't push it, and finally it comes under Right now you're takin the piss, and that's when the police come in. ~ Dara O Briain,
556:I bet he's hightailed it into Canada. Somewhere into Canada." "Let me put it this way. Basically, there's Canada and there's the United States of America, and Orkney, since he was a boy, never had one spark of interest in going to the latter. ~ Howard Norman,
557:The flags of the Confederate States of America were very important and a matter of great pride to those citizens living in the Confederacy. They are also a matter of great pride for their descendants as part of their heritage and history. ~ Winston Churchill,
558:You will remember how, as a schoolboy, I had destroyed my religious life by a vicious subjectivism which made 'realizations' the aim of prayer; turning away from God to seek states of mind, and trying to produce those states of mind by 'maistry'. ~ C S Lewis,
559:If novels and stories are bulletins from the progressive states of ignorance a writer passes through over the years, observations and opinions about horses are all the more so, since horses are more mysterious than life and harder to understand. ~ Jane Smiley,
560:If, when the chips are down, the worlds most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world. ~ Richard M Nixon,
561:The whole quality of your life depends on your state of mind. There are very high states of mind that very few people experience. They are also quite pragmatic and practical and they make you more efficient at living and working in the world. ~ Frederick Lenz,
562:I just want people who are qualified, I want them to believe in the Constitution of the United States of America. So yep, I don't have a problem with appointing an openly gay person. Because they're not going to try to put sharia law in our laws. ~ Herman Cain,
563:I think the immigration system we have now is terrible for the United States of America. We have a legal immigration system that does not work. It does not reflect the economic needs of this country in the 21st century. It needs to be modernized. ~ Marco Rubio,
564:There is no equivalency between the United States of America, the greatest freedom loving nation in the history of the world, and the murderous thugs that are in [Vladimir] Putin's defense of his cronyism. There's no moral equivalency there. ~ Benjamin E Sasse,
565:In Matthew, chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America. ~ Ted Strickland,
566:I will never conduct a war or start a war because we want to; the United States of America should only go to war because we have to. And if you live by that guidance, you'll never have veterans throwing away their medals or standing up in protest. ~ John F Kerry,
567:Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions ~ Frantz Fanon,
568:We have a deportation force. It's called Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. And the union for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for the first time in their history endorsed Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States of America. ~ Mike Pence,
569:It was almost as if the incoming commander-in-chief had some sort of mental health problem. The kind of mental health problem that you would be disturbed to discover in your kid’s piano teacher, let alone the president of the United States of America ~ Al Franken,
570:The teacher will be moving through thousands of states of mind and sometimes beyond mind. While you are with the teacher, be sensitive to that. Without being flaky and devotional, develop respect for the teacher, just as the teacher respects you. ~ Frederick Lenz,
571:This is a difficult country to look too different in—the United States of Advertising, as Paul Krassner puts it—and if you are too skinny or too tall or dark or weird or short or frizzy or homely or poor or nearsighted, you get crucified. I did. But ~ Anne Lamott,
572:Throughout this section, I’m gonna be calling the United States of America “AMERICA” and you are going to deal with this because America is just flat out easier to type than “The States” or “The U.S. of A.” or “That Big Basket of Jerks under Canada ~ Cory O Brien,
573:Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to 'change the United States of America,' the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles and the people of this country. ~ Thomas Sowell,
574:Imagine a political system so radical as to promise to move more of the poorest 20% of the population into the richest 20% than remain in the poorest bracket within the decade? You don't need to imagine it. It's called the United States of America. ~ Thomas Sowell,
575:Remember preconceptions? Even though I'd landed hoping simply to somehow scrape the transatlantic fare home, I'd been an arrogant swine, imbued with that Old World toffee-nosed attitude: The United States of America's got no culture, not deep down. ~ Jonathan Gash,
576:I'd say the main way people get into terrible financial trouble is just to spend too much money relative to their income, and that is an endemic problem in the United States of America, and that's the kind of thing that should be taught about in schools. ~ Ben Stein,
577:Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we are going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
578:The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. ~ George Washington,
579:Do not degrade me in the military uniform I wear for it represents the love I have for my country, and the sacrifices myself and millions of other American soldiers make everyday to protect the freedom we enjoy by living in the United States of America. ~ Larry David,
580:don’t understand?” is, simply, work on the undesirable states of f(x). It is often easier to modify f(x) than to get better knowledge of x. (In other words, robustification rather than forecasting Black Swans.) Example: If I buy an insurance on ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb,
581:No foreign policy can be sustained in the United States of America without the informed consent of the American people. And informed means just that, successes and failure, a realistic assessment of where we are and what the president plans to do about it. ~ Joe Biden,
582:Dabrowski argued that fear and anxiety and sadness are not necessarily always undesirable or unhelpful states of mind; rather, they are often representative of the necessary pain of psychological growth. And to deny that pain is to deny our own potential. ~ Mark Manson,
583:My legislation would cut off all funding for trials of anyone from Guantanamo in any court in the United States of America. This bill would help stop the misguided plan to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 terrorists on trial in Downtown Manhattan. ~ Peter King,
584:I don’t care if half the league strikes. Those who do will encounter quick retribution. All will be suspended, and I don’t care if it wrecks the league for 10 years. This is the United States of America, and one citizen has as much right to play as another. ~ Ford Frick,
585:Melanie Klein wrote that children go through states of mind comparable to mourning, and that this early mourning is revived whenever grief is experienced in later life. She thought that adults try to manage newer losses the way they managed older ones. ~ Helen Macdonald,
586:While thinking is a practical necessity, the failure to recognize thoughts as thoughts, moment after moment, is what gives each of us the feeling that we call “I,” and this is the string upon which all our states of suffering and dissatisfaction are strung. ~ Sam Harris,
587:For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm. ~ Vladimir Nabokov,
588:Now Arthur knew this dog, and he knew it well. It belonged to an advertising friend of his, and was called Know-Nothing-Bozo the Non-Wonder Dog because the way its hair stood up on its head reminded people of the President of the United States of America, ~ Douglas Adams,
589:Well-meaning, helpful, good-natured attitudes of mind have not come to be honored on account of their usefulness, but because they are states of richer souls that are capable of bestowing and have their value in the feeling of the plenitude of life. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,
590:Your kids have been taught that there is a more equivalence between Martin Luther King and today's Muslims - a moral equivalent between today's aggrieved gays and lessons and Muslims. They're all victims of an evil and ill-formed United States of America. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
591:We have dedicated our lives, our blood, to the freedom and liberation of our people, and nothing, no force can stop us from achieving our goal. If it is necessary to destroy the United States of America, then let us destroy it with a smile on our faces. ~ Eldridge Cleaver,
592:He was soon to have done with calendared time, and it had already ceased to count for him. He sat in the middle of his own consciousness; none of his former states of mind were lost or outgrown. They were all within reach of his hand, and all comprehensible. ~ Willa Cather,
593:The United States didn't create religious liberty. Religious liberty created the United States of America. It's the reason we are here today. This is an essential freedom and an essential right and I don't think you give up this right by simply taking a job. ~ Bobby Jindal,
594:I honestly believe that there's an element in this country in our politics that does not want to see a businessman succeed at getting the nomination for the Republican Party and does not want me to succeed at becoming President of the United States of America. ~ Herman Cain,
595:The full details of the strange tale are recorded in what is perhaps the weirdest case name in American legal history: United States of America v. One Lucite Ball Containing Lunar Material (One Moon Rock) and One Ten Inch by Fourteen Inch Wooden Plaque.5 If ~ Tom Wainwright,
596:New York, home of the vivisectors of the mind, and of the mentally vivisected still to be reassembled, of those who live intact, habitually wondering about their states of sanity, and home of those whose minds have been dead, bearing the scars of resurrection. ~ Muriel Spark,
597:A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible-indeed, inevitable-the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody. ~ Arthur C Clarke,
598:In my view, a huge portion of WikiLeaks's activities has nothing to do with legitimate newsgathering, informing the public, commenting on important public controversies, but is simply about releasing classified information to damage the United States of America. ~ James Comey,
599:We of the United States of America consider ourselves blessed. We have much to give thanks for. But the gift of providence that we really cherish is that we were given as our neighbors on this great, wonderful continent, the people and the nation of Canada. ~ Lyndon B Johnson,
600:Before Freud and Jung, psychologists such as Charcot and Janet had discovered multiple centers of organization within the psyche, and they understood that a secondary personality could take over a person’s primary personality during altered states of consciousness. ~ Scott Hill,
601:If God created humans with the ability to dictate the direction of history (by imagining future states of the universe and steering its path toward one version or another), then humanity's duty to God was to direct history toward the best of all possible worlds. ~ Dexter Palmer,
602:One's life story cannot be told with complete veracity. A true autobiography would have to be written in states of mind, emotions, heartbeats, smiles and tears; not in months and years, or physical events. Life is marked off on the soul by feelings, not by dates. ~ Helen Keller,
603:There are twenty-two stalls in the Barn. Eleven of the stabled horses are, as far as Rutherford can ascertain, former presidents of the United States of America. The other stalls are occupied by regular horses, who give the presidents suspicious, sidelong looks. ~ Karen Russell,
604:It seems to me that the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, Remarks at the Dedication of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York, United States of America (June 30, 1941). Archived from the original on January 30, 2021.,
605:The noble-minded have nine states of mind: for eyes, bright; for ears, penetrating; for countenance; cordial; for demeanor, humble; for words, trustworthy; for service, reverent; for doubt, questioning; for anger circumspect; and for facing a chance to profit, moral. ~ Confucius,
606:A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible - indeed, inevitable - the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody. ~ Arthur C Clarke,
607:I don't think the entire universe outside of Trump and his supporters has any way of understanding how many Trump supporters thought, and maybe still do think a little, that we're on the verge of losing the United States of America forever. And that is a big deal. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
608:Anxieties are diffuse states of tension (caused by a loss of mutual regulation and a consequent upset in libidinal and aggressive controls) which magnify and even cause the illusion of an outer danger, without pointing to appropriate avenues of defense or mastery. ~ Erik H Erikson,
609:Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America. More specifically, Barack Obama is the president of a congenitally racist country, erected upon the plunder of life, liberty, labor, and land. This plunder has not been exclusive to black people. - Ta ~ Ta Nehisi Coates,
610:Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full. By accepting the darkness, the patient has not, to be sure, changed it into light, but has kindled a light that illuminates the darkness within. ~ Jung,
611:There is no study in the world which brings into more harmonious action all the faculties of the mind than [mathematics], ... or, like this, seems to raise them, by successive steps of initiation, to higher and higher states of conscious intellectual being. ~ James Joseph Sylvester,
612:Those were the traits that his mother and father had instilled in him. And the United States of America, especially its citizens in uniform, embodied those ideals. That was the country that Dad risked everything to defend. And that was the country he would one day lead. ~ Anonymous,
613:As the practical value of altering consciousness becomes recognized, procedures to effect these alterations will become increasingly ordinary and unremarkable. The whole concept of changing states of consciousness will cease to have a threatening or exotic aspect. ~ Michael Crichton,
614:Now I know all city parks are the same. Hyde Park. The bluffs above Santa Monica. The Tuileries. Just paths beneath trees where people walk in varying states of heartbreak. Staggering between divorces and biopsies. And at the edge, one final row of lavender azaleas. ~ Kate Braverman,
615:Most of the ancestors that I can trace were born here in the United States of America. And then it goes back to slavery. And I'm sure my ancestors go all the way back to Africa, but I feel more of an affinity for America than I do for Africa. I'm a black man in America. ~ Herman Cain,
616:To regard states of distress in general as an objection, as something which must be abolished is the greatest nonsense on earth; having the most disastrous consequences, fatally stupid- almost as stupid as a wish to abolish bad weather - out of pity for the poor. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,
617:With grateful thanks to all of the men and women who protect and serve The United States of America, and to Operation Mend, who serve the returning wounded among them. And for my father, who insisted that my brother and I stand up at parades whenever veterans walked by. ~ Katy Regnery,
618:You don't meditate to experiment with altered states of consciousness or whatever else. You meditate only to perceive by yourself that everything is within us, every atom of the universe, and that we already possess everything we would wish to find outside of ourselves. ~ Daniel Odier,
619:Let me tell you who we conservatives are: we love people. When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
620:[Rakel] It feels a bit like jumping out of a burning house. Falling is better than burning.

[Harry] At least until you land.

[Rakel] I've come to realize that falling and living have certain things in common. For a start, both are very temporary states of being. ~ Jo Nesb,
621:The censor is always quick to justify his function in terms that are protective of society. But the First Amendment, written in terms that are absolute, deprives the States of any power to pass on the value, the propriety, or the morality of a particular expression. ~ William O Douglas,
622:This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age? ~ Rick Santorum,
623:Flynn seemed to want a response, so Pike nodded. “I respect your service, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about it. Half this police force was in the Marines and the other half is tired of hearing about it. This is a city in the United States of America. It isn’t a war zone. ~ Robert Crais,
624:Strasser hoped to replace the Programme of 1920. In November, he took the first steps in composing the Community’s own draft programme. It advocated a racially integrated German nation at the heart of a central European customs union, the basis of a united states of Europe. ~ Ian Kershaw,
625:The United States of America took a giant step toward a totalitarian socialist government when the Supreme Court voted to uphold Obamacare, allowing the individual mandate for the government to force American citizens to buy health insurance whether they want to or not. ~ Charlie Daniels,
626:What we have here is a war--the war of matter and spirit... The war of banks and religion. Banks are the temples of America. This is a holy war. Our economy is our religion. ~ Giannina Braschi on the war against terrorism as discussed in "United States of Banana" and in New York 1 TV [1],
627:Indianapolis, Indiana,” said Constant, “is the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder of an Indian. The kind of people who’ll hang a white man for murdering an Indian—” said Constant, “that’s the kind of people for me.” Salo ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
628:My friends, we did it. We weren't just marking time, we made a difference. We made (America) stronger - we made (America) freer - and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad. Not bad at all. And so, goodbye. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America. ~ Ronald Reagan,
629:We have to make sure that not only we [politicians] actually focus on, but the entire nation knows we're focusing on, growth and competition within the United States of America and compete internationally. I don't know anywhere where it's written that we have to be number two. ~ Joe Biden,
630:I want people around the world to hear me. To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
631:Indianapolis, Indiana,” said Constant, “is the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder of an Indian. The kind of people who’ll hang a white man for murdering an Indian—” said Constant, “that’s the kind of people for me.” Salo’s ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
632:Obama is a radical communist and I think it is becoming clear. That is what I told people in Illinois and now everybody realizes it is coming true. He is going to destroy this country and we are either going to stop him or the United States of America is going to cease to exist. ~ Alan Keyes,
633:We enriched foreign countries at the expense of our own country, the great United States of America. But those days are over. I'm not - and I don't want to be - the president of the world. I'm the president of the United States. And from now on, it's going to be America First. ~ Donald Trump,
634:The Supreme Court of the United States of America will never under any circumstances allow anyone to be stripped of their citizenship because they burned the American flag. And if you don't believe that, you haven't been reading constitutional law for the past seventy years. ~ Joe Scarborough,
635:What distinguishes gurus from more orthodox teachers is not their manic-depressive mood swings, not their thought disorders, not their delusional beliefs, not their hallucinatory visions, not their mystical states of ecstasy: it is their narcissism.* ANTHONY STORR, FEET OF CLAY ~ Jon Krakauer,
636:It's a real misconception that water is a problem in Africa only. It's also an issue in Nepal, in Honduras, and in the United States of America. If we don't start paying attention now and curb our use and stop taking it for granted, we're going to be in a bad place, like everyone else. ~ Kenna,
637:I can't tell Black people to fight a war that is Israel's war. What kind of leader will you be, or should I be, to allow these babies Black, white and brown, to fight Israel's war, because Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system. ~ Louis Farrakhan,
638:That in order to achieve the triumph of liberty, justice and peace in the international relations of Europe, and to render civil war impossible among the various peoples which make up the European family, only a single course lies open: to constitute the United States of Europe ~ Mikhail Bakunin,
639:In addressing you I feel that I am not so much speaking to the representatives of diverse States of Europe and America as to the exponents of principles and hopes that are common to us all, and without which our life on earth would be a life without horizon or prospect. ~ Henry Campbell Bannerman,
640:Under the white population of the United States of America only the reactionary classes oppress the black population. Under no circumstance can they represent the workers, farmers and revolutionary intellectuals and other enlighted people who form the majority of the white population. ~ Mao Zedong,
641:This possibility may be supported by another unusual feature of hypnosis. Unlike other altered states of consciousness, hypnosis is not associated with any unusual EEG patterns. Physiologically speaking, the mental state hypnosis most closely resembles is our normal waking consciousness. ~ Anonymous,
642:When the President of the United States attacks a movie star it is undignified and it casts a poor light on the United States of America. When the President of the United States attacks a sitting judge and questions his legitimacy, that actually can lead to a Constitutional crisis. ~ Mika Brzezinski,
643:Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force. ~ Jimmy Carter,
644:The Sufi relates to God not as a judge, nor as a father figure, nor as the creator, but as our own Beloved, who is so close, so near, so tender.

In the states of nearness the lover experiences an intimacy with the Beloved which carries the softness and ecstasy of love. ~ Llewellyn Vaughan Lee,
645:Through radio I look forward to a United States of the World. Radio is standardizing the peoples of the Earth, English will become the universal language because it is predominantly the language of the ether. The most important aspect of radio is its sociological influence. (1926) ~ Arthur E Kennelly,
646:Buddhists don't feel that enlightenment is particularly unusual. We feel that it's the natural state. Enlightenment simply means perceiving life directly as it is in all of its infinite, ever changing wonder, in all of its varied, myriad states of mind or as pari-nirvana, or whatever. ~ Frederick Lenz,
647:If I may, to underline first of all that I am very much impressed that in spite of the very tough election campaign, this transition period in the United States of America follows democratic principles and is all about the American people. It's about the destiny of the American people. ~ Angela Merkel,
648:Nervous states of the worst sort control me without pause. Everything that is not literature bores me and I hate it. I lack all aptitude for family life except, at best, as an observer. I have no family feeling and visitors make me almost feel as though I were maliciously being attacked. ~ Franz Kafka,
649:You have a unique body and mind, with a particular history and conditioning. No one can offer you a formula for navigating all situations and all states of mind. Only by listening inwardly in a fresh and open way will you discern at any given time what most serves your healing and freedom. ~ Tara Brach,
650:America is a miracle country. And we have to restore the sense that the Amiracle (ph) will apply to you. Each and every one of the people in this country who's watching tonight, lift everybody, unite everybody and build a stronger United States of America again. It will be and can be done. ~ John Kasich,
651:Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in spaceTechnic is the result of a need new needs demand new technics total control denial of the accident States of order organic intensity energy and motion made visible memories arrested in space, human needs and motives acceptance. ~ Jackson Pollock,
652:There are, then, three states of mind ... two vices--that of excess, and that of defect; and one virtue--the mean; and all these are in a certain sense opposed to one another; for the extremes are not only opposed to the mean, but also to one another; and the mean is opposed to the extremes. ~ Aristotle,
653:Health and disease don't just happen to us. They are active processes issuing from inner harmony or disharmony, profoundly affected by our states of consciousness, our ability or inability to flow with experience. This recognition carries with it implicit responsibility and opportunity. ~ Marilyn Ferguson,
654:I think there are a lot of factors going into an election. I think the bottom line is - is that Donald Trump is gonna be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. And it's not necessarily profitable to sort of try to untangle all the different factors that went into it. ~ Barack Obama,
655:It is important to understand that counterproducti ve actions of body, speech and mind do not arise of their own accord, but spring up in dependence on our motivation. Faulty states of mind give rise to faulty actions. To control negative physical and verbal actions, we need to tame our minds. ~ Dalai Lama,
656:Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children. ~ George W Bush,
657:I here violate direct and explicit orders that were given to me, were given to me in the best interests of the United States of America. I here give you my true name, and I identify myself as the man you knew as "Frank Wirtanen." ... I exist. I can be seen, heard, and touched almost any day. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
658:The world-wide struggle between the primary races of mankind—the ‘conflict of color,’ as it has been happily termed—bids fair to be the fundamental problem of the twentieth century, and great communities like the United States of America, the South African Confederation, and Australasia ~ T Lothrop Stoddard,
659:We are concerned with similar states of consciousness and relationship to the world.. ..If previous abstractions paralleled the scientific and objective preoccupations of our times, ours are finding a pictoral equivalent for man's new knowledge and consciousness of his more complex inner self. ~ Mark Rothko,
660:Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.” James Madison, fourth President of the United States of America. Served 1809–1817. Known as the “Father of the Constitution” for contributions to the drafting of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. ~ Max Allan Collins,
661:Of all the states of emotion I've ever been in, music takes me to the strongest state of emotion the quickest, of any other sort of state of mind I've ever been in or been put in by any substance or circumstance, music brings me to an emotional state of being faster than anything I've ever known ~ Ben Harper,
662:Human beings evolved to reverberate with the emotional states of others, to the point that we internalize, mostly via our bodies, what is going on with them. This is social connectivity at its best, the glue of all animal and human societies, which guarantees supportive and comforting company. ~ Frans de Waal,
663:There's a phrase you hear in Israel: "We're not Jews, we're Israelis." What that means is that the stereotype we're familiar with here in the States of the Diaspora Jew, i.e. Jews in America or Europe or Russia, etc. does not fit at all with the reality of the homegrown "sabras" of Israel. ~ Steven Pressfield,
664:Fortresses, bombs, or airplanes are not going to take away our fear; in fact, they will more likely increase it. The United States of America has a very powerful military and the most advanced weapons in the world, but the American people don’t feel safe. They feel very afraid and vulnerable. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
665:Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul...when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued withthe same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form. ~ Aristotle,
666:A single nation that has succeeded in lowering the intelligence, the morality, the quality of the human race almost throughout the globe is a phenomenon never before experienced since the beginning of time. I accuse the United States of being in a constant state of crime against humanity. ~ Henry de Montherlant,
667:But when I look at the fact that today is 1,000 days that we have not had a budget for the United States of America, you know, the House, one of the things we did, we passed a budget last year. But that is still sitting over there at the Senate. And so we have got to get this country back on track. ~ Allen West,
668:Charles Thomson (1729-1824) was the first to translate the Septuagint Bible into English. Thomson was Secretary of the Continental Congress of the United States of America, a close friend of Thomas Jefferson, and was highly respected by most of the Founding Fathers. ~ Manly P Hall, The Bible, the Story of a Book,
669:"I'll Still Destroy You" song is lovingly talking about how we change our states of mind, whether it's weed or wine or whatever. It's an ingredient in my life. Sometimes we overindulge ourselves. I've always been okay with that in a funny way. I sing about that stuff a lot, and the dangers of it. ~ Aaron Dessner,
670:It is my personal conviction that almost any one of the newborn states of the world would far rather embrace Communism or any other form of dictatorship than acknowledge the political domination of another government, even though that brought to each citizen a far higher standard of living. ~ Dwight D Eisenhower,
671:This is what democracy is all about. People have every right to protest whoever's in the White House, without fear of persecution. If this happened in Iran, people would be shot on the streets. This is the United States of America, and we have a First Amendment that protects this kind of speech. ~ Michael McCaul,
672:President Bush intends to abrogate U.S. sovereignty to the North American Union, a new economic and political entity which the President is quietly forming....Why doesn't President Bush just tell the truth? His secret agenda is to dissolve the United States of America into the North American Union. ~ Jerome Corsi,
673:States of course have complex internal structures, and the choices and decisions of the political leadership are heavily influenced by internal concentrations of power, while the general population is often marginalized. That is true even for the more democratic societies, and obviously for others. ~ Noam Chomsky,
674:There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, , etc., that are common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience. ~ Karl Marx,
675:There is hardly a congressman prepared to go home until he has at least one speech printed and sent to his constituents, and he won't let anybody interrupt his harangue until he has made all his useful suggestions about the 24 states of the Union, and especially the district he represents. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville,
676:A general limitation of the human mind is its imperfect ability to reconstruct past states of knowledge, or beliefs that have changed. Once you adopt a new view of the world (or any part of it), you immediately lose much of your ability to recall what you used to believe before your mind changed. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
677:Americans must outgrow the unbecoming arrogance that leads us to assert that America somehow owns a monopoly on goodness and truth - a belief that leads some to view the world as but a stage on which to play out the great historical drama: the United States of America versus the Powers of Evil. ~ Feisal Abdul Rauf,
678:Music, states of happiness, mythology, faces belaboured by time, certain twilights and certain places try to tell us something, or have said something we should have missed, or are about to say something; this imminence of a revelation which does not occur is, perhaps, the aesthetic phenomenon. ~ Jorge Luis Borges,
679:No nation like the United States of America can continue to grow and be a strong nation if we are going to judge people because they disagree with our agenda rather than the content of their statements. We have to be critical thinkers. We have to be analytical. We should understand facts from emotion. ~ Steve King,
680:The continent did not appeal: France was filled with irritating people; Spain was corrupt and unstable; Russia, impossible; Italy, absurd; Germany, rigid; Portugal, in decline. Holland, thought favorably disposed toward him, was dull. The United States of America, he decided, was a possibility. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert,
681:I can say-not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological , ethical, political and esthetic roots-that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. ~ Ayn Rand,
682:The dynamic ideal we call democracy, gradually growing up in the human heart for two-thousand five hundred years, at least, has now every opportunity to found the natural democratic state in these United States of America by way of natural economic order and a natural, or organic, architecture. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright,
683:The fact that for tens of thousands of years humanity has used warfare as a solution for states of disequilibrium has no more demonstrable value than the fact that in the same period humanity learned to resolve states of psychological imbalance by using alcohol or other equally devastating substances. ~ Umberto Eco,
684:309Knee-high by the Fourth of July. So it must be June. Every farmhouse in its cloud of trees. There is a way trees stir before a rain, as if they already felt the heaviness. It all just went on and on, the United States of America. It was so easy to forget that most of the world was cornfields. ~ Marilynne Robinson,
685:Discipline is not just about work, but about diet and about exercise and on a deeper level, about concentrating and making sure that my brain is staying in good places and the neurons are firing in positive ways as opposed to getting into anxiety, panic-attack states of mind. When I'm crazy. You know? ~ Owen Pallett,
686:Perhaps this is what our national parks hold for us: stories, of who we have been and who we might become- a reminder that as human beings our histories harbor both darkness and light. To live in the United States of America and tell only one story, from one point of view, diminishes us all. ~ Terry Tempest Williams,
687:There's a lot of really wonderful things about the United States of America, especially its ethnic diversity and its mostly successful struggle to create a democracy out of many different cultures. So, we have a lot of capital as a people, we have a lot of cultural capital to keep our democracy going. ~ Hector Tobar,
688:A general limitation of the human mind is its imperfect ability to reconstruct past states of knowledge, or beliefs that have changed. Once you adopt a new view of the world (or of any part of it), you immediately lose much of your ability to recall what you used to believe before your mind changed. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
689:Experiencing the selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness, and richness of nonordinary states of consciousness can accelerate learning, facilitate healing, and provide measurable impact in our lives and work. But we have to revise or tactics and upend convention to make the most of those advantages. ~ Steven Kotler,
690:I have a tremendous fascination with the United States of America, the grand, swirling variousness of it, the way it siphons off the ambitious, the poor, and the abused from so many other nations, the ability we seem to have to be noble and heroic at the same time as we are being arrogant and stupid. ~ Roland Merullo,
691:Michelle Kwan means more to the United States Olympic Committee than maybe any athlete that's every performed. She's a leader, she's been gracious, she's somebody to cherish forever. She's a real loss to the United States Olympic Committee, to the United States of America and, I think, to the world. ~ Peter Ueberroth,
692:The cause of happiness and the solution to our problems do not lie in knowledge of material things. Happiness and suffering are states of mind, and so their main causes cannot be found outside the mind. If we want to be truly happy and free from suffering, we must learn how to control our mind. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
693:Emotional flashbacks are sudden and often prolonged regressions to the overwhelming feeling-states of being an abused/abandoned child. These feeling states can include overwhelming fear, shame, alienation, rage, grief and depression. They also include unnecessary triggering of our fight/flight instincts. ~ Pete Walker,
694:'Facts, facts, facts,' cries the scientist if he wants to emphasize the necessity of a firm foundation for science. What is a fact? A fact is a thought that is true. But the scientist will surely not recognize something which depends on men's varying states of mind to be the firm foundation of science. ~ Gottlob Frege,
695:A terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event [will occur] somewhere in the Western world - it may be in the United States of America - that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. ~ Tommy Franks,
696:I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that we're facing right now have to do with [the president] trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that's what I intend to reverse when I'm President of the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
697:The slave states of Western world are an outgrowth of monopolistic capitalism - an economic system which is opposed to the wide distribution of private property in many hands. Instead, monopolistic capitalism concentrates productive wealth among a few men, allowing the rest to become a vast proletariat. ~ Fulton J Sheen,
698:Your life could be taken from you at any moment. Between AIDS and the violence against gay people that was so prevalent back then, you really didn't feel like you were living in the United States of America, in a first world country. You had a sense that life was a precious commodity you had to fight to keep. ~ Dale Peck,
699:On those occasions when you feel most hopeless, you must make a powerful effort. We are so accustomed to faulty states of mind that it is difficult to change with just a little practice. Just a drop of something sweet cannot change a taste that is powerfully bitter. We must persist in the face of failure. ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
700:The keys are, or were, the training methods used by the ancient mystery schools. We've got hints and tips, we've got little bits on the papyri, but we don't have, in our hands, a complete curriculum of the ways in which they induced altered states of consciousness and the projection of the mind. ~ Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki,
701:There are only two states of consciousness that exist - the state of the ego and the state of love. The ego is the narrow state, the seed-form, the atomic stage; love is all encompassing, love is God. The center of the ego is I; the ego exists for itself. The nectar of love is the universe. Love exists for all. ~ Rajneesh,
702:The short-lived Confederate States of America was a signal event in the history of the Western world. What secessionists set out to build was something entirely new in the history of nations: a modern proslavery and antidemocratic state, dedicated to the proposition that all men were not created equal. ~ Stephanie McCurry,
703:What doesn’t go back in the jar or the box are ideas. And revolutions are, most of all, made up of ideas. You can whittle away at reproductive rights, as conservatives have in most states of the union, but you can’t convince the majority of women that they should have no right to control their own bodies. ~ Rebecca Solnit,
704:While lawyers are arguing about the PATRIOT Act or the America Freedom Act, the point is, the terrorists have moved on, the technologists have moved on, and we, the United States of America, are not taking advantage of the latest and greatest in technology the terrorists are. We need to get smart about it. ~ Carly Fiorina,
705:If I may make a football analogy, we're a team whether we're a football team or community or the United States of America. We are part of a team and I believe the people on that team have a right, but they also have the obligation if there is something that is not good or we don't agree on, to speak about it. ~ Jim Harbaugh,
706:In southern Africa, a great many figures are ithyphallic. This feature has generally – and rather vaguely – been taken to refer to ‘masculinity’, but the painted contexts of the figures seems to confirm that, as in North America, sexual arousal was a metaphor for altered states of consciousness. ~ James David Lewis Williams,
707:The [Barack Obama] administration is sharing its knowledge, its expertise with the incoming administration. And this, to us, is a sign of encouragement, to continue the good cooperation that we have built between the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany that is in our mutual interest. ~ Angela Merkel,
708:Then in October, Indian Summer, the air turned so soft, the sunlight so fragile, and each day's loveliness so poignantly doomed that even self-ignorance and restlessness felt like profound states of being, and he just wandered the empty beaches and misty headlands in a state of serene confusion and awe. ~ David James Duncan,
709:The states of birth, suffering, love, and death, are extreme states: extreme, universal, and inescapable. We all know this, but we would rather not know it. The artist is present to correct the delusions to which we are all prey in our attempts to avoid this knowledge." - James Baldwin, "The Creative Process ~ James Baldwin,
710:From his earliest days, George Bush was a man who valued courage, loyalty, and service. Those were the traits that his mother and father had instilled in him. And the United States of America, especially its citizens in uniform, embodied those ideals. That was the country that Dad risked everything to defend. ~ George W Bush,
711:One of the reasons I believe the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America is that the policy of our Government has been to ask the Israelis, and demand it with pressure, not to retaliate in a significant way against the terrorist strikes that have been launched against them. ~ James Inhofe,
712:Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we're so deeply interconnected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act. ~ Ram Dass,
713:Since my subjects have always been my sensations, my states of mind and the profound reactions that life has been producing in me, I have frequently objectified all this in figures of myself, which were the most sincere and real thing that I could do in order to express what I felt inside and outside of myself. ~ Frida Kahlo,
714:Remember, we are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. Our actions and states of mind matter, because we're so deeply inner connected with one another. Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act. ~ Ram Dass,
715:The president and his subordinates have compelled citizens of the states of Florida and Arizona, and other citizens of the United States, to expend public funds on extensive litigation over Justice Department lawsuits seeking to prohibit those states from preventing illegal aliens from voting in elections.12 ~ Andrew McCarthy,
716:The states of birth, suffering, love, and death, are extreme states: extreme, universal, and inescapable. We all know this, but we would rather not know it. The artist is present to correct the delusions to which we are all prey in our attempts to avoid this knowledge." - James Baldwin, "The Creative Process ~ James A Baldwin,
717:Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Thirty-Fifth President of the United States of America, former senator and representative from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. ~ Max Allan Collins,
718:We are the United States of America. And it's our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn't run amok and doesn't cause the kind of inequities we're seeing in our economic system. But we would be making a grave mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class in the history. ~ Hillary Clinton,
719:We need an effective American diplomacy that will marshall the resources of nations in the Asian Pacific Rim to put pressure on North Korea, on Kim Jong-un, to abandon his nuclear ambitions. It has to remain the policy of the United States of America, the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, plain and simple. ~ Mike Pence,
720:In all states of dilemma or of difficulty, prayer is an available source. The ship of prayer may sail through all temptations, doubts and fears, straight up to the throne of God; and though she may be outward bound with only griefs, and groans, and sighs, she shall return freighted with a wealth of blessings! ~ Charles Spurgeon,
721:The Negro is not the man farthest down. The condition of the coloured farmer in the most backward parts of the Southern States of America, even where he has the least education and the least encouragement, is incomparably better than the condition and opportunities of the agricultural population in Sicily. ~ Booker T Washington,
722:To speak about this universal force that will lead us beyond on the last horizon of our known self toward a wiser, more loving, more luminous states of being, we do not need to invent a new language. But we do need to listen to the old, the ancient one, not with our jaded minds, but with our awakened souls. ~ Arianna Huffington,
723:On the issue past of independence of Germany, after the time of National Socialism, Germany has been given an enormous amount of help particularly and also from the United States of America. A fact that we were able to enjoy German unification is due first and foremost to the help of the United States of America. ~ Angela Merkel,
724:The clause that grants all “persons” equal protection under the law, in context, seems to apply pretty clearly only to human beings “born or naturalized” in the United States of America. But fate and time and the conspiracies of great wealth and power often have a way of turning common sense and logic on its head, ~ Thom Hartmann,
725:I am sure because I am confident in the idea of the United States of America. I believe that the combination of checks and balances and a free press and our democratically elected representatives will expose charlatans. I believe in the good sense of the American people, and I know in my soul that truth will win out. ~ Jake Tapper,
726:To equate Vladimir Putin and the United States of America, as Donald Trump was asked, you know, I guess it was Bill O'Reilly who said, "But Putin is a killer." And he basically said, "So are we." That moral equivalency is a contradiction of everything the United States has ever stood for in the 20th and 21st century. ~ John McCain,
727:A general loftiness of sentiment, independence of men, consciousness of good intentions, self-oblivion in great objects, clear views of futurity; thoughts of the blessed companionship of saints and angels, trust in God as the friend of truth and virtue,--these are the states of mind in which I should live. ~ William Ellery Channing,
728:But the - look, I think that this - the United States of America is still the most powerful economy in the world. It is an incredible engine for creativity and innovation. And it has the most - smartest, most effective workforce in the world. So we have a lot going for us, in spite of the fractiousness of our politics. ~ Jay Carney,
729:If the only test for adequacy in explanation is the satiation of our curiosity, then we cannot be at all sure that the explanations to which we appeal track the objective relations between interest-independent states of affairs. If objective explanations require objective groundings, then we will have to look elsewhere. ~ Anonymous,
730:We, the People of this country, have no unalienable rights... all our rights are subject to modification... the Constitution of the United States of America is nothing more than a piece of paper and... our government should not be restrained by the Constitution because our government can do good things for people. ~ Alan Dershowitz,
731:I have to be able to implement a policy that doesn't completely erase borders and boundaries. Not because I think that Honduran child who's gotten here is less worthy of love, attention, opportunity than my child, but because I'm the president of the United States of America and I'm not speaking as a religious leader. ~ Barack Obama,
732:it’s full of the remains of those who tried to flee. Some were incinerated entirely. But others, probably overcome with smoke, escaped the worst of the flames and now lie reeking in various states of decomposition, carrion for scavengers, blanketed by flies. I killed you, I think as I pass a pile. And you. And you. ~ Suzanne Collins,
733:Yet it is beautiful to discover that there's another chapter to the story, where we discover deep unity beneath, and supporting, the diversity of appearance. All colors are one thing, seen in different states of motion. That is science's brilliantly poetic answer to Keats's complaint that science "unweaves a rainbow. ~ Frank Wilczek,
734:I confess I am at a loss to discover what temptation the persons entrusted with the administration of the general government could ever feel to divest the States of the authorities of that description. The regulation of the mere domestic police of a State appears to me to hold out slender allurements to ambition. ~ Alexander Hamilton,
735:Whether vampires should have been declared ‘alive’ and full citizens of the United States of America was one of the big debates ranking right up there with gun rights and abortion. In a way all of them are about life and death—defining what life is, and what it isn’t, and how far we’ll go to protect, or take, it. ~ Laurell K Hamilton,
736:If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House, I'll put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself. I'll walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America, because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner. ~ Barack Obama,
737:The best thing I have are 5 percent bonds from 1780, denominated from $1 to $20. As far as I can tell, they are obligations from the United States of America, so I should be able to walk down to the Federal Reserve and redeem the uncanceled ones. With 217 years of accrued interest, for a $20 bond, that's about $800,000. ~ Andrew Tobias,
738:Donald Trump was elected president of the United States of America. The UK and the US have shared challenges, shared interests, that we can work together to deal with. We have a special relationship, it's longstanding, it's existed through many different prime ministers and presidents. I want to build on that relationship. ~ Theresa May,
739:Not surprisingly, the federal judiciary nearly always rules in favor of the federal government. Judicial review, contrary to the assurances of its advocates, has hardly restrained Congress at all. Instead it has progressively stripped the states of their traditional powers, while allowing federal power to grow unchecked. ~ Joseph Sobran,
740:There's no such thing as mental illness. We're all mentally ill and we're all haunted by something, and some people manage to find a way to ride it out so that they don't wind up needing extra help. So I think that "mental illness," as a term, is garbage. Everybody is in various states of needing to transcend something. ~ John Darnielle,
741:We didn't just wake up one day and here is the United States of America, and it is the gem, the shining city on the hill, however you want to describe it, it had to be built. It was not there. But from the moment it began to be built, isn't it interesting that everybody in the world who heard about it wanted to go there? ~ Rush Limbaugh,
742:Back in the days of the Soviet Union, the countries of Eastern Europe, being under the control of the USSR, would call their states "people's republics." The sham that is currently going on in the states of the former Soviet Union is due to the fact that the politicians in power are eager to polish up their image abroad. ~ Garry Kasparov,
743:He was a poet who sometimes taught Free University classes or travelled in the western states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, speaking to high school English classes, stunning middle-class boys and girls (he hoped) with the news that poetry was alive—narcoleptic, to be sure, but still possessed of a certain hideous vitality. ~ Stephen King,
744:We can't afford to stand pat while the world races by. The United States of America did not become the most prosperous nation on Earth by sheer luck or happenstance. We got here because each time a generation of Americans has faced a changing world, we have changed with it. We have not feared our future; we have shaped it. ~ Barack Obama,
745:In May, when a Senate committee took up the explosive issue of titles, Adams suggested that Washington be addressed as “His Highness, the President of the United States of America and Protector of their Liberties.”34 Adams provided fodder for contemporary wags and was promptly dubbed “His Rotundity” or the “Duke of Braintree. ~ Ron Chernow,
746:The country was a dreamland; and perhaps it even reminded my wife's grandfather of the night he woke up drunk in his friend's house, beside his friend's wife, everything similar but new, different, better. The United States of America was like an eternity of those first disorientating seconds of not knowing and not wanting to. ~ Tod Wodicka,
747:The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times. ~ Bertrand Russell,
748:The morbid states of health, the irritableness of disposition arising from unstrung nerves, the impatience, the crossness, the fault-finding of men, who, full of morbid influences, are unhappy themselves, and throw the cloud of their troubles like a dark shadow upon others, teach us what eminent duty there is in health. ~ Henry Ward Beecher,
749:The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind. ~ Richard J Foster,
750:Thinking, or more precisely identification with thinking, gives rise to and maintains the ego, which, in our Western society in particular, is out of control. It believes it is real and tries hard to maintain its supremacy. Negative states of mind, such as anger, resentment, fear, envy, and jealousy, are products of the ego. ~ Eckhart Tolle,
751:If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care for human beings.... What I am condemning is that one power, with a president [George W. Bush] who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust. ~ Nelson Mandela,
752:Most people who've never experienced non-ordinary states of consciousness and only hear them described tend to try to describe them in terms of the logical, rational way of looking at things, the so-called scientific explanation, which often leaves a lot lacking and doesn't really fulfill understanding the experience at all. ~ Fred Alan Wolf,
753:Thus, sir, you see when faith is lacking, it becomes impossible to create certain states of happiness, for we lack the necessary humility. Vaingloriously, we try to substitute ourselves for this faith, creating thus for the rest of the world a reality which we believe after their fashion, while, actually, it doesn't exist. ~ Luigi Pirandello,
754:The fact that we cannot now produce a detailed understanding of, say, altered states of consciousness in terms of brain chemistry no more implies the existence of a ‘spirit world’ than a sunflower following the sun in its course across the sky was evidence of a literal miracle before we knew about phototropism and plant hormones. ~ Carl Sagan,
755:In his book on happiness, Buddhist scholar and former scientist Matthieu Ricard has added three other more exalted states of joy: rejoicing (in someone else’s happiness, what Buddhists call mudita) delight or enchantment (a shining kind of contentment) spiritual radiance (a serene joy born from deep well-being and benevolence) ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
756:Unless we possess high spiritual qualifications, there is no doubt that the events life throws upon us will give rise to frustration, emotional turmoil, and other distorted states of consciousness. These imperfect states of mind in turn give rise to imperfect activities, and the seeds of suffering are ever planted in a steady flow. ~ Dalai Lama,
757:The market won't let us treat all data equally because there's a potential to make huge gobs of money not doing that. In the United States of America, people will pay to be first unless we do something to stop them. We don't have defenses built in because we haven't been investing in criticism that would help us mount a defense. I ~ Astra Taylor,
758:We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ~ Gouverneur Morris,
759:Really, an historic night last night. You may have heard, Barack Obama will be the first black president of the United States of America. ... Obama is also the first Democrat to receive more than 50 percent of the vote since Jimmy Carter, the first senator to be elected since Jack Kennedy, the first Muslim to be ... I said too much. ~ Jon Stewart,
760:The United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what [America] is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms. ~ Nelson Mandela,
761:In physics we deal with states of affairs much simpler than those of psychology and yet we again and again learn that our task is not to investigate the essence of things-we do not at all know what this would mean&mash;but to develop those concepts that allow us to speak with each other about the events of nature in a fruitful manner. ~ Niels Bohr,
762:The United States of America has helped underwrite the global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. ~ Barack Obama,
763:Young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans have sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of red states and blue states. We have been and always will be the United States of America. ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
764:It's very important to face the grief, face the anger, and then get into a place where you are ready to fight because if you go back to the history of the United States of America, our Founders said we're giving you a Republic if you can keep it, and they also said we have a Constitution and we're going to form a more perfect union. ~ Barbara Boxer,
765:To be a decent writer you must have both empathy and imagination. While these attributes aid your art, they can plague your soul. You don’t simply suffer your own sadness, experience your own longing and worry about your own wife and children, you are burdened with experiencing the emotional states of multitudes of others you don’t know. ~ M J Rose,
766:As a longtime practitioner of yoga and a person who's been involved in physical fitness my whole life, I can tell you, yoga helps you achieve altered states of consciousness. It is not just stretching. The only way you can say that it's stretching is if you haven't done it, or that you haven't done it rigorously for a long period of time. ~ Joe Rogan,
767:Granddad’s voice boomed across the yard. “This is the United States of America,” he said. “You don’t seem to understand that, Penny, so let me explain. In America, here is how we operate: We work for what we want, and we get ahead. We never take no for answer, and we deserve the rewards of our perseverance. Will, Taft, are you listening? ~ E Lockhart,
768:I am a Veteran, as are most of my personal friends. A Veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, their life. Regardless of personal or political views, there are way too many people in this country who no longer remember that fact... ~ Jos N Harris,
769:Medicine deals with the states of health and disease in the human body. It is a truism of philosophy that a complete knowledge of a thing can only be obtained by elucidating its causes and antecedents, provided, of course, such causes exist. In medicine it is, therefore, necessary that causes of both health and disease should be determined. ~ Avicenna,
770:Well, first of all, we've got to get away from being offended by the truth. We've seen a 41 percent increase in food stamp recipients across the United States of America since President Obama was sworn in in January 2009. That has nothing to do with black, white, Hispanic or whatever. It's a fact, and we need to, you know, deal with that. ~ Allen West,
771:Absolutely. If a Muslim who has-who is-a practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day-this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America. ~ Brigitte Gabriel,
772:Deeply buried in the mind, there lies a mechanism that accepts what the mind experiences as beautiful and pleasant and rejects those experiences that are perceived as ugly and painful. This mechanism gives rise to those states of mind that we are training ourselves to avoid-- things like greed, lust, hatred, aversion, and jealousy. ~ Henepola Gunaratana,
773:Every book presents its own specific challenges, or should, and you're right that this one has a preoccupation with uncertainty. In this, Valiant Gentlemen is a rupture from previous work as its obsession is with the psychology of characters who are in states of unknowing living in unpredictable times where the stakes are unusually high. ~ Sabina Murray,
774:If you've worked together with somebody very well, leave-taking is very difficult. But we are all politicians. We all know that democracy lives off change. So, in the United States of America, the Constitution has very clear stipulations on this. It's a tough rule. Eight years and that's it, out goes the president and a new one comes in. ~ Angela Merkel,
775:And there on the piss-soaked cobbles, his back to the alley and his face to the wall, lay the object of their diplomatic mission: A sleeping drunk. Colt lay out his hand in a flourish.
“Mr. Billings, may I introduce to you His Imperial Majesty Joshua Norton the First, Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico. ~ Jordan Stratford,
776:Gnosticism is a system of thought based on interior, psychospiritual experience. This being the case, it is not surprising that Gnosticism emphasizes states of mind and regards actions as secondary in nature and importance. Gnostics have always held that consciousness, rather than external action, is the true indicator of moral worth. ~ Stephan A Hoeller,
777:In breaking down the developmental journey through successive states of psychic organization, Mahler enabled clinicians to understand more deeply and treat more effectively children and adults who came to be officially diagnosed as borderline patients, whose severe pathology fell between the classifications of neurosis and psychosis. ~ Stephen A Mitchell,
778:The grey is certainly inspired by the photo-paintings, and, of course, it's related to the fact that I think grey is an important colour - the ideal colour for indifference, fence-sitting, keeping quiet, despair. In other words, for states of being and situations that affect one, and for which one would like to find a visual expression. ~ Gerhard Richter,
779:The United States of America provides the freedom, I should say permits, allows, does not constrain the freedom that we're all born with that allows each of us to pursue whatever it is that we define as a quality of life. Access to quality-of-life services, access to quality-of-life products is unparalleled in the United States of America. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
780:The Federated Republic of Europe-the United States of Europe-that is what must be. National autonomy no longer suffices. Economic evolution demands the abolition of national frontiers. If Europe is to remain split into national groups, then Imperialism will recommence its work. Only a Federated Republic of Europe can give peace to the world. ~ Leon Trotsky,
781:The lucid dream, located as it is at a crossroads between worlds and states of consciousness, places the magician in a unique position to influence the delicate balance of consciousness and the interplay it has on matter in the waking state, and is thus an opportunity to test one’s ability in the art of adjusting the mutable fabric of Maya. ~ Zeena Schreck,
782:I’d like to be known just as a good worker in the vineyard who held his own and contributed generally to the advancement of the law.” Harry Blackmun, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, 1970–1994, author of the Roe v. Wade decision.
Section 5, Lot 40-4, Map Grid V/W-36, Arlington National Cemetery. ~ Max Allan Collins,
783:Long before I was ordained a priest, I knew that my church was the most implacable enemy of this republic. My professors ... had been unanimous in telling me that the principles and laws of the Church of Rome were absolutely antagonistic to the principles which are the foundation stones of the Constitution of the United States of America. ~ Charles Chiniquy,
784:Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady. ~ Michelle Obama,
785:I would say, on the basis of having observe a thousand people in the experiment and having my own intuition shaped and informed by these experiments, that if a system of death camps were set up in the United States of the sort we had seen in Nazi Germany, one would find sufficient personnel for those camps in any medium-sized American town. ~ Stanley Milgram,
786:The failure of market catallactics in no way denies the following truth: given sufficient knowledge the optimal decisions can always be found by scanning over all the attainable states of the world and selecting the one which according to the postulated ethical welfare function is best. The solution 'exists'; the problem is how to 'find' it. ~ Paul Samuelson,
787:Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country. ~ Duke Ellington,
788:When the secretary of treasury, the head of the central bank, the head of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.), and the head of the New York Fed say, "We want you to do this because we think it's in the best interest of the United States of America," you know, we're like the Japanese. We're a little patriotic that way. We said, "Yes, sir!" ~ Jamie Dimon,
789:Only the United States of America deemed ice cream “an essential item for troop morale.” And so it alone continued producing, ordering ice cream freezers on submarines, ice cream freezers on tankers, ice cream freezers on cargo ships. Over the course of the war, the United States military became the largest ice cream manufacturer in history. ~ Susan Jane Gilman,
790:Each of us lives within the universe - the prison - of his own brain. Projecting from it are millions of fragile sensory nerve fibers, in groups uniquely adapted to sample the energetic states of the world around us: heat, light, force, and chemical composition. That is all we ever know of it directly; all else is logical inference. ~ Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle,
791:It was the United States of America in the cold late spring of 1967, and the market was steady and the G.N.P. high and a great many articulate people seemed to have a sense of high social purpose and it might have been a spring of brave hopes and national promise, but it was not, and more and more people had the uneasy apprehension that it was not. ~ Joan Didion,
792:The United States of America or the Western countries, they don't have a problem with Islamists as long as they are neoliberal capitalists and promoting the economic order. And the best example is the petro-monarchies. The petro-monarchies, they don't want democracy. They say there is no democracy in Islam. But they are within the economic system. ~ Tariq Ramadan,
793:We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us. ~ Alain de Botton,
794:And you might try to hide or protect yourself, or compare the different states of love,
but you must not grow up, must not act wise
when it comes to love.
You must stay foolish and fall
for every heart will beat in different ways together with yours and love is not meant to be compared, only enjoyed, and suffered, and remembered. ~ Charlotte Eriksson,
795:I think what we need to do is understand our number one obligation is to act in the national interest of the United States of America. I believe it is in our national interest to see democracy take hold on the island of Cuba. And so we examine our foreign policy, including all the changes that President Obama made, in that lens and through that lens. ~ Marco Rubio,
796:Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel love and avoid loneliness…. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts. Every waking moment, and even in our dreams, we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition towards states of consciousness that we value. ~ Sam Harris,
797:I believe we can seize this future together, because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. [...] We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions. [...] We are and forever will be the United States of America. [...] We will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth. ~ Barack Obama,
798:I have a fundamental belief in the goodness and strength of the American worker. And the American worker is the most productive, the most innovative. America is still the greatest producer, exporter and importer. I have a fundamental belief in the United States of America. And I still believe, under the right leadership, our best days are ahead of us. ~ John McCain,
799:We don’t even know where we are. What realm is this? What world lies beyond this forest? Cousin, we have nowhere else to go.’ ‘Nowhere, and anywhere. In the circumstances, Nimander, the former leads to the latter, like reaching a door everyone believes barred, locked tight, and lo, it opens wide at the touch. Nowhere and anywhere are states of mind. ~ Steven Erikson,
800:A finite region of the phase space-the space of the possible states of a system- contains an infinite number of distinguishable classical states, but always only a finite number of orthogonal quantum states. This number is given by the volume of the region, divided by the Planck constant raised to the number of degrees of freedom. This result is general. ~ Carlo Rovelli,
801:The United States of America was the first place on earth where average people had the opportunity to become the greatest among all people. It was the first time in human history where people were allowed to pursue the best of their abilities to whatever desire they wanted, because it was a nation founded under the concept of human beings being born free. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
802:I’ve been thinking about two states of being—being gay, being Jewish. They have a lot in common. You don’t choose it, that’s the first thing. If you are, you are. There’s nothing you can do to change it. Some people might deny this, but even if you’re only “a little bit gay” or “a little bit Jewish,” that’s enough for you to identify yourself if you want. ~ Naomi Alderman,
803:Point is, you can't find a country on earth with a higher standard of living. You can't find a country higher than America. You can't find a place on earth where the opportunity to grow your standard of living, as an individual, is greater than the United States of America. Capitalism may not be perfect, but it's better than anything else that's out there. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
804:An hour is not merely an hour, it is a vase filled with perfumes, with sounds, with projects, with climates. What we call reality is a relation between those sensations and those memories which simultaneously encircle us … that unique relation which the writer must discover in order that he may link two different states of being together forever in a phase. ~ Marcel Proust,
805:I say that the United States of America is a unique experiment in history. I believe in American exceptionalism. I wasn't for sending ground forces into Libya. It would have been counterproductive, but we are an inspiration to these people. I know because I've looked them in the eyes, and they looked at me. They look to America for inspiration and leadership. ~ John McCain,
806:This is one thing that's very interesting, how the people on the left always talk about separation of church and state. When you look at the theocracies all across the Middle East, where we look at constitutions that are based upon the Qur'an, I don't think you want to see that happening in the United States of America. So it is a theocratic political construct. ~ Allen West,
807:The eyes of all people are upon us. And all they see is a mash-up of naked prisoners and an American girl in fatigues standing there giving a thumbs-up. As I write this, the United States of America is still a city on a hill; and it's still shining—because we never turn off the lights in our torture prisons. That's how we carry out the sleep deprivation. ~ Sarah Vowell,
808:The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood. ~ Molly Ivins,
809:Though there are exceptions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism tend to stress desirable states of consciousness, escaping the fretful, self-aware state of mind that so often makes everyday living a burden. For mystics from the Abrahamic faiths, however, the inward odyssey is also an upward odyssey, a quest for personal and vital communion with an infinite Being. ~ David C Downing,
810:In a general way, the literature of the twentieth century is essentially psychological; and psychology consists of describing states of the soul by displaying them all on the same plane, without any discrimination of value, as though good and evil were external to them, as though the effort toward the good could be absent at any moment from the thought of any man. ~ Simone Weil,
811:Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Thirty-Fifth President of the United States of America, former senator and representative from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Section 45, Grid U-35, Arlington National Cemetery. ~ Max Allan Collins,
812:If a baby really has no awareness of himself and is totally thing-directed and at the same time all his states of mind are projected onto things, our second paradox makes sense: on the one hand, thought in babies can be viewed as pure accommodation or exploratory movements, but on the other this very same thought is only one, long, completely autistic waking dream. ~ Jean Piaget,
813:In my case, that number is 45. And given that I was born on December 13, 1945 my conception, gestation, and birth all occurred within that year that number has been with me, literally, for all my life, to date. The number 45 keeps on popping up as I go about the business of getting elected you guessed it as the forty-fifth president of the United States of America. ~ Herman Cain,
814:What's going to be hard for the United States is that our policy for a long time has been a two-state solution; the Palestinians should have their own state. Now, the Palestinians are going to the U.N. and saying, 'We're having the U.N. vote to say we have our own state. Well, if that's your policy, United States of America, why are you vetoing it?' Which we will do. ~ Bill Maher,
815:But in reality we cannot compare joy with sorrow. Comparison is possible only by the very rapid alternation of two states of mind, and you cannot switch back and forth between the genuine feelings of joy and sorrow as you can shift your eyes between a cat and a dog. Sorrow can only be compared with the memory of joy, which is not at all the same thing as joy itself. ~ Alan W Watts,
816:One has to put aside the popular notion that language and culture are endlessly passed on from generation to generation, rather as if ‘Scottishness’ or ‘Englishness’ were essential constituents of some national genetic code. If this were so, it would never be possible to forge new nations – like the United States of America or Australia – from diverse ethnic elements. ~ Norman Davies,
817:The same comparison holds true within the United States itself: Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious literalism, are especially plagued by [high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and infant mortality], while the comparatively secular states of the Northeast conform to European standards. ~ Sam Harris,
818:I think a lot of people who were addicts are actually people who had that strong innate need to experience non-ordinary states of consciousness. But because our society has turned into this destructive culture of these horrible drugs that nullify you, they have that experience in a negative way. And then they lose that capacity forever, to have it in a positive way. ~ Daniel Pinchbeck,
819:The love of liberty was the ruling passion of these Germans; the enjoyment of it, their best treasure; the word that expressed that enjoyment the most pleasing to their ear. They deserved, they assumed, they maintained the honourable epithet of Franks or Freemen; which concealed, though it did not extinguish, the peculiar names of the several states of the confederacy. ~ Edward Gibbon,
820:Meaning, values, morality, and the good life must relate to facts about the well-being of conscious creatures—and, in our case, must lawfully depend upon events in the world and upon states of the human brain. Rational, open-ended, honest inquiry has always been the true source of insight into such processes. Faith, if it is ever right about anything, is right by accident. ~ Sam Harris,
821:The President of the United States of necessity owes his election to office to the suffrage and zealous labors of a political party, the members of which cherish with ardor and regard as of essential importance the principles of their party organization; but he should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves the country best. ~ Rutherford B Hayes,
822:How many votes does it take to get the United States of America firmly into the legal nightmare described in Gabriel’s Stand? Sixty seven plus five. That is two-thirds of the US Senate (the House need not be consulted) and a five vote majority on the Supreme Court.

If we ever do something so suicidally foolish we will not have lost a war—it will just feel like it. ~ Jay B Gaskill,
823:This placement of the authority to “stop violence” into the hands of the police produces a crisis of meaning. The police are often the source of violence, especially in the lives of women, people of color, trans women, sex workers, and the poor. And the police enforce the laws of the United States of America, which is one of the greatest sources of violence in the world. ~ Sarah Schulman,
824:I'm afraid that in the United States of America today the prevailing doctrine of justification is not justification by faith alone. It is not even justification by good works or by a combination of faith and works. The prevailing notion of justification in our culture today is justification by death. All one has to do to be received into the everlasting arms of God is to die. ~ R C Sproul,
825:The United States of America is a flawed society. As it comprises human beings, it must be flawed. But in terms of the goodness achieved inside its borders and spread elsewhere in the world, it has been the finest country that ever existed. If you were to measure the moral gulf between America and those who despise it, the divide would have to be calculated in light-years. ~ Dennis Prager,
826:Two rows of five showers faced each other, so you could get a good look at as many as three different guys. For instance, today he saw three different guys all diligently scrubbing their penises into various states of erection. The one in the middle wore a thick metal cock ring, which shocked Martin. He did think you should at least pretend you came to the gym to workout. ~ Marshall Thornton,
827:Drugs took me to places; they were like portals. It's kind of a cliché, but they were like portals to altered states of consciousness into ways of imagining the world, or seeing a world beyond this world, or seeing a world beyond this world that I might not have gotten to unless I discovered meditation and a very deep, intense spiritual path based on contemplation and meditation. ~ Anne Lamott,
828:as though frustration were an unbearable form of self-doubt, a state in which we can so little tolerate not knowing what we want, not knowing whether it is available, and not having it that we fabricate certainties to fill the void (we fill in the gaps with states of conviction). The frustration is itself a temptation scene, one in which we must invent something to be tempted by. ~ Adam Phillips,
829:By inner experience I understand that which one usually calls mystical experience: the states of ecstasy, of rapture, at least of meditated emotion. But I am thinking less of confessional experience, to which one has had to adhere up to now, that of an experience laid bare, free of ties, even of an origin, of any confession whatever. This is why I don't like the word mystical. ~ Georges Bataille,
830:The first objective of our national government is to provide for the common defense. And President Donald Trump has no higher priority than the safety and security of the American people. And the possession of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in the hands of a regime that routinely threatens the people of the United States of America and our allies is just simply unacceptable. ~ Mike Pence,
831:THE FIVE CONTEMPLATIONS This food is the gift of the whole universe, the Earth, the sky, and much hard work. May we eat in such a way as to be worthy to receive it. May we transform our unskillful states of mind and learn to eat in moderation. May we take only food that nourishes us and prevents illness. We accept this food in order to realize the path of understanding and love. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
832:Rutherford arches his neck toward her outstretched hand. Freckles of light float across his patchy hindquarters. He licks the girl’s palm according to a code that he’s worked out: - - - -, which means that he is Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the nineteenth president of the United States of America, and that she should alert the local officials. “Ha-ha!” the girl laughs. “That tickles. ~ Karen Russell,
833:To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future; the freedom to get beyond ourselves...in states of mind that allow us to rise above our immediate surroundings and see the beauty and value of the world we live in. ~ Oliver Sacks,
834:I shall grow more good-humored. Joy, happiness, and cheerfulness are now becoming my normal states of mind. Every day I am becoming more and more lovable and understanding. I am now becoming the center of cheer and good will to all those about me, infecting them with good humor. This happy, joyous, and cheerful mood is now becoming my normal, natural state of mind. I am grateful.” • ~ Joseph Murphy,
835:Shamanism is not confined to specific socio-economic settings or stages of development. It is fundamentally the ability that all of us share, some with and some without the help of hallucinogens, to enter altered states of consciousness and to travel out of body in non-physical realms - there to encounter supernatural entities and gain useful knowledge and healing powers from them. ~ Graham Hancock,
836:We have to have a president who is clear that you don't deal with Russia based on staring into his eyes and seeing his soul. You deal with Russia based on, what are your - what are the national security interests of the United States of America? And we have to recognize that the way they've been behaving lately demands a sharp response from the international community and our allies. ~ Barack Obama,
837:One of Russia’s long-range bombers, a Tu-95 built to drop atomic bombs on the United States, was renamed “Izborsk” in honor of the club. In case anyone failed to notice this sign of Kremlin backing, Prokhanov was invited to fly in the cockpit of the aircraft. In the years to come, this and other Tu-95s would regularly approach the airspace of the member states of the European Union, ~ Timothy Snyder,
838:Decisions, intentions, efforts, goals, willpower, etc., are causal states of the brain, leading to specific behaviors, and behaviors lead to outcomes in the world. Human choice, therefore, is as important as fanciers of free will believe. But the next choice you make will come out of the darkness of prior causes that you, the conscious witness of your experience, did not bring into being. ~ Sam Harris,
839:Few progressive Europeans would argue against a democratic United States of Europe, with a proper government elected on a pan-European ticket and answerable to a proper parliament vested with complete sovereignty over all decisions and matters. But this is pure wishful thinking. The sobering reality is that it is not in the European Union’s DNA naturally to evolve into a federation. ~ Yanis Varoufakis,
840:The art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem. It is the currency of human exchanges, which enables the sharing of states of the soul and conscience, and the discovery of new fields of experience. ~ Yehudi Menuhin,
841:The Isha Upanishad also speaks of the golden lid hiding the face of the Truth by removing which the Law of the Truth is seen and the highest knowledge in which the One Purusha is known (so'ham asmi) is described as the kalyan.atama form of the Sun. All this seems to refer to the supramental states of which the Sun is the symbol.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - I, Integral Yoga and Other Paths -IV,
842:Yet slavery isn’t the real cause of the trouble between the regions. It is economics. The South sells its cotton and sugar to England and Europe, and buys manufactured goods from those places instead of from the industrial North. The South has decided it has no need for the rest of the United States of America. Despite Mr. Lincoln’s speeches against slavery, that is the sore that festers. ~ Noah Gordon,
843:During the 1980s, a remote viewing project called Stargate was done at Fort Meade. It used binaural beat tones, transmitted through earphones, that altered brain waves. A hemi-sync that device played two different frequencies into each ear was found to produce altered states of consciousness. Perhaps this technology was derived from these experiments done in the 1960s on MKULTRA subjects. ~ Alison Miller,
844:Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of meditation is the art of shifting the focus of attention to ever subtler levels, without losing one's grip on the levels left behind. (...) Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind had built around you. Believe me, you will not regret. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,
845:I had a guy at the Groucho bar clawing at my arm nearly in tears saying that until he saw The Departed he thought Americans were the ones on TV. I didn't know you had accents. I didn't know you had a class system. I didn't know you were like us. To which the answer is, probably only where I grew up, but while we're at it don't watch television and think it's the United States of America. ~ William Monahan,
846:The desire to live life to its fullest, to acquire more knowledge, to abandon the economic treadmill, are all typical reactions to these experiences in altered states of consciousness. The previous fear of death is typically quelled. If the individual generally remains thereafter in the existential state of awareness, the deep internal feeling of eternity is quite profound and unshakable. ~ Edgar Mitchell,
847:Deep in the being of Mr. Polly, deep in that darkness, like a creature which has been beaten about the head and left for dead but still lives, crawled a persuasion that over and above the things that are jolly and "bits of all right," there was beauty, there was delight; that somewhere - magically inaccessible perhaps, but still somewhere - were pure and easy and joyous states of body and mind. ~ H G Wells,
848:Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America. Let's get that straight. She's a truly close personal friend. She is qualified to be President of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me. But she's first rate. ~ Joe Biden,
849:If one's life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. And finally, there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation. ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
850:These commonplace categories - wife, mother, housewife, teacher - are in fact teleological referents. They gesture to profound states of being that animate, absorb and saturate the subject, like indelible dyes spilled repeatedly over a plain fabric. No matter if the fabric is sturdy or delicate, translucent or opaque, those dyes will stain. They will color the days and years and life. ~ Shirley Geok lin Lim,
851:When we talk of architecture, people usually think of something static; this is wrong. What we are thinking of is an architecture similar to the dynamic and musical architecture achieved by the Futurist musician Pratella. Architecture is found in the movement of colours, of smoke from a chimney and in metallic structures, when they are expressed in states of mind which are violent and chaotic. ~ Carlo Carra,
852:America is the one place in the world where I just innately understood [that] South Africa and the United States of America have a very similar history. It's different timelines, but the directions we've taken and the consequences - dealing with the aftermath of what we consider to be democracy, and realizing that freedom is just the beginning of the conversation, that's something I've learned. ~ Trevor Noah,
853:Mark my words.It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. ~ Joe Biden,
854:If there's any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it's flawed logic. It's just I simply can't accept that. It's unacceptable to think that there's any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective. ~ George W Bush,
855:The laws of thermodynamics may be regarded as particular cases of more general laws, applicable to all such states of matter as constitute Energy , or the capacity to perform work, which more general laws form the basis of the science of energetics, a science comprehending, as special branches, the theories of motion, heat, light , electricity , and all other physical phenomena. ~ William John Macquorn Rankine,
856:We cannot feel strongly toward the totally unlike because it is unimaginable, unrealizable; nor yet toward the wholly like because it is stale - identity must always be dull company. The power of other natures over us lies in a stimulating difference which causes excitement and opens communication, in ideas similar to our own but not identical, in states of mind attainable but not actual. ~ Charles Horton Cooley,
857:As commander in chief, I will not speak to Vladimir Putin until we've set up that no-fly zone; until we've gathered our Sunni-Arab allies and begun to deny ISIS territory; until I've called the supreme leader of Iran and told him new deal - new deal. We the United States of America are going to cut off the money flow, which we can do; which we don't need anyone's permission or collaboration to do. ~ Carly Fiorina,
858:Size and homogeneity are of course not transferable. There is no way for India or the USA to become Austria or Norway, and in their purest form the social democratic welfare states of Europe are simply non-exportable: they have much the same appeal as a Volvo—and some similar limitations—and may be hard to sell to countries and cultures where expensive virtues of solidity and endurance count for less. ~ Tony Judt,
859:Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world. In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world also. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi,
860:That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land boundary that we have with - Canada. We have trade missions back and forth. We - we do - it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America where - where do they go? It's Alaska. ~ Sarah Palin,
861:Consider these sentences: Janice is in the house; Janice is in college; Janice is in business. This latter extends the meaning of a purely physical container, but no more so than the spatially fuzzy system of foraging bees. Now consider: Janice is in love. Thus the same physically rooted border concepts of inside and outside are also used for states of being. ~ Tyler Volk, Metapatterns - Across Space, Time, and Mind,
862:The idea that the United States of American might shut down its government over abortion and funding to an organization that is 0.01% of the U.S. budget seems completely insane. Anyone looking at this debate around the world is thinking 'What is this country doing? They have three wars going on, they're trying to manage major problems and they're thinking of shutting down their government over abortion?' ~ Katty Kay,
863:The other General Welfare Clause is in the first of the authorities given to the Congress and it's not a grant, it's a restriction. By which I mean it doesn't say Congress can legislate for the general welfare, it means that everything Congress must do has to enhance the general welfare of the United States of America. It can't grant things to individuals, it can only legislate for the government. ~ Andrew Napolitano,
864:These four qualities are among the most beautiful and powerful states of consciousness we can experience. Together they are called in Pali, the language spoken by the Buddha, the brahma-viharas. Brahma means “heavenly.” Vihara means “abode” or “home.” By practicing these meditations, we establish love (Pali, metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha) as our home. ~ Sharon Salzberg,
865:The small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the United States, to the point where all the United States of America, the greatest nation on Earth, just withdraws from talks about a ceasefire while Vladimir Putin puts a missile defense system in Syria while he marshals the forces and begin - look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership. ~ Mike Pence,
866:They might be drugs that alter the states of consciousness, or they might be states of transcendence reached in meditation. They might be moments of orgasm, or fugue states, or day-dreams that take you momentarily to a rewarding fantasy and escape from responsibility. All of these are treasures of the spirit or psyche that allow exploration along paths which are undefined and completely individual. ~ Alexander Shulgin,
867:The most controversial sentence I ever wrote was not about abortion, gay marriage, the wars in Vietnam or Iraq, elections, or anything to do with national or church politics. It was a statement about the founding of the United States. Here’s the sentence: “The United States of America was established as a white society, founded upon the near genocide of another race and then the enslavement of yet another. ~ Jim Wallis,
868:The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”
Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth President of the United States of America. Served 1913–1921. President during World War I, only President to be interred within Washington, DC, at the National Cathedral. ~ Max Allan Collins,
869:The small and bullying leader of Russia is now dictating terms to the United States to the point where all the United States of America - the greatest nation on Earth - just withdraws from talks about a cease-fire while Vladimir Putin puts a missile defense system in Syria while he marshals the forces and begins - look, we have got to begin to lean into this with strong, broad-shouldered American leadership. ~ Mike Pence,
870:Well, we are Americans. I've always believed that you work with where you are - I am a Mormon woman who was raised on the edge of the Great Salt Lake in the American West in the United States of America. But, by the same token, much of my life has been spent resisting traditional forms of democracy, resisting traditional forms of orthodoxy, be it the United States government or the Mormon Church. ~ Terry Tempest Williams,
871:We use our minds not to discover facts but to hide them. One of things the screen hides most effectively is the body, our own body, by which I mean, the ins and outs of it, its interiors. Like a veil thrown over the skin to secure its modesty, the screen partially removes from the mind the inner states of the body, those that constitute the flow of life as it wanders in the journey of each day. (p.28) ~ Ant nio R Dam sio,
872:The life of our bodies is only a constantly prevented dying, an ever deferred death…Every breath we draw wards off death that constantly impinges on us, in this way we struggle with it every second…Death is far more familiar than we generally think. Not only have we a taste of death daily in our sleep or in states of unconsciousness, but we have all passed through an eternity of nonbeing before we existed. ~ Irvin D Yalom,
873:But to everything in this world there comes an end; there even comes an end to the torments suffered in those intermediate states of transition when the last secret tear of one's soul is bitterly swallowed, and the crisis passes, resolving itself into some new sort of phase, which even as it comes into existence is fated in turn to pass away, to disappear in the eternal changing of the times and seasons. ~ Nikolai Bukharin,
874:I just have to tell you that the provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength. And if Russia chooses to be involved and continue, I should say, to be involved in this barbaric attack on civilians in Aleppo, the United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is taking place in Aleppo. ~ Mike Pence,
875:I think when a society has such a profoundly dark and awful evil such as slavery in its history, then it leaves scars that are very, very deep. And unless we collectively address them and really put our effort to healing them, they'll perpetuate. The United States of America are still suffering from the echoes of slavery. I think we're still reeling from all the pain that is a result of it, and that's a reality. ~ Ani DiFranco,
876:The left think that this special place in the world, the United States of America, it just happened. It just is. And it's our responsibility, as those who are lucky and fortunate enough, to happen to have been born here. It is incumbent upon us to share that same luck and good fortune with everybody else. Otherwise we are mean, selfish, polarized, partisan, extremist, racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe, whatever. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
877:There are gentle souls who would pronounce Lolita meaningless because it does not teach them anything. I am neither a reader nor a writer of didactic fiction...For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm. ~ Vladimir Nabokov,
878:There's been a systematic propagandizing of American citizens for 30 years to make us forget what America is supposed to be and what our rights are and what our system is and what our core principles are. And one of them since 1807 has been this right that the founding generation put in place, to make sure that military troops would never, ever, ever be deployed in the United States of America for civilian policing. ~ Naomi Wolf,
879:But the Iranians are surrounded by a sea of Sunnis who hate them. And if you look on the map, you can see that they're also surrounded by a bunch of American bases that certainly could hit them at any moment. The idea that the Iranians are a threat to the United States is absurd really. How are they going to hurt the United States of America? Unless we attack them first and then they use terrorism inside America. ~ Michael Scheuer,
880:It isn't so much that God is the unified state of consciousness that each of us came from and will return to, but more so that God is the creative energy flowing between all states of consciousness. God is in the land beyond the mountains, but God is also in the mountains and in the valley of illusions cradled within the mountains. God is not one thing or another, rather God flows between and through all things. ~ Elizabeth Lesser,
881:The amazing aftermath of Birmingham, the sweeping Negro Revolution, revealed to people all over the land that there are no outsiders in all these fifty states of America. When a police dog buried his fangs in the ankle of a small child in Birmingham, he buried his fangs in the ankle of every American. The bell of man's inhumanity to man does not toll for any one man. It tolls for you, for me, for all of us. ~ Martin Luther King Jr,
882:The more a person knows of himself, the more he will hesitate to define his nature and to assert what he must necessarily feel, and the more he will be astounded at his capacity to feel in unsuspected and unpredictable ways. Still more will this be so if he learns to explore, or feel deeply into, his negative states of feeling - his loneliness, sorrow, grief, depression, or fear - without trying to escape from them. ~ Alan W Watts,
883:Before every meal, a monk or a nun recites the Five Contemplations: “This food is the gift of the whole universe—the earth, the sky, and much hard work. May we live in a way that is worthy of this food. May we transform our unskillful states of mind, especially that of greed. May we eat only foods that nourish us and prevent illness. May we accept this food for the realization of the way of understanding and love. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
884:The true task of spiritual life is not found in faraway places or unusual states of consciousness. It is here in the present. It asks of us a welcoming spirit to greet all that life presents to us with a wise, respectful, and kindly heart. We can bow to both beauty and suffering, to our entanglements and confusion, to our fears and to the injustices of the world. Honoring the truth in this way is the path to freedom. ~ Jack Canfield,
885:But indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable; and we all know the difficulty of carrying out a resolve when we secretly long that it may turn out to be unnecessary. In such states of mind the most incredulous person has a private leaning towards miracle: impossible to conceive how our wish could be fulfilled, still - very wonderful things have happened! ~ George Eliot,
886:The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature. . . . [In] the formation of the American governments . . . it will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of heaven. . . . These governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. ~ John Adams,
887:In various states of undress, those about her joined in her fondling, lowering their mouths not only to her nipples but to her arms and legs, so that each limb was held captive about the wrist or ankle, and smothered in kisses and gentle nibbles. In this way, perhaps eight of the assembly joined in pleasuring the young lady, taking care to only deliver the sweetest of sensations.

The Gentlemen's Club ~ Emmanuelle de Maupassant,
888:We are proceeding on the basis of common values. We have more to gain from partnership, from promoting our partnership in dealing with the big global challenges. I, therefore, believe that in the near future, not much is going to change in the relations between E.U., Greece and the United States of America. These are relations that were forged under very difficult conditions and rely on the common values of our people. ~ Alexis Tsipras,
889:The sentiments and opinions these authors express are frequently not acceptable to present-day readers, who have to be often saying to themselves: “This is not true, or not correct, or not in accordance with our beliefs.” It is, however, precisely this encounter with the mental states of other generations which enlarges the outlook and sympathies of the cultivated man, and persuades him of the upward tendency of the human race. ~ Various,
890:Ingesting a powerful dose of a psychedelic drug is like strapping oneself to a rocket without a guidance system. One might wind up somewhere worth going, and, depending on the compound and one’s “set and setting,” certain trajectories are more likely than others. But however methodically one prepares for the voyage, one can still be hurled into states of mind so painful and confusing as to be indistinguishable from psychosis. ~ Sam Harris,
891:Well-established Supreme Court precedents indicate that states - like the states of Washington and Minnesota - have no equal-protection rights of their own, nor can they vindicate equal-protection rights of their citizens. The same is true about being able to challenge alleged religious discrimination. This limitation on the states' authority to champion such claims is fundamental to our separation-of-powers architecture. ~ David B Rivkin,
892:Under the crust of that portion of Earth called the United States of America—"from California . . . to the Gulf Stream waters"—are interred the bones, villages, fields, and sacred objects of American Indians. They cry out for their stories to be heard through their descendants who carry the memories of how the country was founded and how it came to be as it is today. [opening lines of the Introduction; ellipsis sic]. ~ Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz,
893:Our life is composed of events and states of mind. How ewe appraise our life from our deathbed will be predicated not only on what came to us in life but how we lived with it. It will not be simply illness or health, riches or poverty, good luck or bad, which ultimately define whether we believe we have had a good life or not, but the quality of our relationship to these situations: the attitudes of our states of mind. (34) ~ Stephen Levine,
894:The unbroken realization that you are indivisible from the universe, from universal consciousness, from the source of everything - that you are that source, that there is no other, no second, nothing that is not part of that unity, except as transitory illusion. If you could maintain that realization at all times, through waking and sleeping states of consciousness, across the threshold of death itself, what would you be? ~ Daniel Pinchbeck,
895:For the same reason, we may leave out of consideration those backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage. The early difficulties in the way of spontaneous progress are so great, that there is seldom any choice of means for overcoming them; and a ruler full of the spirit of improvement is warranted in the use of any expedients that will attain an end, perhaps otherwise unattainable. ~ John Stuart Mill,
896:If you want to save America’s soul, consider becoming a minister. If you want to force people to confess their sins and convert, don a white robe and head to the River Jordan. If you are determined to bring the Last Judgment down on the United States of America, become a god. But if you want to win the country back from the right, and bring about lasting change for the people you care about, it’s time to descend from the pulpit.* ~ Mark Lilla,
897:The very essence of dhyana, or meditativeness, is that you push yourself to the highest possible intensity where, after some time, there is no effort. Now meditation will not be an act, but a natural consequence of the intensity that has been achieved. You can simply be. It is in these absolutely non-compulsive states of existence that the necessary atmosphere is set for the blossoming of an individual into a cosmic possibility. If ~ Sadhguru,
898:Yes, this is hard. But there should be no question that the United States of America is stepping up to the plate. We recognize our role in creating this problem; we embrace our responsibility to combat it. We will do our part, and we will help developing nations do theirs. But we can only succeed in combating climate change if we are joined in this effort by every nation - developed and developing alike. Nobody gets a pass. ~ Barack Obama,
899:Perfume should tell a story – the story of who you are, who you might be, perhaps even of who you fear becoming . . . all of these things are possible. It’s a very intimate element of a woman, just like her signature or the sound of her voice. And it conveys feelings and states of being that have no name, no language. Its very ambiguity makes it truer than words because, unlike words, it can’t be manipulated or misunderstood. ~ Kathleen Tessaro,
900:There will be no peace in Europe if the States rebuild themselves on the basis of national sovereignty, with its implications of prestige politics and economic protection... The countries of Europe are not strong enough individually to be able to guarantee prosperity and social development for their peoples. The States of Europe must therefore form a federation or a European entity that would make them into a common economic unit. ~ Jean Monnet,
901:I would say that the ability of people to agree on matters of fact not immediately visible—states of affairs removed from them in space and time—ramped up from a baseline of approximately zero to a pretty high level around the time of the scientific revolution and all that, and stayed there and became more globally distributed up through the Cronkite era, and then dropped to zero incredibly quickly when the Internet came along. ~ Neal Stephenson,
902:The United States of America was a pirate nation for the first one hundred years of its existence, ripping off the patents and trademarks of the imperial European powers it had liberated itself from by blood. By keeping their GDP at home, the U.S. revolutionaries were able to bootstrap their nation into an industrial powerhouse. Now, it seems, their descendants are bent on ensuring that no other country can pull the same trick off. ~ Cory Doctorow,
903:Different states of consciousness project different images of God–loving or vengeful or jealous, energetic or terrifying, and different images of God affect the nature and quality of our response to God. . . . The image or idea of God as wrathful and jealous will have a different effect than the image or the idea of God as loving. Similarly, whether God is regarded as male or female will have a significant impact on the culture. (29) ~ Ravi Ravindra,
904:In our studies, we found that every flow activity, whether it involved competition, chance, or any other dimension of experience, had this in common: It provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed-of states of consciousness. In short, it transformed the self by making it more complex. In ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
905:[The USA in the '70s] The country's cinematic output was appropriately bleak, reflecting the moroseness and self-hatred that riddled the national psyche. Anti-heroes such as Bonnie and Clyde, Travis Bickle, Popeye Doyle and the Corleones dominated the box office and the public wallowed in a morass of guilty introspection. There was never a country in more desperate need of a blow job than the United States of America: enter George Lucas. ~ Simon Pegg,
906:We aren’t here to cover our asses. We’re here to serve the United States of America. For four damn years people in this administration have known that a company in India had access to sensitive material. Just because we didn’t know they took it is no reason to pat ourselves on the back. Just because you didn’t know personally, people you are responsible for did. And just because I didn’t know personally, I am responsible for you.” Zilko ~ Mark Greaney,
907:We know what our policy is regarding the territory of Israel, Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia and even Nagorno-Karabakh. What is our policy regarding the territory of the United States? No nation in history has ever been as willing to accommodate those who would dismember it as has the United States of America. Trying to get a straight pro-U. S. comment out of a U.S. elected official is like trying to nail a custard pie to the side of a barn. ~ Barry Farber,
908:We see that Pakistan is continuing to provide safe harbor havens inside of Pakistan for terrorists who present risks to the United States of America. We are doing our best to inform the Pakistanis that that is no longer going to be acceptable. So this- this conditioned aid, we've given them a chance. If they fix this problem, we're happy to continue to engage with them and be their partner. But if they don't, we're going to protect America. ~ Mike Pompeo,
909:What exactly is the difference between a dream and waking experience? What happens to the sense of “I” in dreamless sleep? And they sought invariants: in the constantly changing flow of human experience, is there anything that remains the same? In the constantly changing flow of thought, is there an observer who remains the same? Is there any thread of continuity, some level of reality higher than waking, in which these states of mind cohere? ~ Anonymous,
910:The problem is, is the White House and this administration have created a war against police officers in this country, with their allegations and false assertions that there's widespread and pervasive racism in the United States of America that lives in the heart and minds of the men and women in blue. This is a false narrative. It is dangerous. It is reckless. It has resulted in the loss of lives. They are not being held accountable. ~ Kimberly Guilfoyle,
911:The steady states of the fluid matrix of the body are commonly preserved by physiological reactions, i.e., by more complicated processes than are involved in simple physico-chemical equilibria. Special designations, therefore, are appropriate:—“homeostasis” to designate stability of the organism; “homeostatic conditions,” to indicate details of the stability; and “homeostatic reactions,” to signify means for maintaining stability. ~ Walter Bradford Cannon,
912:I believe the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. ~ Barack Obama,
913:Taro came into the room, strands of hair flying free of the tie at the back of his skull, sweat plastering his cream-colored shirt against his chest and back. I wished I had an artist's skill, that I could make renderings of him in all his states of beauty. He would never want to look at them, or even know about them. I would just like them for myself. Maybe he would want to see them when he was much older, and beautiful in a different way. ~ Moira J Moore,
914:There are many similarities between India and America. If you look at the last few centuries, two things come to light. America has absorbed people from around the world and there is an Indian in every part of the world. This characterizes both the societies. Indians and Americans have coexistence in their natural temperament. India and the United States of America are bound together, by history and by culture. These ties will deepen further. ~ Narendra Modi,
915:Diana frowns. “You’re taking me home, right? You just said you would.” “Hoink hoink! Of course, piglet. But I meant your real home.” “Which, last I checked,” says Diana acidly, “is in Los Angeles, California, United States of America, solar system, planet Earth.” “Hmm,” says the boar, hiccupping dreamily. “That’s what you think, darling. Tell me, can you say you’ve felt really at home at that address? Haven’t you been homesick your whole life? ~ Martha N Beck,
916:In the Islamic world, the U.S. is seen in two quite different ways. One view recognizes what an extraordinary country the U.S. is. Every Arab or Muslim that I know is tremendously interested in the United States. Many of them send their children here for education. Many of them come here for vacations. They do business here or get their training here. The other view is of the official United States, the United States of armies and interventions. ~ Edward Said,
917:In the various states of society, armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a monarchy, are animated by a sentiment of honor; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of punishment. ~ Edward Gibbon,
918:Before every meal, a monk or a nun recites the Five Contemplations: “This food is the gift of the whole universe—the earth, the sky, and much hard work. May we live in a way that is worthy of this food. May we transform our unskillful states of mind, especially that of greed. May we eat only foods that nourish us and prevent illness. May we accept this food for the realization of the way of understanding and love.” Then we can look at the food ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
919:Now, deep into the Reagan years, you should still feel the sad spillover from that quaintly vanished era, and you could go with your best friend to this friendly sex toy store located in an anonymous office building, and stand together, silently shaking with laughter, both teenaged and fully grown all at once, knowing that you would never have to choose between those different states of maturity, because you contained them both inside yourselves. ~ Meg Wolitzer,
920:Two men for example, of precisely the same physical age, of precisely the same physical condition, will be in completely different states of mind, of competence, of effectiveness and of strength, as a direct result of their inner beliefs as to their relative freedom within the framework of the physical system in which they exist. The man who does not realize his basic independence from the physical system will not have the same freedom within it. ~ Jane Roberts,
921:Here's the truth: the Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn't have a single one. But when the world was on the brink of nuclear holocaust, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev and he got those missiles out of Cuba. Why shouldn't we have the same courage and the confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do, that's what strong presidents do, that's what I'll do when I'm president of the United States of America. ~ Barack Obama,
922:Everybody's entitled to that forty acres and a mule. You're going to do the work, but you have to have something to work with. If you don't have a job, where do you go from there? You hear people say Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and you don't even have shoes. You're barefooted. What are you going to pull yourself up by? Our country owes every citizen of the United States of America a means of livelihood. Not a handout, but a way to make it. ~ Studs Terkel,
923:Men have differed in opinion, and been divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of societies; and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak. the same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed through all time. Whether the power of the people, or that of the (best men; nobles) should prevail, were questions which kept the states of Greece and rome in eternal convulsions... ~ Thomas Jefferson,
924:The welfare states of continental Europe—what the French call the Etat providence, or providential state—followed yet a third model. Here, the emphasis was primarily on protecting the employed citizen against the ravages of the market economy. It should be noted that ‘employed’ here is no casual adjective. In France, Italy and West Germany it was the maintenance of jobs and incomes in the face of economic misfortune that preoccupied the welfare state. ~ Tony Judt,
925:We have the greatest resource universities in the world, the only place in the world. We have the most productive workforce in the world. We have the most agile venture capitalists in the world. We have a situation where right now in the United States of America, we are near energy independent. North America is beginning to be the epicenter of energy. What is it that makes people think that this is not going to be the American century? I don't get it. ~ Joe Biden,
926:There's a wonderful support network developing worldwide of people who understand what this big calling is, the calling of love. People often ask me, "Is it selfish to want to experience more love? Aren't you just focusing on yourself?" and my answer is that it's the least selfish thing you can do. When you start living more and more in higher states of love, it affects everyone around you and it's the biggest way you can contribute to this planet. ~ Marci Shimoff,
927:There’s nothing I want to relive—certainly not youth—and as for what’s to come, I’m in no hurry. I watch my dogs. They throw themselves into everything they do; even their sleeping is wholehearted. They aren’t waiting for a better tomorrow, or looking back at their glory days. Following their example, I’m trying to stick to the present. I’m not stranded here, I know where I’ve been; I can conjure up details of old haunts, even former states of mind. ~ Abigail Thomas,
928:From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Atlantic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind the line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe... All these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. ~ Winston Churchill,
929:In 1776 the founders of the United States of America sent a Declaration of Independence to the King of England. In that Declaration, Thomas Jefferson wrote “that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive… it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” We are invoking this right to rise up and alter the course of our government. You have had your chance to correct America’s course, and you have failed. ~ Vince Flynn,
930:I told her the truth—a version of it. A portion, calved off from the whole. I was an agent of the Underground Airlines. I was going down into the Four to recover something that had been lost, a weapon in the battle against the old foe. All true; no lies. All true. And no black was permitted to travel into any of the states of the Hard Four without a white companion to vouch for his whereabouts and be responsible for his conduct. I needed a white person. ~ Ben H Winters,
931:Grandad's voice boomed across the yard. 'This is the United States of America,' he said. 'You don't seem to understand that, Penny, so let me explain. In America, here is how we operate. We work for what we want, and we get ahead. We never take no for an answer, and we deserve the rewards of our perseverance... We Sinclairs are a grand, old family. That is something to be proud of. Our traditions and values form the bedrock on which future generations stand. ~ E Lockhart,
932:We reject the charge of tribalism, particularly from those whose theologies serve to buttress the most nefarious brand of tribalism of all—the omnipotent state. The church is the one political entity in our culture that is global, transnational, transcultural. Tribalism is not the church determined to serve God rather than Caesar. Tribalism is the United States of America, which sets up artificial boundaries and defends them with murderous intensity. ~ William H Willimon,
933:What does ‘United States of America’ mean? That we’re some states, we’re united somehow, and that we’re in America. America could be anywhere on the continents of North or South America, so that’s not specific enough, and the part about the states doesn’t narrow it down, either. Mexico has united states, too. So does Canada, except they call them provinces. It’s not even a name. It’s just a vague description. It’s so generic, like naming a country ‘Country. ~ Erin O Riordan,
934:Evidently, selling off America's public lands is not only good for democracy, but good for the economy. It will pay the bills for building more roads and make up for the losses in the decline of timber sales. It will also help pay for the war in Iraq, a war predicted on lies. The outcry is faint. The streets are empty. We are comfortable here in the United States of America. We the people seem to be asleep, numb, and dead to the liberties being lost. ~ Terry Tempest Williams,
935:If I had the good fortune of having the ability to influence people all over the world every time I spoke, I would do my best to make sure people understood why the United States of America is special, and then I would suggest that everybody who wants to come here, "I don't blame you, fine and dandy, there's a legal mechanism for this. We're not denying people the right to come to our country. There's a legal way to do it." That's another thing people forget. ~ Rush Limbaugh,
936:I was fascinated to hear of the suicide of an octopus, trained for the circus, that had been accustomed to do tricks for rewards of food. When the circus disbanded, the octopus was kept in a tank and no one paid any attention to his tricks. He gradually lost his color (octopuses' states of mind are expressed in their shifting hues) and finally went through his tricks a last time, failed to be rewarded, and used his beak to stab himself so badly that he died. ~ Andrew Solomon,
937:Capable psychonauts who think about thinking, about states of mind, about set and setting, can get things done not because they have more willpower or drive, but because they know productivity is a game played against a childish primal human predilection for pleasure and novelty that can never be excised from the soul. Your effort is better spent outsmarting yourself than making empty promises through plugging dates into a calendar or setting deadlines for push-ups. ~ David McRaney,
938:Common sense, to me, is simple. And I've never understood why there aren't a lot of people trying to figure out how the United States became this special place and then try to replicate it around the world, because that's the solution to the human condition. The solution to poverty, the solution to misery, the solution to backwards living is the United States of America. Why not learn how that happened, learn why and how we happened. What is it that made it special? ~ Rush Limbaugh,
939:The terrorist attacks on September the 11th were a turning point for our nation. We saw the goals of a determined enemy to expand the scale of their murder and force America to retreat from the world. And our nation accepted a mission. We will defeat this enemy. The United States of America is determined to guard our homeland against future attacks. As the September 11th Commission concluded, our country is safer than we were three years ago, but we are not yet safe ~ George W Bush,
940:When the strongest nation in the world can be tied up for years in a war with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness, and when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration - then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America. ~ Richard M Nixon,
941:Your dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply that I regard the levy of troops made by the administration for the purpose of subjugating the states of the South, as in violation of the Constitution, and as a gross usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina. ~ John Ellis,
942:The young comte thought nothing worthy his attention except what tended to give his country two chamber government. He left Mathilde, who was the prettiest person at the ball, with alacrity, because he saw a Peruvian general come in. Desparing of Europe such as M. de Metternich had arranged it, poor Altamira had been reduced to thinking that when the States of South America had become strong and powerful they could restore to Europe the liberty which Mirabeau has given it. ~ Stendhal,
943:As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, - as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, - and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. ~ John Adams,
944:Being correct is like the phase-lock states of the human brain, all the neurons firing in perfect synchrony. We need the phase-lock state for the same reason we need truth: a world of complete error and chaos would be unmanageable, on a social and a neurochemical level. (Not to mention genetic.) But leaving some room for generative error is important, too. Innovative environments thrive on useful mistakes, and suffer when the demands of quality control overwhelm them. ~ Steven Johnson,
945:HIs chess-playing methods did the same thing — as did the games on the Colossi — and posed the question as to where a line could be drawn between the 'intelligent' and the 'mechanical'. His view, expressed in terms of the imitation principle, was that there was no such line, and neither did he ever draw a sharp distinction between the 'states of mind' approach and the 'instruction note' approach to the problem of reconciling the appearance of freedom and of determinism. ~ Andrew Hodges,
946:Somehow ungodly men have developed systems of organization which permit them to work together in states of relative harmony and unity, whereas godly men, refusing to admit that these organizational structures are needed, live in states of chaos and disunity. The tragedy of this fact becomes evident when we realize that many of the successful systems of organization under which the godly men work and which the godly men refuse to accept are biblically based. ~ Theodore Wilhelm Engstrom,
947:The modelers are starting to map out the possible climate states of exoplanets. I’ve participated in some workshops about this and have found it fascinating watching astronomers and terrestrial climate modelers try to talk to one another. There is a huge gulf in scale and perspective. Our knowledge of exoplanets is so sparse. Each of these worlds is known to us as, at best, a few numbers: mass, distance from a star, and in some cases vague inferences about temperature ~ David Grinspoon,
948:there’s a lot to like about day-to-day life in the advanced welfare states of western Europe. They are great places to visit. But the view of life that has taken root in those same countries is problematic. It seems to go something like this: The purpose of life is to while away the time between birth and death as pleasantly as possible, and the purpose of government is to make it as easy as possible to while away the time as pleasantly as possible—the Europe Syndrome. ~ Charles Murray,
949:find it difficult to believe that economic or information-processing advantages were the primary drivers of the transition to large-scale societies. Archaic-style states of which we have direct knowledge, such as Hawaii, did not have complex economies or specialized decision-making procedures (to deal with what kinds of problems?). The chiefs were involved with war and ritual; the economy worked well enough when left to the commoners. In any case, it’s hard to imagine that ~ Peter Turchin,
950:For pragmatic reasons, for lessening of violence and for allowing people to live better lives, I think that the march forward for GLBTQ+ rights is a worthwhile one. But for me, hopefully the frontier is alliance-making across all the social issues, whereby people can get over whatever prejudices they're holding in order to keep their eyes on making livable lives for people in all states of vulnerability, no matter what their gender, sexuality, race, class, origin, whatever. ~ Maggie Nelson,
951:Because it is contrary to all the principles upon which the United States of America have won success in the world. It is an exotic importation from lands in which liberty is stifled, brought here by persons who do not understand American institutions, taken up as a fad by a few dreamers. Because men always cease to be Socialists as soon as they have won success in life; suggesting that Socialism is merely a vague expression of the discontent of some, the disappointment of others. ~ Various,
952:Romanticism embodied "a new and restless spirit, seeking violently to burst through old and cramping forms, a nervous preoccupation with perpetually changing inner states of consciousness, a longing for the unbounded and the indefinable, for perpetual movement and change, an effort to return to the forgotten sources of life, a passionate effort at self-assertion both individual and collective, a search after means of expressing an unappeasable yearning for unattainable goals. ~ Isaiah Berlin,
953:Rather than treating our psychology like the unquestioned operating system (or OS) of our entire lives, we can repurpose it to function more like a user interface (or UI)—that easy-to-use dashboard that sits atop all the other, more complex programs. By treating the mind like a dashboard, by treating different states of consciousness like apps to be judiciously deployed, we can bypass a lot of psychological storytelling and get results faster and, often, with less frustration. ~ Steven Kotler,
954:I have the documents. Documents, proof, evidence, photograph, signature. One day you raise your right hand and you are American. They give you an American Pass port. The United States of America. Somewhere someone has taken my identity and replaced it with their photograph. The other one. Their signature their seals. Their own image. And you learn the executive branch the legislative branch and the third. Justice. Judicial branch. It makes the difference The rest is past. ~ Theresa Hak Kyung Cha,
955:The key experiential approach I now use to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness and gain access to the unconscious and superconscious psyche is Holotropic Breathwork, which I have developed jointly with Christina over the last fifteen years. This seemingly simple process, combining breathing, evocative music and other forms of sound, body work, and artistic expression, has an extraordinary potential for opening the way for exploring the entire spectrum of the inner world. ~ Stanislav Grof,
956:Dabrowshi argued that fear and anxiety and sadness are nor necessarily always undesirable or unhelpful states of mind; rather, they are often representative m=of the necessary pain of psychological growth. And to deny that pain I to deny our own potential. Just as one must suffer physical pain to build stronger bone and muscle, one must suffer emotional pain to develop greater emotional resilience, a stronger sense of self, increased compassion, and a generally happier life. ~ Kazimierz D browski,
957:In my fight against terrorism, to me, the biggest terrorist is Obama in the United States of America. For me, I'm trying to fight the terrorism that's actually causing the other forms of terrorism. The root cause of the terrorism is the stuff that you as a government allow to happen and the foreign policies that we have in place in different countries that inspire people to become terrorists. And it's easy for us because it's really just some oil, which we can really get on our own. ~ Lupe Fiasco,
958:soul of man, when it gets fairly rotten, will bear you all sorts of poisonous toad-stools, and no eye can see whence came the seed thereof.’ It was one of Caleb’s quaintnesses, that in his difficulty of finding speech for his thought, he caught, as it were, snatches of diction which he associated with various points of view or states of mind; and whenever he had a feeling of awe, he was haunted by a sense of Biblical phraseology, though he could hardly have given a strict quotation. ~ George Eliot,
959:Most of us have little comprehension of the enormous amount of land devoted to growing grain to feed imprisoned pigs, cows, sheep, birds, and fish. Already, over 521,000 square miles of U.S. forest have been cleared to graze livestock and to grow grain to feed them. This amounts to more land than the states of Texas, California, and Oregon combined, yet it grows daily, with about 6,000 square miles cleared every year. This amounts to about 10,000 acres per day, seven acres every minute.5 ~ Will Tuttle,
960:Sometimes I fear to write, even in fictional form, about things that really happened to me, about things that I really did, or about the numerous unattractive, cruel, or embarrassing thoughts that I have at one time or another entertained. Just as often, I find myself writing about disturbing or socially questionable acts and states of mind that have no real basis in my life at all, but which, I am afraid, people will quite naturally attribute to me when they read what I have written. ~ Michael Chabon,
961:There have been the most terrible, shocking events taking place in the United States of America within the last hour or so... I am afraid we can only imagine the terror and the carnage there and the many, many innocent people who will have lost their lives... It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life and we, the democracies of this world, are going to have to come together to fight it together and eradicate this evil completely from our world. ~ Tony Blair,
962:When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
963:Her magic formula for dealing with children is ignoring all faults and accenting tiny virtues. She says, "Instead of telling Tommy day in and day out that he is the naughtiest boy in the United States of America, which could very well be true, take an aspirin and comment on his neatly tied shoes. Almost anybody would rather be known for expert shoe-tying than for kicking the cat." She always tells whiners how charming they are--bullies how brave--bad sports how good--sneaks how honest! ~ Betty MacDonald,
964:That said, on Mr Juncker the British prime minister is right. Not because the prospective president will turn the EU into a United States of Europe, but because his candidacy speaks to the head-in-the-sand view of the world that has landed the continent in so much trouble. Overruling Mr Cameron on this will arm eurosceptics and, just possibly, tip the balance further towards Britain’s exit. Either way it will be bad for Europe. Ms Merkel still has time to change her mind. philip.stephens@ft.com ~ Anonymous,
965:Their [realists'] concern is that utopian aspirations towards a new peaceful world order will simply absolutize conflicts and make them more intractable. National interests are in some degree negotiable; rights, in principle, are not. International organizations such as the United Nations have not been conspicuously successful in bringing peace, and it is likely that the states of the world would become extremely nervous of any move to give the UN the overwhelming power needed to do this. ~ Kenneth Minogue,
966:When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were the shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so that they would never hurt anybody ever again. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
967:When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so that they would never hurt anybody ever again. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
968:The work of God in salvation is a supernatural work, but in the United States of America and among Baptists it's been reduced down to a few evangelical hoops that if we can get someone to jump through, we declare them popishly to be savedit has been the pulpit that's sending more people to Hell than any liberal organization on the face of the earthnot a liberal Methodist, not a liberal Episcopalian, but a Baptist who claims to know God's word and yet does not understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. ~ Paul Washer,
969:I sympathize the first, the direct and single-minded attack [Red Revolution]. I believe it to have been necessary and inevitable in Russia. It may someday be inevitable in this country [United States of America]. I am not seriously alarmed by the sufferings of the creditor class, the troubles which the church is bound to encounter, the restrictions on certain kinds of freedom which must result, nor even by the bloodshed of the transition period. A better economic order is worth a little bloodshed. ~ Stuart Chase,
970:Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) the President of the United States is authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress, a gold medal of appropriate design to the family of the late Honorable Leo J. Ryan in recognition of his distinguished service as a Member of Congress and the fact of his untimely death by assassination while performing his responsibilities as a Member of the United States House of Representatives. ~ Leo Ryan,
971:Fear and anxiety and sadness are not necessarily always undesirable or unhelpful states of mind; rather, they are often representatives of the necessary pain of psychological growth. And to deny that pain is to deny our own potential. ...If you just chase after highs to cover up the pain, if you continue to indulge in entitlement and delusional positive thinking, if you continue to overindulge in various substances or activities, then you'll never generate the requisite motivation to actually change. ~ Mark Manson,
972:The opposing barristers were in tactical agreement (because it was plainly the judge’s view) that the issue was not merely a matter of education. The court must choose, on behalf of the children, between total religion and something a little less. Between cultures, identities, states of mind, aspirations, sets of family relations, fundamental definitions, basic loyalties, unknowable futures. In such matters there lurked an innate predisposition in favor of the status quo, as long as it appeared benign. ~ Ian McEwan,
973:As medium for reaching understanding, speech acts serve: a) to establish and renew interpersonal relations, whereby the speaker takes up a relation to something in the world of legitimate social orders; b) to represent states and events, whereby the speaker takes up a relation to something in the world of existing states of affairs; c) to manifest experiences that is, to represent oneself- whereby the speaker takes up a relation to something in the subjective world to which he has privileged access. ~ Jurgen Habermas,
974:Even without being killed a man can experience death, he can conquer, he can realize the culmination characteristic of a 'super-life'. From a higher point of view, Paradise, the Kingdom of Heaven, Valhalla, the Island of the Heroes, etc., are only symbolic figurations forged for the masses, figurations that in reality designate transcendent states of consciousness, beyond life and death. The ancient Aryan tradition used the term jivan-mukti to indicate such a realization while still in the mortal body. ~ Julius Evola,
975:Statistically speaking, giving in the church today is embarrassing at best. So, there needs to be a message, a movement that addresses the problem in this very prosperous nation that reminds us and reinforces the fact that God has blessed this nation and blessed us as a people for a reason, not to buy the next new car or a bigger house. God has blessed the United States of America so that we will purpose to reach out to others and in doing so accomplishing His Will, doing His work, and then He is glorified. ~ Bob Coy,
976:Our society values alert, problem-solving consciousness, and it devalues all other states of consciousness. Any kind of consciousness that is not related to the production or consumption of material goods is stigmatized in our society today. Of course we accept drunkenness. We allow people some brief respite from the material grind. A society that subscribes to that model is a society that is going to condemn the states of consciousness that have nothing to do with the alert problem-solving mentality. ~ Graham Hancock,
977:Our equal and opposite needs for solitude and community constitute a great paradox. When it is torn apart, both of these life-giving states of being degenerate into deathly specters of themselves. Solitude split off from community is no longer a rich and fulfilling experience of inwardness; now it becomes loneliness, a terrible isolation. Community split off from solitude is no longer a nurturing network of relationships; now it becomes a crowd, an alienating buzz of too many people and too much noise. ~ Parker J Palmer,
978:To have a museum chronicling the great crime that was African slavery in the United States of America would be to acknowledge that the evil was here. Americans prefer to picture the evil that was there, and from which the United States-a unique nation, one without any certifiably wicked leaders throughout its entire history-is exempt. That this country, like every other country, has its tragic past does not sit well with the founding, and still all-powerful belief in American exceptionalism. ~ Susan Sontag,
979:In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the Category 5 denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don’t think there’s a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis. ~ Al Gore,
980:The great Initiates in the spirit world have vast and imposing plans for the musical future. What is this plan? It is to use music as an occult medium through which to develop altered states of consciousness, psychic abilities, and contact with the spirit world. Music in the future is to be used to bring people into yet closer touch with the devils; they will be enabled to partake of the beneficial influence of these beings while attending concerts at which by the appropriate type of sound they have been invoked. ~ John Todd,
981:However, if you’ve had many even larger experiences of much more expanded states of Being, possibly through spiritual practices, then moving into a strong emotion like anger, sadness, or excitement may be experienced as a contraction or diminishment of the sense of your self. The same truth, the same experience of emotion, can be experienced as either an opening up in your Heart or a closing down. It just depends on where you move into the emotion from and also how open or expanded the sense of your self generally is. ~ Nirmala,
982:Psychoanalytic categories such as "neurosis", "psychosis", "mania", and "fixation" have become part of our everyday psychological vocabulary and we now routinely interpret states of anxiety, excitement, or depression in terms of physiological factors involving levels of serotonin, adrenalin, or blood sugar. To say that the characterization of thinking has a normative function that is irreducible to neurophysiological processing is not to say that our extant classification of the forms of thinking is incorrigible. ~ Ray Brassier,
983:The United States of American business pays the second-highest business taxes in the world, 35 percent. Ireland pays 11 percent. Now, if you're a business person, and you can locate any place in the world, then, obviously, if you go to the country where it's 11 percent tax versus 35 percent, you're going to be able to create jobs, increase your business, make more investment, et cetera. I want to cut that business tax. I want to cut it so that businesses will remain in the United States of America and create jobs. ~ John McCain,
984:Happiness is yours in the here and now. The painful states of anxiety and loneliness are abolished permanently. Financial affairs are not financial problems. You are at ease with yourself. You are not at the mercy of unfulfilled cravings. Confusion is replaced with clarity. There is a relieving answer to every tormenting question. You possess a True Self. Something can be done about every unhappy condition. While living in the world you can be inwardly detached from its sorrows to live with personal peace and sanity. ~ Vernon Howard,
985:The Pāli term for "feeling" is vedanā, derived from the verb vedeti, which means both "to feel" and "to know". In its usage in the discourses, vedanā comprises both bodily and mental feelings. Vedanā does not include "emotion" in its range of meaning. Although emotions arise depending on the initial input provided by feeling, they are more complex mental phenomena than bare feeling itself and are therefore rather the domain of the next [third] satipaṭṭhāna, contemplation of states of mind. ~ An layo,
986:We must understand what our idea of wealth is. Is it just about more buildings, more machines, more cars, more of everything? More and more is death. In the most affluent societies in the world, for example in the United States of America, a significant percentage of the population is on anti-depressants on a regular basis. If you just withdraw one particular medication from the market, almost half the nation will go crazy. That is not wellbeing. Generally, an American citizen has everything that anyone would dream of. ~ Jaggi Vasudev,
987:Normal waking consciousness feels perfectly transparent, and yet it is less a window on reality than the product of our imaginations—a kind of controlled hallucination. This raises a question: How is normal waking consciousness any different from other, seemingly less faithful productions of our imagination—such as dreams or psychotic delusions or psychedelic trips? In fact, all these states of consciousness are “imagined”: they’re mental constructs that weave together some news of the world with priors of various kinds. ~ Michael Pollan,
988:It is undeniable that the source of all our miseries comes from our obstinacy in maintaining that Paradise is a garden. The psychoanalysts have added to the confusion by interpreting the floating dreams as a flight into space. The mystic is the only one who knows that all states of ecstasy are a state of floating in an ambiance more heavy than air. Paradise is at the bottom of the sea, and I can also prove to you that angels are ships. They have no wings but large sails which they unfold noiselessly at night to cross eternity. ~ Ana s Nin,
989:My name is Eugene Debs Hartke, and I was born in 1940. I was named at the behest of my maternal grandfather, Benjamin Wills, who was a Socialist and an Atheist, and nothing but a groundskeeper at Butler University, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in honor of Eugene Debs of Terre Haute, Indiana. Debs was a Socialist and a Pacifist and a Labor Organizer who ran several times for the Presidency of the United States of America, and got more votes than has any other candidate nominated by a third party in the history of this country. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
990:From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. ~ Winston S Churchill,
991:But to change all existence into a flow experience, it is not sufficient to learn merely how to control moment-by-moment states of consciousness. It is also necessary to have an overall context of goals for the events of everyday life to make senseTo create harmony in whatever one does is the last task that the flow theory presents to whose who wish to attain optimal experience; it is a task that involves transforming the entirety of life into a single flow activity, with unified goals that provide constant purpose. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
992:An increasing number of people who lead mental lives of great intensity, people who are sensitive by nature, notice the steadily more frequent appearance in them of mental states of great strangeness ... a wordless and irrational feeling of ecstasy; or a breath of psychic pain; a sense of being spoken to from afar, from the sky or the sea; an agonizingly developed sense of hearing which can cause one to wince at the murmuring of unseen atoms; an irrational staring into the heart of some closed kingdom suddenly and briefly revealed. ~ Knut Hamsun,
993:Grand marronage refers to the mass flight of individuals from slavery to form an autonomous community of freedom emphasizing physical escape, geographic isolation, rejection of property relations associated with a slavery regime, and avoidance of sustained states of war through compacts, treaties, and negotiations for political recognition. These “maroon societies,” as Richard Price notably calls them, work against a fleeting temporality. They are forged through flight intended to sustain an ongoing community with defined borders. ~ Neil Roberts,
994:The Africans were oftentimes allied with the antagonist of the Republic. Now, you may want to step back and ask yourself why that might be. It may lead you to a reconsideration of the origins of the nation now known as the United States of America. As opposed to seeing it in the same vein as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, you might see it in the same vein as the revolt against British rule in Rhodesia in 1965, and, if so, that might help to shed light on why conservatism is so deeply entrenched in this republic. ~ Gerald Horne,
995:States of consciousness there are in which Death is only a change in immortal Life, pain a violent backwash of the waters of universal delight, limitation a turning of the Infinite upon itself, evil a circling of the good around its own perfection; and this not in abstract conception only, but in actual vision and in constant and substantial experience. To arrive at such states of consciousness may, for the individual, be one of the most important and indispensable steps of his progress towards self-perfection.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,
996:the bureaucracy has arrogated the right to define certain states of mind as ‘diseased.’ A lack of desire to spend money becomes a symptom of disease that requires expensive medication. Which medication then destroys the libido, in other words destroys the appetite for the one pleasure in life that’s free, which means the person has to spend even more money on compensatory pleasures. The very definition of mental ‘health’ is the ability to participate in the consumer economy. When you buy into therapy, you’re buying into buying. ~ Jonathan Franzen,
997:Your mind wants to know what comes next. It wants to finish. It wants to keep working—and it will keep working even if you tell it to stop. All through those other tasks, it will subconsciously be remembering the ones it never got to complete. It’s the same Need for Closure that we’ve encountered before, a desire of our minds to end states of uncertainty and resolve unfinished business. This need motivates us to work harder, to work better, and to work to completion. And a motivated mind, as we already know, is a far more powerful mind ~ Anonymous,
998:There are fifty American states, but they add up to one nation in a way the twenty-eight sovereign states of the European Union never can. Most of the EU states have a national identity far stronger, more defined, than any American state. It is easy to find a French person who is French first, European second, or one who pays little allegiance to the idea of Europe, but an American identifies with their Union in a way few Europeans do theirs. This is explained by the geography, and the history of the unification of the United States. ~ Tim Marshall,
999:In the sort of screen dappled with different states of mind which my consciousness would simultaneously unfold while I read, and which ranged from the aspirations hidden deepest within me to the completely exterior vision of the horizon which I had, at the bottom of the garden, before my eyes, what was first in me, innermost, the constantly moving handle that controlled the rest, was my belief in the philosophical richness and beauty of the book I was reading, and my desire to appropriate them for myself, whatever that book might be. ~ Marcel Proust,
1000:Our adversaries [ the Confederate States of America ] have adopted some declarations of independence in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit the words "all men are created equal." Why? They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by Washington, they omit "We, the People," and substitute "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view, the rights of men, and the authority of the people? ~ Abraham Lincoln,
1001:The effects of what are now called psychedelic (mind–manifesting) chemicals differ from those of alcohol as laughter differs from rage or delight from depression. There is really no analogy between being “high” on LSD and “drunk” on bourbon. True, no one in either state should drive a car, but neither should one drive while reading a book, playing a violin, or making love. Certain creative activities and states of mind demand a concentration and devotion which are simply incompatible with piloting a death–dealing engine along a highway. ~ Alan W Watts,
1002:This point deserves attention, for if a democratic republic similar to that of the United States were ever founded in a country where the power of a single individual had previously subsisted, and the effects of a centralized administration had sunk deep into the habits and the laws of the people, I do not hesitate to assert, that in that country a more insufferable despotism would prevail than any which now exists in the monarchical States of Europe, or indeed than any which could be found on this side of the confines of Asia. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville,
1003:Cognitive states of mind are seldom addictive, since they depend upon exploration of the world, and the individual encounter with the individual object, whose appeal is outside the subject's control. Addiction arises when the subject has full control over a pleasure and can ponder it at will. It is primarily a matter of sensory pleasure, and involves a kind of short-circuiting of the pleasure network. Addiction is characterized by a loss of the emotional dynamic that would otherwise govern an outward-directed, cognitively creative life. ~ Roger Scruton,
1004:Intellectual respectability required mental health, and it was becoming evident to me by then that "mental health" consisted of trusting everyone about everything as much as possible - and, for good measure, poking fun at anyone who didn't. Especially to be trusted were the mass media, whose owners and personnel were not to be regarded as minions of the Establishment because, as they themselves used to attest with confidence, there was no Establishment in the United States of America. Only foreigners and paranoids believed (otherwise). ~ Kerry Thornley,
1005:frenzy in the early capitalist states of Europe for gold, for slaves, for products of the soil, to pay the bondholders and stockholders of the expeditions, to finance the monarchical bureaucracies rising in Western Europe, to spur the growth of the new money economy rising out of feudalism, to participate in what Karl Marx would later call “the primitive accumulation of capital.” These were the violent beginnings of an intricate system of technology, business, politics, and culture that would dominate the world for the next five centuries. ~ Howard Zinn,
1006:the defense establishment of the United States of America is so complicated, not to say baroque, that many different agencies can accomplish any given task. Want to invade a small Caribbean island? Who you gonna call: the Army or the Navy’s Army, which is to say, the Marine Corps? Want to call in an air strike? You could ask the Air Force … but the US Navy has lots and lots of fighter jets and tends to get annoyed if they’re left out. And the Army of the Navy has its own Air Force, the USMC Air Corps, and they’ve got aircraft carriers. It ~ Charles Stross,
1007:Though we [Humanists] take a strict position on what constitutes knowledge, we are not critical of the source of ideas. Often intuitive feelings, hunches, speculation, and flashes of inspiration prove to be excellent sources of novel approaches, new ways of looking at things, new discoveries, and new information. We do not disparage those ideas derived from religious experience, altered states of consciousness, or the emotions; we merely declare that testing these ideas against reality is the only way to determine their validity as knowledge. ~ Fred Edwords,
1008:Gradually, it was thought, the supranational authorities, supervised by the European Council of Ministers at Brussels and the Assembly in Strasbourg, would administer all the activities of the Continent. A day would come when governments would be forced to admit that an integrated Europe was an accomplished fact, without their having had a say in the establishment of its underlying principles. All they would have to do was to merge all these autonomous institutions into a single federal administration and then proclaim a United States of Europe. ~ David Icke,
1009:In the Islamic world, the U.S. is seen in two quite different ways. One view recognizes what an extraordinary country the U.S. is.The other view is of the official United States, the United States of armies and interventions. The United States that in 1953 overthrew the nationalist government of Mossadegh in Iran and brought back the shah. The United States that has been involved first in the Gulf War and then in the tremendously damaging sanctions against Iraqi civilians. The United States that is the supporter of Israel against the Palestinians. ~ Edward Said,
1010:Whoever would not remain in complete ignorance of the resources which cause him to act; whoever would seize, at a single philosophical glance, the nature of man and animals, and their relations to external objects; whoever would establish, on the intellectual and moral functions, a solid doctrine of mental diseases, of the general and governing influence of the brain in the states of health and disease, should know, that it is indispensable, that the study of the organization of the brain should march side by side with that of its functions. ~ Franz Joseph Gall,
1011:Where would we go, then, Skintick? We don’t even know where we are. What realm is this? What world lies beyond this forest? Cousin, we have nowhere else to go.’

‘Nowhere, and anywhere. In the circumstances, Nimander, the former leads to the latter, like reaching a door everyone believes barred, locked tight, and lo, it opens wide at the touch. Nowhere and anywhere are states of mind. See this forest around us? Is it a barrier, or ten thousand paths leading into mystery and wonder? Whichever you decide, the forest itself remains unchanged. ~ Steven Erikson,
1012:Damasio has shown that, without emotion and intuition, reason easily becomes detached from practical intelligence, and produces intellectually clever people who behave stupidly. From a functional point of view, emotions are general states of readiness to deal with broad kinds of threats and dilemmas. Fear is readiness to flee; anger is readiness to intimidate; sadness is readiness to withdraw and mourn; and ‘interest’ and ‘intrigue’ are the feelings that signal readiness to learn. Without some kind of emotional engagement, learning is slow and weak. ~ Guy Claxton,
1013:Damasio starts by pointing out the deep divide between our sense of self and the sensory life of our bodies. As he poetically explains, “Sometimes we use our minds not to discover facts, but to hide them. . . . One of the things the screen hides most effectively is the body, our own body, by which I mean the ins of it, its interiors. Like a veil thrown over the skin to secure its modesty, the screen partially removes from the mind the inner states of the body, those that constitute the flow of life as it wanders in the journey of each day. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
1014:Damasio starts by pointing out the deep divide between our sense of self and the sensory life of our bodies. As he poetically explains, “Sometimes we use our minds not to discover facts, but to hide them. . . . One of the things the screen hides most effectively is the body, our own body, by which I mean the ins of it, its interiors. Like a veil thrown over the skin to secure its modesty, the screen partially removes from the mind the inner states of the body, those that constitute the flow of life as it wanders in the journey of each day.”6 ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
1015:I can't find the compulsory mutilation of the genitals of children a subject for humor... It's designed to repress sexual pleasure... The full excision, not just the snip but the full mandatory covenant is fantastically painful, leads to trauma, leads to the dulling of the sexual relationship. And can be, in itself life-threatening at that moment. We have records, I can show them to you, of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds in the United States of boy babies who died or had life-threatening infections as a result of this disgusting practice. ~ Christopher Hitchens,
1016:I would distinguish between Donald Trump and the United States of America. Although he is president, he does not speak for the country on the climate change, and that was vividly illustrated in the aftermath of his speech pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement. Almost immediately, not only did the rest of the world double down on its commitments, but also here in this country, governors, mayors, business leaders, they said, we're still in the Paris Agreement, and they're doubling down. A lot of cities have now made a decision to go 100% renewable energy. ~ Al Gore,
1017:More than anything, rave was an intentionally designed experience. The music, lighting, and ambience were all fine-tuned to elicit and augment altered states of consciousness. The rhythm of the music was precisely 120 beats per minute, the frequency of the fetal heart rate, and the same beat believed to be used by South American shamans to bring their tribes into a trance state. Through dancing together, without prescribed movements, or even partners, rave dancers sought to reach group consciousness on a level they had never experienced before. ~ Douglas Rushkoff,
1018:This means that all nation-states of Earth, and their governments and constitutions, no longer exist. Their military and civilian chains of command are no more. Oaths you may have taken to them, allegiances you may have held, loyalties you may have felt, citizenships you may have had are now and forever dissolved. The rights granted you by the Cloud Ark Constitution, no more and no less, are your rights. The laws and responsibilities of the Cloud Ark Constitution now bind you. You are citizens of a new nation now, the only nation. Long may it endure. ~ Neal Stephenson,
1019:Iran is an ancient land, home to a proud culture with a rich heritage of learning and progress. The future of Iran will be decided by the people of Iran. Right now, the Iranian people are struggling with difficult questions about how to build a modern 21st century society that is at once Muslim, prosperous, and free. There is a long history of friendship between the American people and the people of Iran. As Iran's people move towards a future defined by greater freedom, greater tolerance, they will have no better friend than the United States of America. ~ George W Bush,
1020:As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

[Adams submitted and signed the Treaty of Tripoli, 1797] ~ John Adams,
1021:Her superfluous attention to such accounts of the foreign politics as are transmitted to us by the daily prints, and her willingness to talk on subjects he could not endure, began the aversion; and when, by the peculiarity of his style, she found out that he teased her by writing in the newspapers concerning battles and plots which had no existence, only to feed her with new accounts of the division of Poland, perhaps, or the disputes between the States of Russia and Turkey, she was exceedingly angry, to be sure, and scarcely, I think, forgave the offence ~ Samuel Johnson,
1022:The Mother Superior was of the opinion that happiness always led to tragedy. She had no idea why people valued the emotion and pursued it. It was nothing more than a temporary state of inebriation that led a person to make the worst decisions. There wasn't a person who had experienced life on this planet who wouldn't admit that sin and happiness were bedmates, were inextricably linked. Were there ever any two states of being that were so attracted to each other, were always seeking out each other's company? They were a match made not in heaven but in hell. ~ Heather O Neill,
1023:GENEVA, July 5 Avenol, Secretary-General of the League, apparently thinks he’ll have a job in Hitler’s United States of Europe. Yesterday he fired all the British secretaries and packed them off on a bus to France, where they’ll probably be arrested by the Germans or the French. Tonight in the sunset the great white marble of the League building showed through the trees. It had a noble look, and the League has stood in the minds of many as a noble hope. But it has not tried to fulfil it. Tonight it was a shell, the building, the institution, the hope—dead. ~ William L Shirer,
1024:It is with enormous distress that France has just learned of the monstrous attacks there is no other word for it that have just struck the United States of America. In these horrifying circumstances, the entire people of France, and I want to emphasize this, stand by the people of America. They express their friendship and solidarity in this tragedy. Naturally, I want to assure President Bush of my total support. France, as you know, has always condemned and unreservedly condemns terrorism, and considers that terrorism must be combated by all possible means. ~ Jacques Chirac,
1025:The plain fact is that this country and other industrial countries are deeply dependent on animal exploitation to sustain their present economic structures. The plain fact is that we are more dependent on animal exploitation than were the states of the southern United States on human slavery…. So, although there are more people concerned about animals and the environment, little progress has been made because those who profit from animal exploitation and the government that exists to serve their interests have a lot to lose and are not budging—not an inch. ~ Gary L Francione,
1026:You may think that you are well, but you will not secure health until you think thoughts that produce health. You may persistently affirm that you are well, but so long as you live in discord, confusion, worry, fear and other wrong states of mind, you will be sick; that is, you will be as you think and not what you think you are. You may state health in your thought, but if you give worry, fear and discord to that thought, your thinking will produce discord. It is not what we state in our thoughts, but what we give to our thoughts that determine results. ~ Christian D Larson,
1027:Dortmunder had helped by expressing doubts. “If the Puerto Ricans all come here,” he’d said, for instance, “how come it’s such a hot idea for us to go there?” Another time, he’d expressed the opinion that airplanes were too heavy to fly, and a little later he’d pointed out he didn’t have a passport. “You don’t need a passport,” May told him. “Puerto Rico’s part of the US.” He stared at her. “The hell it is.” But it turned out she was right about that; Puerto Rico wasn’t exactly a state, but it was something in the United States of America—maybe it was “of. ~ Donald E Westlake,
1028:Medicine is the science by which we learn the various states of the human body in health and when not in health, and the means by which health is likely to be lost and, when lost, is likely to be restored back to health. In other words, it is the art whereby health is conserved and the art whereby it is restored after being lost. While some divide medicine into a theoretical and a practical [applied] science, others may assume that it is only theoretical because they see it as a pure science. But, in truth, every science has both a theoretical and a practical side. ~ Avicenna,
1029:New Orleans was a thrilling place of all kinds of races, it was a dangerous place. It was really and truly the only international city on the continent of North America. There were all different races and everything was celebrated, and it was a place of difference, and everybody was different and it was so odd, the minute that America took over, the minute that the Louisiana territory became part of the United States of America, instantly you were either black or white. There was no nuance. and so a free man of color who could own property was suddenly not allowed to. ~ John Guare,
1030:Culture of domination rely on the cultivation of fear as a way to ensure obedience. In our society we make much of love and say little about fear. Yet we are all terribly afraid most of the time. [...] Yet we do not question why we live in states of extreme anxiety and dread. [...] Fear promotes the desire for separation, the desire not to be known. When we are taught that safety lies with sameness, then difference will appear as a threat. When we choose love, we move against fear and separation. The choice to love is a choice to connect to find ourselves in the other. ~ bell hooks,
1031:Before the formation of this Constitution it had been affirmed as a self evident truth, in the Declaration of Independence, very deliberately made by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled that 'all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights' This declaration of Independence was received and ratified by all the States in the Union & has never been disannuled. May we not from hence conclude, that the doctrine of Liberty and Equality is an article in the political creed of the United States. ~ Samuel Adams,
1032:To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see overall patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future. And we need freedom (or at least the illusion of freedom) to get beyond ourselves, whether with telescopes and microscopes and our ever-burgeoning technology or in states of mind which allow us to travel to other worlds, to transcend our immediate surroundings. We need detachment of this sort as much as we need engagement in our lives. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1033:A birth we embark on a good journey, seeking a destination of happiness. The journeys on our life-road facilitate development of our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual states-of-being, into a way of true power and wisdom. The Heart-center power, expressed as happiness and love, will guide us upward on a path away from frustration, bitter toil and travail. These journeys are directed inward, not outwardly in material mementos of ego and possession. The lesson is relearning that which has been suppressed and forgotten, in ourselves, since our earliest childhood. ~ R Carlos Nakai,
1034:For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm. There are not many such books. All the rest is either topical trash or what some call the Literature of Ideas, which very often is topical trash coming in huge blocks of plaster that are carefully transmitted from age to age until somebody comes along with a hammer and takes a good crack at Balzac, at Gorki, at Mann. ~ Vladimir Nabokov,
1035:He knows that had he been a young man himself he would not have stopped at Peshawar: he doesn’t know how he would have resisted entering Afghanistan. And not just for help and aid – he would have fought and defended with his arms. And, yes, had he been present in the United States of America back in September, he would have done all he could to save the blameless from dying in those attacked cities, partaken in their calamity.
How not to ask for help these days – from others, from God – when it seems that one is surrounded by the destruction of the very idea of man? ~ Nadeem Aslam,
1036:We are all haunted by the lost perfection of the ego that contained everything, and we measure ourselves and our lovers against this standard. We search for a replica in external satisfactions, in food, comfort, sex, or success, but gradually learn, through the process of sublimation, that the best approximation of that lost feeling comes from creative acts that evoke states of being in which self-consciousness is temporarily relinquished. These are the states in which the artist, writer, scientist, or musician, like Freud’s da Vinci, dissolves into the act of creation. ~ Mark Epstein,
1037:She has decided to keep going, as anyone could tell by her closed eyes and calm expression. She realizes that all big decisions are ones that must be decided and decided again. She imagines that when you fall in love, you must decided to be in love a million times or more, and when you go to college, you must decide again and again to stay in college, and the same thing is true when you decide to run across the United States of America after a horrible tragedy.

When you are a person who cares for any other person, you must decide again to care, she also understands. ~ Deb Caletti,
1038:Even without the incessant outbreak of war, there was an undercurrent of terrorism and sadistic punishment in such a regime, similar to that which has been resurrected in the totalitarian states of our own day, which bear so many resemblances to these archaic absolutisms. Under such conditions, the necessary co-operations of urban living require the constant application of the police power, and the city becomes a kind of prison whose inhabitants are under constant surveillance: a state not merely symbolized but effectively perpetuated by the town wall and its barred gates. ~ Lewis Mumford,
1039:For a Siddhar yogi, time is precious. It is important to utilize every moment to evolve into ever higher states of consciousness. We understand stagnancy as decay and for growth, we constantly discard the old to welcome change as the new. We tap into the magical abilities to evolve. "Every saint was a sinner in the past" maxim holds true. In the intensity of our yogic pursuit we evolve quickly. By evolving, we know that is the greatest gift of a lifetime we could ever receive- to be angelic as a being of consciousness. Consciousness is ever evolving and dynamic in transforming. ~ Nandhiji,
1040:To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a Nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, Remarks at the Dedication of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York, United States of America (June 30, 1941). Archived from the original on January 30, 2021.,
1041:Unlike in the Northern states, the only elected officials in Virginia were federal congressmen and state legislators; all the rest were either selected by the legislature or appointed by the governor or the county courts, which were self-perpetuating oligarchies that dominated local government. Thus popular democratic politics in Virginia and elsewhere in the South was severely limited, especially in contrast to the states of the North, where nearly all state and local offices had become elective and the turbulence of politics and the turnover of offices were much greater. ~ Gordon S Wood,
1042:"True science has no belief," says Dr. Fenwick, in Bulwer-Lytton's 'Strange Story;' "true science knows but three states of mind: denial, conviction, and the vast interval between the two, which is not belief, but the suspension of judgment." Such, perhaps, was true science in Dr. Fenwick's days. But the true science of our modern times proceeds otherwise; it either denies point-blank, without any preliminary investigation, or sits in the interim, between denial and conviction, and, dictionary in hand, invents new Graeco-Latin appellations for non-existing kinds of hysteria! ~ H P Blavatsky,
1043:Even Boris Johnson doesn't think there's going to be a United States of Europe. ​And I think there's a real question here that you're being asked to make a decision that's irreversible we cant change it, we wake up on Friday and we don't like it, and we're being sold it on a lie because they lied about the cost of Europe, they lied about Turkey's entrance to Europe, they lied about the European army because we've got a veto for that they put that in their leaflets and they've lied about this here tonight too and its not good enough you deserve the truth you deserve the truth. ~ Ruth Davidson,
1044:But the closer we study their lives, and the better we know their deeds, the more profound is our admiration and the greater our reverence for the Pilgrim fathers. Between the drafting of their immortal charter of liberty in the cabin of the Mayflower and the fruition of their principles in the power and majesty of the republic of the United States of to-day is but a span in the records of the word, and yet it is the most important and beneficent chapter in history. To be able to claim descent from them, either by birth or adoption, is to glory in kinship with God's nobility. ~ Chauncey Depew,
1045:I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable, established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies. ~ William Tyler,
1046:He checked out his surrounding. More books. A drinking fountain. A poster showing a guy slam-dunking a basketball with one hand and holding a book in the other, urging kids to READ! Weird, thought Steve. How can he even see the hoop?

...

You see, Steven, Librarians are the most elite, best trained secret force in the United States of America. Probably in the world."
"No way."
"Yes way."
"What about the FBI?"
"Featherweights."
"The CIA?"
Mackintosh snorted. "Don't make me laugh. Those guys can't even dunk a basketball andd read a book at the same time. ~ Mac Barnett,
1047:In the universe there is an un-measurable, indescribable force which sorcerers call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link. Sorcerers, or warriors, were concerned with discussing, understanding, and employing that connecting link...Sorcerers, therefore, divide their instruction into two categories; one is for everyday-life state of awareness, the other is for the states of heightened awareness, in which sorcerers obtained knowledge directly from intent, without the distracting intervention of spoken language. ~ Carlos Castaneda,
1048:Surely, though, I must have stolen into the future and landed in an H.G. Wells-style world - a horrific, fantastic society in which people's faces contained only eyes, millions of healthy young adults and children dropped dead from the flu, boys got transported out of the country to be blown to bits, and the government arrested citizens for speaking the wrong words. Such a place couldn't be real. And it couldn't be the United States of America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

But it was. I was on a train in my own country, in a year the devil designed. 1918. ~ Cat Winters,
1049:Extramuros: (1) In Old Orth, literally “outside the walls.” Often used in reference to the walled city-states of that age. (2) In Middle Orth, the non-mathic world; the turbulent and violent state of affairs that prevailed after the Fall of Baz. (3) In Praxic Orth, geographical regions or social classes not yet enlightened by the resurgent wisdom of the mathic world. (4) In New Orth, similar to sense 2 above, but often used to denote those settlements immediately surrounding the walls of a math, implying comparative prosperity, stability, etc. —THE DICTIONARY, 4th edition, A.R. 3000 ~ Neal Stephenson,
1050:In 1954, Congress followed Eisenhower’s lead, adding the phrase “under God” to the previously secular Pledge of Allegiance. A similar phrase, “In God We Trust,” was added to a postage stamp for the first time in 1954 and then to paper money the next year; in 1956, it became the nation’s first official motto. During the Eisenhower era Americans were told, time and time again, that the nation not only should be a Christian nation but also that it had always been one. They soon came to believe that the United States of America was “one nation under God.” And they’ve believed it ever since. ~ Kevin M Kruse,
1051:Jack Goody (1977) has convincingly shown how shifts hitherto labeled as shifts from magic to science, or from the so-called ‘prelogical’ to the more and more ‘rational’ state of consciousness, or from Lévi-Strauss’s ‘savage’ mind to domesticated thought, can be more economically and cogently explained as shifts from orality to various stages of literacy. I had earlier suggested (1967b, p. 189) that many of the
contrasts often made between ‘western’ and other views seem reducible to contrasts between deeply interiorized literacy and more or less residually oral states of consciousness. ~ Walter J Ong,
1052:The act of writing, when it goes well, gives me a pleasure, a joy, unlike any other. It takes me to another place—irrespective of my subject—where I am totally absorbed and oblivious to distracting thoughts, worries, preoccupations, or indeed the passage of time. In those rare, heavenly states of mind, I may write nonstop until I can no longer see the paper. Only then do I realize that evening has come and that I have been writing all day. Over a lifetime, I have written millions of words, but the act of writing seems as fresh, and as much fun, as when I started it nearly seventy years ago. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1053:And Samuel bought newspapers, and preachers, too. He gave them this simple lesson to teach, and they taught it well: Anybody who thought that the United States of America was supposed to be a Utopia was a piggy, lazy, God-damned fool. Samuel thundered that no American factory hand was worth more than eighty cents a day. And yet he could be thankful for the opportunity to pay a hundred thousand dollars or more for a painting by an Italian three centuries dead. And he capped this insult by giving paintings to museums for the spiritual elevation of the poor. The museums were closed on Sundays. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1054:Most of us are not really so arrogant as to think we have a right to remold the world in our image. The best we can do, toward redeeming the states of Europe and Asia from the menace of revolution and the distresses of our time, is to realize our own conservative character, suspicious of doctrinaire alteration, respectful toward history, preferring variety over uniformity, acknowledging a moral order composed of human persons, not of mere political and economic atoms subservient to the state. We have not been appointed the correctors of mankind; but, under God, we may be an example to mankind. ~ Russell Kirk,
1055:"I am only the house of your beloved,
not the beloved herself:
true love is for the treasure,
not for the coffer that contains it."
The real beloved is that one who is unique,
who is your beginning and your end.
When you find that one,
you'll no longer expect anything else:
that is both the manifest and the mystery.
That one is the lord of states of feeling,
dependent on none;
month and year are slaves to that moon.
When he bids the "state,"
it does His bidding;
when that one wills, bodies become spirit.

~ Jalaluddin Rumi, I Am Only The House Of Your Beloved
,
1056:One of the highest states of being is that of universal forgiveness. Life is challenging for everyone. We are all trying to satisfy our needs in one way or another, and we are all doing the best we can with the understanding that we have. Everyone has selfish needs and noble needs. Sometimes one person’s understanding of how they can best satisfy their needs infringes on another person’s needs, wants, desires, or rights. This is inevitable. We’ve all been hurt and we’ve all hurt others. Some hurts are inexcusable; however, blaming others and failing to forgive them serves no one, least of all you. ~ Jon Gabriel,
1057:SPADASSINS DIGLADIATE! ZIFFIDAE AND XEBECS CONTEND! GOL-IARD DUNKING! Slogans, signs, announcements, odours and personal greeters vied for attention, advertising emporia and venues. Stunning ’scapes and scenes played out in sensorium bubbles bulging out into the centre of the street, putting you instantly into bedrooms, feast-halls, arenae, harems, seaships, fair rides, space battles, states of temporary ecstasy; tempting, prompting, suggesting, offering, providing entrance, stimulating appetites, prompting desires; suggesting, propositioning, pandering. RHYPAROGRAPHY! KELOIDAL ANAMNESIS! IVRESSE! ~ Iain M Banks,
1058:Normally we divide the external world into that which we consider to be good or valuable, bad or worthless, or neither. Most of the time these discriminations are incorrect or have little meaning. For example, our habitual way of categorizing people as friends, enemies, and strangers depending on how they make us feel is both incorrect and a great obstacle to developing impartial love for all living beings. Rather than holding so tightly to our discriminations of the external world, it would be much more beneficial if we learned to discriminate between valuable and worthless states of mind. ~ Geshe Kelsang Gyatso,
1059:The Constitution of the Unitied States of America Preamble We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Article I - The Legislative Branch Section 1 - The Legislature All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. ~ Founding Fathers,
1060:Your thoughts and feelings come from your past memories. If you think and feel a certain way, you begin to create an attitude. An attitude is a cycle of short-term thoughts and feelings experienced over and over again. Attitudes are shortened states of being. If you string a series of attitudes together, you create a belief. Beliefs are more elongated states of being and tend to become subconscious. When you add beliefs together, you create a perception. Your perceptions have everything to do with the choices you make, the behaviors you exhibit, the relationships you chose, and the realities you create. ~ Joe Dispenza,
1061:for the separation of those two states of consciousness is far from being absolute, and a phenomenon that has been provoked in one by a whole series of associations of ideas may appear suddenly in the other; they can disturb and cloud the mind, induce the strangest for-getfulness, and even a sort of delirium. The power of such ideas depends on their isolation ; they grow; " they install themselves in the mind in the manner of parasites," ' and cannot be stopped in their development by the efforts of the subject because they are not known, because they exist aside, in a second thought, separated from the first. ~ Anonymous,
1062:The purpose of life is to find out who you really are, to grow and evolve, to reach higher states of consciousness, to experience the divine, to become enlightened. If you can find fulfillment on any of these levels, you are achieving your vision, not simply meeting the demands of everyday existence. A greater vision closes the gap between you and the universe. If life itself has a purpose, your existence fits into the cosmic scheme. The threat that existence is meaningless, which would lead to anxiety and despair, or an aching sense of loneliness, is removed when you are certain of your place in creation. ~ Deepak Chopra,
1063:When the United States of America, which was meant to be a Utopia for all, was less than a century old, Noah Rosewater and a few men like him demonstrated the folly of the Founding Fathers in one respect: those sadly recent ancestors had not made it the law of the Utopia that the wealth of each citizen should be limited. This oversight was engendered by a weak-kneed sympathy for those who loved expensive things, and by the feeling that the continent was so vast and valuable, and the population so thin and enterprising, that no thief, no matter how fast he stole, could more than mildly inconvenience anyone. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1064:What he wasn't so good at was manipulating the internal states of other humans, getting them to see things his way, do things for him. His baseline attitude toward other humans wass that they could all just go fuck themselves and that he was not going to expend any effort whatsoever getting them to change the way they thought. This was probably rooted in a belief that hed been inculcated to him from the get-go: that there was an objective reality, which all people worth talking to could observe and understand, and that there was no point in arguing about anything that could be so observed and so understood. ~ Neal Stephenson,
1065:I see men assassinated around me every day. I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead; men without eyes, men without voices; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideas. Kennedy himself was 9/10ths the way around the clock or he wouldn't have accepted such an enervating and enfeebling job -- meaning President of the United States of America. How can I be concerned with the murder of one man when almost all men, plus females, are taken from cribs as babies and almost immediately thrown into the masher? ~ Charles Bukowski,
1066:Then in the darkness and purity of the meadows he began to feel that the world had many secrets, that they were shattering even to glimpse or sense, and that they were not necessarily unpleasant. In certain states of light he could see, he could begin to sense, things most miraculous indeed. Although it seemed self-serving, he concluded nonetheless, after a lifetime of adhering to the diffuse principles of a science he did not know, that there was life after death, that the dead rose into a mischievous world of pure light, that something most mysterious lay beyond the the enfolding darkness, something wonderful. ~ Mark Helprin,
1067:Furthermore, because silicon packs on more protons than carbon, it's bulkier, like carbon with fifty extra pounds. Sometimes that's not a big deal. Silicon might substitute adequately for carbon in the Martian equivalent of fats or proteins. But carbon also contorts itself into ringed molecules we call sugars. Rings are states of high-tension- which means they store lots of energy-and silicon just isn't supple enough to bend into the right position to form rings. In a related problem, silicon atoms cannot squeeze their electrons into tight spaces for double bonds, which appear in virtually every complicated biochemical. ~ Sam Kean,
1068:...and I am left feeling that no matter how much the drip-drip-drip of hostility toward us is perpetuated by the liberal press, the American people simply do not believe it. They are rightly proud of the armed forces of the United States of America. They innately understand what we do. And no amount of poison about our alleged brutality, disregard of the Geneva Convention, and abuse of the human rights of terrorists is going to change what most people think...Some members of the media might think they can brainwash the public any time they like, but I know they can't. Not here. Not in the United States of America. ~ Marcus Luttrell,
1069:A placebo is not just a sugar pill or a bunch of sham sutures. A placebo can be an event as well as a thing. Anytime a person endows something with meaning, whether it’s a relationship or an occurrence, he is held in a warm embrace; he is helped by something that does not exist except as dream or hope or expectation. Much of the power of the placebo comes from the one who is hurting, which means we can start to see the sheer energy in states of sickness—what we are capable of doing when down and supposedly out, how strong we really are, even in our weakest moments, with our brains always ready to find us some faith. ~ Lauren Slater,
1070:Every product of labour is, in all states of society, a use value; but it is only at a definite historical epoch in a society’s development that such a product becomes a commodity, viz., at the epoch when the labour spent on the production of a useful article becomes expressed as one of the objective qualities of that article, i.e., as its value. It therefore follows that the elementary value form is also the primitive form under which a product of labour appears historically as a commodity, and that the gradual transformation of such products into commodities, proceeds pari passu with the development of the value form. ~ Karl Marx,
1071:The next of the unwholesome actions of mind is ill will, with its many attendant variations: anger, hatred, impatience, and sorrow—all forms of aversion. We can notice the feelings of contraction and hardening of the heart when we get lost in or identified with mind states of ill will. These states of aversion arise when we don’t get what we want, or when we do get what we don’t want. They may come in response to present unpleasantness, such as pain, certain distressing emotions, or difficult life situations. Ill will of one kind or another can also arise when we remember certain past events or anticipate future ones. ~ Joseph Goldstein,
1072:By Obama’s lights, there was no liberal America, no conservative America, no black America, no white America, no Latino America, no Asian America, only “the United States of America.” All these disparate strands of the American experience were bound together by a common hope: It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a mill worker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates,
1073:In the Western world, 10 percent of adults are alcoholics, 70 percent drink copious amounts of caffeine, 25 percent are addicted to tobacco, and more than 10 percent rely on antidepressants. Throw in the other legal and illegal mood-altering drugs and it is safe to say that each day, 98 percent of us ingest at least one mood-altering substance in our endless search for better states of mind. Of course, many of us are multi-substance users, for instance, consuming caffeine in the morning and alcohol at night. One substance counters the negative effects of the other in the classic, endless loop of Western chemical mood adjustment. ~ Anonymous,
1074:Old growth plants then begin to take on a much different character than their younger offspring. There are states of being that only come into play with age, and with the extensive development of expanded neural fields; the neuronal structure in an ancient redwood or old growth Artemisia absinthium is different from that in younger plants . . . so are the memories and life experiences held within that neuronal structure. Plants become wise, too, as they age. We are not the only ones capable of it. You can literally feel the difference such maturity brings in encountering old growth trees— the young just don’t have it. ~ Stephen Harrod Buhner,
1075:Transient states of depersonalisation are appreciably commoner during migraine auras. Freud reminds us that “… the ego is first and foremost a body-ego … the mental projection of the surface of the body.” The sense of “self” appears to be based, fundamentally, on a continuous inference from the stability of body-image, the stability of outward perceptions, and the stability of time-perception. Feelings of ego-dissolution readily and promptly occur if there is serious disorder or instability of body-image, external perception, or time-perception, and all of these, as we have seen, may occur during the course of a migraine aura. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1076:It may yet be said that a logical succession of the states of progress would be very much in this order. First, there is a large turning in which all the natural mental activities proper to the individual nature are taken up or referred to a higher standpoint and dedicated by the soul in us, the psychic being, the priest of the sacrifice, to the divine service; next, there is an attempt at an ascent of the being and a bringing down of the Light and Power proper to some new height of consciousness gained by its upward effort into the whole action of the knowledge.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent Of The Sacrifice - I, [T1],
1077:The United States of America is logically the least magical place in the world. Planned by committee, not even a country, just a legal umbrella for fifty associated provinces, an elaborate polling system for creating other larger and more permanent committees. No mysteries; no demons; one God at the most. Sure, it had its own folklore and tall tales, but it wasn’t the same. Its rulers weren’t descended from men and women who spoke with birds and rode dragons. Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan were hayseeds, folksy also-rans compared to the madness in the ancient royal blood going back to the Druids, to Byzantium, to Mithraic cults. ~ Austin Grossman,
1078:The United States of America” can mean two quite different things. The first is a certain physical territory, largely on the North American continent, including all such geographical and biological features as lakes, mountains and rivers, skies and clouds, plants, animals, and people. The second is a sovereign political state, existing in competition with many other sovereign states jostling one another around the surface of this planet. The
first sense is concrete and material; the second, abstract and conceptual.
If the United States continues for very much longer to exist in this second sense, it will cease to exist in the first. ~ Alan W Watts,
1079:There may be something inherently selfish in the social service states of the mid-20th century: blessed for a few decades with the good fortune of ethnic homogeneity and a small, educated population where almost everyone could recognize themselves in everyone else. Most of these countries—self-contained nation-states exposed to very little external threat—had the good fortune to cluster under the umbrella of NATO in the post-1945 decades, devoting their budgets to domestic improvement and untroubled by mass immigration from the rest of Europe, much less further afield. When this situation changed, confidence and trust appears to have fallen off. ~ Tony Judt,
1080:Those “weird evolutions” enabled by a CTC, Ringbauer notes, would have remarkable practical applications, such as breaking quantum-based cryptography through the cloning of the quantum states of fundamental particles. “If you can clone quantum states,” he says, “you can violate the Heisenberg uncertainty principle,” which comes in handy in quantum cryptography because the principle forbids simultaneously accurate measurements of certain kinds of paired variables, such as position and momentum. “But if you clone that system, you can measure one quantity in the first and the other quantity in the second, allowing you to decrypt an encoded message. ~ Anonymous,
1081:It is estimated that Josef Stalin killed more than twenty million people during his reign of terror. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia lost more than a third of their population during the Soviet annihilation. The deportations reached as far as Finland. To this day, many Russians deny they ever deported a single person. But most Baltic people harbor no grudge, resentment, or ill will. They are grateful to the Soviets who showed compassion. Their freedom is precious, and they are learning to live within it. For some, the liberties we have as American citizens came at the expense of people who lie in unmarked graves in Siberia. ~ Ruta Sepetys,
1082:If people are like plants, what are the conditions we need to flourish? In the happiness formula from chapter 5, H(appiness) = S(etpoint) + C(onditions) + V(oluntary activities), what exactly is C? The biggest part of C, as I said in chapter 6, is love. No man, woman, or child is an island. We are ultrasocial creatures, and we can’t be happy without having friends and secure attachments to other people. The second most important part of C is having and pursuing the right goals, in order to create states of flow and engagement. In the modern world, people can find goals and flow in many settings, but most people find most of their flow at work. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
1083:Now be it known, That I John Adams, President of the United States of America, having seen and considered the said Treaty do, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and every clause and article thereof. And to the End that the said Treaty may be observed, and performed with good Faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public; And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office civil or military within the United States, and all other citizens or inhabitants thereof, faithfully to observe and fulfill the said Treaty and every clause and article thereof. ~ John Adams,
1084:In everyday life, he claims, we all experience three states of consciousness: the awake state, in which we experience awareness and the objects of our consciousness originate in the physical reality around us; the dream state, in which we experience awareness, but the objects of our consciousness have some internal origin; and the deepsleep state, in which there is no awareness. According to Russell, the state achieved in meditation is a fourth distinct state, in which there is awareness, indeed profound awareness, but awareness of nothing but consciousness itself. In this state, awareness transcends consciousness of objects and is pure self-awareness. ~ Bernard Haisch,
1085:The fundamental issue in resolving traumatic stress is to restore the proper balance between the rational and emotional brains, so that you can feel in charge of how you respond and how you conduct your life. When we’re triggered into states of hyper- or hypoarousal, we are pushed outside our “window of tolerance”—the range of optimal functioning.4 We become reactive and disorganized; our filters stop working—sounds and lights bother us, unwanted images from the past intrude on our minds, and we panic or fly into rages. If we’re shut down, we feel numb in body and mind; our thinking becomes sluggish and we have trouble getting out of our chairs. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
1086:am an American Soldier. I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. (This had been underlined.) I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior task and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier. ~ Kristin Hannah,
1087:Even though some individual scholars try to tell us there is no direct connection between images of violence and the violence confronting us in our lives, the commonsense truth remains- we are affected by the images we consume and by the states of mind we are in when watching them. If consumers want to be entertained, and the images shown us as entertaining are images of violent dehumanization, it makes sense that these acts become more acceptable in our daily lives and that we become less likely to respond to them with moral outrage or concern. Were we all seeing more images of loving human interaction, it would undoubtedly have a positive impact on our lives. ~ bell hooks,
1088:Some errors and imperfections arose inevitably from the haste and pressure under which the Covenant was prepared. Nevertheless the base of the new building was set upon the living rock; and the mighty foundation stone, shaped by the innumerable chisellings of merciful men the world over and swung into position by loyal and dexterous English pulleys, will bear for all time the legend: ‘Well and truly laid by Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America.’ Who can doubt that upon and around this granite block will ultimately be built a dwelling-place and palace to which ‘all the men in all the lands’ will sooner or later resort in sure trust? ~ Winston S Churchill,
1089:This book attempts to convey something of the characteristic viewpoint on the world of each language whose story it tells. Evidently, living in a particular language does not define a total philosophy of life: but some metaphors will come to mind more readily than others; and some states of mind, or attitudes to others, are easier to assume in one language than another. It cannot be a matter of indifference which language we speak, or which languages our ancestors spoke. Languages frame, analyse and colour our views of the world. 'I have three hearts,' claimed Ennius, an early master poet in Latin, on the strength of his fluency in Latin, Greek, and Oscan. ~ Nicholas Ostler,
1090:When all is said and done, we are in the end absolutely dependent on the universe; and into sacrifices and surrenders of some sort, deliberately looked at and accepted, we are drawn and pressed as into our only permanent positions of repose. Now in those states of mind which fall short of religion, the surrender is submitted to as an imposition of necessity, and the sacrifice is undergone at the very best without complaint. In the religious life, on the contrary, surrender and sacrifice are positively espoused: even unnecessary givings-up are added in order that the happiness may increase. Religion thus makes easy and felicitous what in any case is necessary. ~ William James,
1091:Some of these Marines learned what they know on Guadalcanal, a basically useless island in the Southwest Pacific where the Empire of Nippon and the United States of America are disputing—with rifles—each other’s right to build a military airbase. Early returns suggest that the Nipponese Army, during its extended tour of East Asia, has lost its edge. It would appear that raping the entire female population of Nanjing, and bayoneting helpless Filipino villagers, does not translate into actual military competence. The Nipponese Army is still trying to work out some way to kill, say, a hundred American Marines without losing, say, five hundred of its own soldiers. ~ Neal Stephenson,
1092:The third, the dark, was a flux of forms, a perpetual coming together and falling asunder of forms. The light contained the docile elements of a new manifold, the world of the body broken up into the pieces of a toy; the half light, states of peace. But the dark neither elements nor states, nothing but forms becoming and crumbling into the fragments of a new becoming, without love or hate or any intelligible principle of change. Here there was nothing but commotion and the pure forms of commotion. Here he was not free, but a mote in the dark of absolute freedom. He did not move, he was a point in the ceaseless unconditioned generalization and passing away of line. ~ Samuel Beckett,
1093:To-day I feel so joyful that I could dance to the tune of Miriam’s timbrel; but perhaps when I wake to-morrow morning I shall only be able to sing in harmony with Jeremiah’s lamentations. Has my salvation changed according to these feelings? Then it must have had a very movable foundation. Feelings are more fickle than the winds, more unsubstantial than bubbles: are these to be the gauge of the divine fidelity? States of mind more or less depend upon the condition of the liver or the stomach; are we to judge the Lord by these? Certainly not. The state of the barometer may send our feelings up or down: can there be much dependence upon things so changeable? ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
1094:When I was a little girl, if someone asked me why I was a Christian, I said it was because Jesus lived in my heart. In high school, I said it was because I accepted the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross for my sins. My sophomore year of college, during a short-lived Reformed phase, I said it was because of the irresistible grace of God. But after watching Zarmina's execution on television, I decided that the most truthful answer to that question was this: I was a Christian because I was born in the United States of America in the year 1981 to Peter and Robin Held. Arminians call it free will; Calvinists call it predestination. I call it "the cosmic lottery. ~ Rachel Held Evans,
1095:The Cloud Ark Constitution is now in effect.” Dinah drew breath, knowing what this meant. Markus spelled it out anyway. “This means that all nation-states of Earth, and their governments and constitutions, no longer exist. Their military and civilian chains of command are no more. Oaths you may have taken to them, allegiances you may have held, loyalties you may have felt, citizenships you may have had are now and forever dissolved. The rights granted you by the Cloud Ark Constitution, no more and no less, are your rights. The laws and responsibilities of the Cloud Ark Constitution now bind you. You are citizens of a new nation now, the only nation. Long may it endure. ~ Neal Stephenson,
1096:The last line of Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen is addressed to the American people and their congressmen. "As they deal with me and my people, kindly, generously, and justly, so may the Great Ruler of all nations deal with the grand and glorious nation of the United States of America." It's clever to imply that if the U.S. swallows up her little country, God will smite it. As I reread the last sentance of a book written by a Hawaiian queen wh was taught to read and write by American missionaries, her final thought seems emblematic of how hierarchical Hawaiians adapted to Christianity. Jehovah, "the Great Ruler of all nations," is the highest high chief in the universe. ~ Sarah Vowell,
1097:These men of the special forces have had other optinos in their lives, other paths, easier paths they could have taken. But they took the hardest path, that narrow causeway that is not for the sunshine patriot. They took the one for the supreme patriot, the one that may require them to lay down their lives for the United States of America. The one that is suitable only for those who want to serve their country so bad, nothing else matters. That's probably not fashionable in our celebrity-obsessed modern world. But special forces guys don't give a damn about that either.....They are of course aware of a higher calling, because they are sworn to defend this country and to fight its battles. ~ Marcus Luttrell,
1098:Among democracies, I think through all the recorded history of the world, the building of permanent institutions like libraries and museums for the use of all the people flourishes. And that is especially true in our own land, because we believe that people ought to work out for themselves, and through their own study, the determination of their best interest rather than accept such so-called information as may be handed out to them by certain types of self-constituted leaders who decide what is best for them. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, Remarks at the Dedication of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York, United States of America (June 30, 1941). Archived from the original on January 30, 2021.,
1099:...the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom: for in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom: for liberty is, to be free from restraint and violence from others; which cannot be, where there is no law: but freedom is not, as we are told, a liberty for every man to do what he lists: (for who could be free, when every other man's humour might domineer over him?) but a liberty to dispose, and order as he lists, his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be subject to the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own. ~ John Locke,
1100:Considerable thought was given in early Congresses to the possibility of renaming the country. From the start, many people recognized that United States of America was unsatisfactory. For one thing, it allowed of no convenient adjectival form. A citizen would have to be either a United Statesian or some other such clumsy locution, or an American, thereby arrogating to ourselves a title that belonged equally to the inhabitants of some three dozen other nations on two continents. Several alternatives to America were actively considered -Columbia, Appalachia, Alleghania, Freedonia or Fredonia (whose denizens would be called Freeds or Fredes)- but none mustered sufficient support to displace the existing name. ~ Bill Bryson,
1101:He rejected the policy of seeking a direct accommodation with the Nazis at the expense of the smaller states of Europe. The full extent of Nazi persecution was evidence, as he saw it, that there would never be any meaningful accommodation between Nazism and Parliamentary democracy. From the earliest successes of the Nazi movement, even before 1933, he expressed his repugnance of Nazi excesses, and he continued to do so after 1933, despite repeated German protests at his articles and speeches. Nothing could persuade him to accept the possibility of compromise with evil at the expense of others, or to abandon his faith in the rule of law, the supremacy of elected Parliaments and the rights of the individual. ~ Martin Gilbert,
1102:History, of course, makes a president big news and the assassination of one more so. However, I see men assassinated around me every day. I walk through rooms of the dead, streets of the dead, cities of the dead: men without eyes, men without voices; men with manufactured feelings and standard reactions; men with newspaper brains, television souls and high school ideals. Kennedy himself was 9/10ths the way around the clock or he wouldn't have accepted such an enervating and enfeebling job--meaning President of the United States of America. How can I be over concerned with the murder of one man when almost all men, plus females, are taken from cribs as babies and almost immediately thrown into the masher? ~ Charles Bukowski,
1103:Mamaw and Papaw taught me that we live in the best and greatest country on earth. This fact gave meaning to my childhood. Whenever times were tough—when I felt overwhelmed by the drama and the tumult of my youth—I knew that better days were ahead because I lived in a country that allowed me to make the good choices that others hadn’t. When I think today about my life and how genuinely incredible it is—a gorgeous, kind, brilliant life partner; the financial security that I dreamed about as a child; great friends and exciting new experiences—I feel overwhelming appreciation for these United States. I know it’s corny, but it’s the way I feel. If Mamaw’s second God was the United States of America, then many people in ~ J D Vance,
1104:If you set out alone and sovereign, unconnected to a family, a religion, a nationality, a tradition, a class, then pretty soon you are too lonely, too self-invented and unique, and too much aware that there is no one else like you in the world. If you submerge yourself completely in something - your town or your profession or your hobby - then pretty soon you have to struggle up to the surface because you need to be sure that even though you are a part of something big, some community, you still exist as a single unit with a single mind. It is the fundamental contradictoriness of the United States of America - the illogical but optimistic notion that you can create a union of individuals in which every man is king. ~ Susan Orlean,
1105:An important spiritual law is here involved. I have explained that you can weaken his prayers by diverting his attention from the Enemy Himself to his own states of mind about the Enemy. On the other hand fear becomes easier to master when the patient’s mind is diverted from the thing feared to the fear itself, considered as a present and undesirable state of his own mind; and when he regards the fear as his appointed cross he will inevitably think of it as a state of mind. One can therefore formulate the general rule; in all activities of mind which favour our cause, encourage the patient to be unself-conscious and to concentrate on the object, but in all activities favourable to the Enemy bend his mind back on itself. ~ C S Lewis,
1106:Erotic, passionate love is transcendent yet fleeting. Few experiences in life equal the first few weeks and months of romantic love. Extreme passion teaches us about states of pure love. Once you experience this overwhelming, soul shaking state of being, you need not mourn as it slips away and transforms into something different. It is up to each and every one of us to infuse passionate love, affection, and attention into every aspect of our life and relationships long after the flame has flickered. Cultivating this state is a worthy and pleasurable pursuit even when external factors do not push us there. Passion reveals what is possible, not what is sustainable. The Lovers' intensity reminds us of this valuable lesson. ~ Sasha Graham,
1107:Cultures of domination rely on the cultivation of fear as a way to ensure obedience. In our society we make much of love and say little about fear. Yet we are all terribly afraid most of the time. As a culture we are obsessed with the notion of safety. Yet we do not question why we live in states of extreme anxiety and dread. Fear is the primary force upholding systems of domination. It promotes the desire for separation, the desire not to be known. When we are taught that safety always lies in sameness, then difference, of any kind, will appear as a threat. When we choose to love we choose to move against fear - against alienation and separation. The choice to love is the choice to connect - to find ourselves in the other ~ bell hooks,
1108:The mind states of liking and disliking can take up permanent residency in us, unconsciously feeding addictive behaviors in all domains of life. When we are able to recognize and name the seeds of greediness or craving, however subtle, in the mind’s constant wanting and pursuing of the things or results that we like, and the seeds of aversion or hatred in our rejecting or maneuvering to avoid the things we don’t like, that stops us for a moment and reminds us that such forces really are at work in our own minds to one extent or another almost all the time. It’s no exaggeration to say that they have a chronic, viral-like toxicity that prevents us from seeing things as they actually are and mobilizing our true potential. ~ Jon Kabat Zinn,
1109:When Abraham Lincoln declared, in 1863, that the battle of Gettysburg must ensure 'that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,' he was not merely being aspirational; at the onset of the Civil War, the United States of America had one of the highest rates of suffrage in the world. The question is not whether Lincoln truly meant 'government of the people' but what our country has, throughout its history, taken the political term 'people' to actually mean. In 1863 it did not mean your mother or your grandmother, and it did not mean you and me. Thus America's problem is not its betrayal of 'government of the people,' but the means by which 'the people' acquired their names. ~ Ta Nehisi Coates,
1110:The enemy is typically depicted as a dangerous octopus, a vicious dragon, a multiheaded hydra, a giant venomous tarantula, or an engulfing Leviathan. Other frequently used symbols include vicious predatory felines or birds, monstrous sharks, and ominous snakes, particularly vipers and boa constrictors. Scenes depicting strangulation or crushing, ominous whirlpools, and treacherous quicksands also abound in pictures from the time of wars, revolutions, and political crises. The juxtaposition of paintings from non-ordinary states of consciousness that depict perinatal experiences with the historical pictorial documentation collected by Lloyd de Mause and Sam Keen offer strong evidence for the perinatal roots of human violence. ~ Stanislav Grof,
1111:When Abraham Lincoln declared, in 1863, that the battle of Gettysburg must ensure “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” he was not merely being aspirational; at the onset of the Civil War, the United States of America had one of the highest rates of suffrage in the world. The question is not whether Lincoln truly meant “government of the people” but what our country has, throughout its history, taken the political term “people” to actually mean. In 1863 it did not mean your mother or your grandmother, and it did not mean you and me. Thus America’s problem is not its betrayal of “government of the people,” but the means by which “the people” acquired their names. This ~ Ta Nehisi Coates,
1112:This is why a tainted society has invented psychiatry to defend itself against the investigations of certain superior intellects whose faculties of divination would be troublesome.

No, van Gogh was not mad, but his paintings were bursts of Greek fire, atomic bombs, whose angle of vision would have been capable of seriously upsetting the spectral conformity of the
bourgeoisie.

In comparison with the lucidity of van Gogh, psychiatry is no better than a den of apes who are themselves obsessed and persecuted and who possess nothing to mitigate the most appalling states of anguish and human suffocation but a ridiculous terminology. To a man, this whole gang of pected scoundrels and patented quacks are all erotomaniacs. ~ Antonin Artaud,
1113:Amanda Feilding, who was born in 1943, is an eccentric as only the English aristocracy can breed them. (She’s descended from the house of Habsburg and two of Charles II’s illegitimate children.) A student of comparative religion and mysticism, Feilding has had a long-standing interest in altered states of consciousness and, specifically, the role of blood flow to the brain, which in Homo sapiens, she believes, has been compromised ever since our species began standing upright. LSD, Feilding believes, enhances cognitive function and facilitates higher states of consciousness by increasing cerebral circulation. A second way to achieve a similar result is by means of the ancient practice of trepanation. This deserves a brief digression. ~ Michael Pollan,
1114:I'm saying the structure and f the entire culture is flawed, chip said. I'm saying the bureaucracy has arrogated the right to define certain states of mind as 'diseased.' A lack of desire to spend money becomes a symptom of disease that requires expensive medication. Which medication then destroys the libido, in other words destroys the appetite for the one pleasure in life that's free, which means the person has to spend more money on compensatory pleasures. The very definition of mental health is the ability to participate in the consumer economy. When you buy into therapy, you're buying into buying. And I'm saying that I personally am losing the battle with a commercialized, medicalized, totalitarian, modernity right this instant. ~ Jonathan Franzen,
1115:Your natural state has no relationship whatsoever with the religious states of bliss, beatitude and ecstasy; they lie within the field of experience. Those who have led man on his search for religiousness throughout the centuries have perhaps experienced those religious states. So can you. They are thought-induced states of being, and as they come, so do they go. Krishna Consciousness, Buddha Consciousness, Christ Consciousness, or what have you, are all trips in the wrong direction: they are all within the field of time. The timeless can never be experienced, can never be grasped, contained, much less given expression to, by any man. That beaten track will lead you nowhere. There is no oasis situated yonder; you are stuck with the mirage. ~ Jed McKenna,
1116:For this reason, I presuppose in my readers no knowledge whatever of the subject, either upon the philosophic, religious, or historical side. Nor, since I wish my appeal to be general, do I urge the special claim of any one theological system, any one metaphysical school. I have merely attempted to put the view of the universe and man's place in it which is common to all mystics in plain and untechnical language: and to suggest the practical conditions under which ordinary persons may participate in their experience. Therefore the abnormal states of consciousness which sometimes appear in connection with mystical genius are not discussed: my business being confined to the description of a faculty which all men possess in a greater or less degree. ~ Evelyn Underhill,
1117:And then she saw Lord Gareth's friends, lying about the bedroom in various states of repose —  Chilcot, perched on a window seat, his forefinger stuck in an empty bottle and swinging it back and forth; Perry, sprawled in a damask-backed chair with his waistcoat unbuttoned, his cravat askew, and a bleary smile on his handsome face. The names of the others had escaped her. There was the one with the big nose, his eyes bloodshot beneath the straggles of wavy brown hair that had escaped his queue; the one who was as wide and burly as a draft horse, flat on his back and snoring, his wig looking like a dead rat on the floor beside his head; a third, thin and cocky, hiccupping drunkenly and saluting Juliet with his bottle:  "To the lady ... hic! ... o' the hour! ~ Danelle Harmon,
1118:In his own words Adorno said his music was Stalinist or Fascist and he used “big concepts to see if they sound right and fit the data.” In these words can be found the key to why he was engaged by Tavistock to write music based on the 12-atonal system of music that “sounded right” and he then “fit the data” namely, he wrote the lyrics to match, so that what emerged was an 18 album set he wrote for the Beatles. Underlying the whole Beatle music concept was Adorno’s long held belief that capitalism was evil, because it “fed the people with products of a culture industry to keep them passively satisfied and politically apathetic.” His “Beatle 12-atonal music” would throw a wrench into the works of the world’s biggest capitalist state, the United States of America. ~ John Coleman,
1119:He has presumably never observed a real wolf closely, otherwise he might have seen that animals too have no such things as unified souls; that the beautiful, taut frames of their bodies house a whole variety of aspirations and states of mind; that wolves suffer too, having dark depths within them. Oh no, human beings are always desperately mistaken and bound to suffer when they try to get ‘back to nature’. Harry can never fully become a wolf again, and if he did he would realize that even wolves are not simple and primitive creatures but complex and many-sided. Wolves also have two and more than two souls in their wolves’ breasts, and anyone desiring to be a wolf is guilty of the same kind of forgetfulness as the man who sings ‘What bliss still to be a child!’1 ~ Hermann Hesse,
1120:Soli looked up to the sky. Same blue as the Mexican sky. She looked through the truck's slats. This was California. The United States of America. She had arrived.

And here's what she discovered. This place, this America? This new place, this streets-of-gold place? Looked a hell of lot like the old place.

America streaked by her, stripped and tender with heat. She watched it all rush past through the slats of the old truck: the tin roofs, seas of broken glass, glinting and breathless like a fever dream. America was the dust in her hair, the wind in her throat, the sun that shouted against her eyelids. Between the slates of this truck, America was nothing but a high-tech, high-speed dream of trees and houses and fences, a sliver of interrupted light. ~ Shanthi Sekaran,
1121:Much the same can be said of the strategies—rarely taken as primary objectives, to be sure, but much used—of encouraging faithfulness to the activities of a church or other outwardly religious routines and various “spiritualities,” or the seeking out of special states of mind or ecstatic experiences. These are good things. But let it be said once and for all that, like outward conformity and doctrinally perfect profession, they are not to be taken as major objectives in an adequate curriculum for Christlikeness. Special experiences, faithfulness to the church, correct doctrine, and external conformity to the teachings of Jesus all come along as appropriate, more or less automatically, when the inner self is transformed. But they do not produce such a transformation. ~ Dallas Willard,
1122:The race bullies win by relying on racial guilt. But collective racial guilt can only separate Americans. We are individuals, not homogenous members of racial subsets. Only when we learn to cherish the words of Martin Luther King, judging people as individuals, will we truly have the guts to stand up to the race bullies. After all, to paraphrase a man who once stood for unification rather than division, we're not black America or white America. We're the United States of America. We're brothers and sisters.

If we don't begin to recognize that simple truth -- and recognize the inherent goodness of America, and our ability to look beyond skin color and ethnic heritage -- the race bullies will continue to tear American down for their own political gain, brick by brick. ~ Ben Shapiro,
1123:I want to say that further you are not a great chief of this country. That you have no following, no power, no control." Logan continued, "You are on an Indian reservation merely at the sufferance of the government. You are fed by the government, clothed by the government, your children are educated by the government, and all you have and are today is because of the government. If it were not for the government you would be freezing and starving today in the mountains. I merely say these things to notify you that you cannot insult the people of the United States of America or its committees ...the government feeds and clothes and educates your children now, and desires to teach you to become farmers, and to civilize you, and make you as white men.
-Senator John Logan, 1883 ~ Dee Brown,
1124:Socrates is talking not about memory in general, nor especially the art of mnemonics practiced by masters of memory. In Socrates’s reckoning, she writes, the ancient Egyptians possessed memory of the deepest kind: memory of the Ideas—the living universal realities of which all things, passions, sensations, and sundry states of affairs are but passing shadows. Memory in this view is no apparatus for the collation and curation of trivia but the imperishable recollection of the knowledge we possessed before we are born—the foundation of knowledge itself. “A Platonic memory,” Yates concludes, “would have to be organised, not in the trivial manner of . . . mnemotechnics, but in relation to the realities.” Memory in the Platonic definition is not about storage but revelation. ~ Matthew Battles,
1125:If you could possibly understand how precious and powerful your experience of this one lifetime as yourself is, you wouldn't be trying to go anywhere else.
If you could know the perfection of time and space,
You would slow each moment down
To drain every possible nuance of juice and flavor from it.
When you leave this place, your body and mind and the earth which holds you, you will look back and only wish you had known the immense richness that you hurried through trying to find other better states of being.
But this is the best bite.
Heaven is here.
Nirvana is now.
As soon as you know that for sure
Your life will never be the same again.
In fact, in every way it seeks to get your attention. begs you to awaken to the magic right before your eyes. ~ Jacob Nordby,
1126:What we need, of course, is a language which will allow us to distinguish the normal or routine fuck from the glorious, the rare, or the lousy one - a fack from a fick, a fick from a fock - but we have more names for parts of horses than we have for kinds of kisses, and our earthy words are all ... well ... 'dirty'. It says something dirty about us, no doubt, because in a society which had a mind for the body and other similarly vital things, there would be a word for coming down, or going up, words for nibbles on the bias, earlobe loving, and every variety of tongue track. After all, how many kinds of birds do we distinguish? We have a name for the Second Coming but none for a second coming. In fact our entire vocabulary for states of consciousness is critically impoverished. ~ William H Gass,
1127:An expert in international relations, a reasonable woman with a rich deep voice, advised me that the world was not well. She considered two common states of mind: self-pity and aggression. Each one a poor choice for individuals. In combination, for groups or nations, a noxious brew that lately intoxicated the Russians in Ukraine, as it once had their friends, the Serbs in their part of the world. We were belittled, now we will prove ourselves. Now that the Russian state was the political arm of organised crime, another war in Europe no longer inconceivable. Dust down the tank divisions for Lithuania’s southern border, for the north German plain. The same potion inflames the barbaric fringes of Islam. The cup is drained, the same cry goes up: we’ve been humiliated, we’ll be avenged. ~ Ian McEwan,
1128:It becomes obvious now that the universe with its complex life forms is becoming increasingly self-reflexive and self-knowing not only with respect to its morphology, but also with respect to its morphogenetic dynamics. Morphological structures may be studied in the present, dynamics only in a temporal extension. With the inclusion of the entire time dimension of evolution, from a distant past into a (perhaps less distant) future, and with the partial inclusion of events in distant space, the total process of evolution becomes increasingly subject to direct experience. In a certain sense, we may let the process of evolution act within us in a holistic way, especially in meditative states of consciousness and in the highest intensity of life, in love. ~ Erich Jantsch, The Self-Organizing Universe,
1129:They are approaching now a lengthy brick improvisation, a Victorian paraphrase of what once, long ago, resulted in Gothic cathedrals—but which, in its own time, arose not from any need to climb through the fashioning of suitable confusions toward any apical God, but more in a derangement of aim, a doubt as to the God’s actual locus (or, in some, as to its very existence), out of a cruel network of sensuous moments that could not be transcended and so bent the intentions of the builders not on any zenith, but back to fright, to simple escape, in whatever direction, from what the industrial smoke, street excrement, windowless warrens, shrugging leather forests of drive belts, flowing and patient shadow states of the rats and flies, were saying about the chances for mercy that year. ~ Thomas Pynchon,
1130:What did he do?" he murmured.
"He said something about if his words didn't put me in my place, he would find something that would. And then he slapped me."
Bram abruptly regretted not making use of the knife he'd carried in his boot to the Hampton soiree. He could understand Cosgrove desiring her and wanting to control her. But to strike her... Bram was accustomed to being angry; he'd spent most of the past ten years in varying states of it. What he felt as he listened to Rosamund, though, to the shake of her words and the despair in her voice, was deeper and hotter than anything he'd ever experienced. Plainly and simply, it was fury. White-hot, blood-boiling fury.
"Hope that he enjoyed hitting you, Rosamund," he said in a low voice, "because he will never touch you again. ~ Suzanne Enoch,
1131:Fulfilled desires, like pleasures (even of the intrinsic kind), are states of achievement rather than default states. For instance, one has to work at satiating oneself, while hunger comes naturally. After one has eaten or taken liquid, bowel and bladder discomfort ensues quite naturally and we have to seek relief. One has to seek out pleasurable sensations, in the absence of which blandness comes naturally. The upshot of this is that we must continually work at keeping suffering (including tedium) at bay, and we can do so only imperfectly. Dissatisfaction does and must pervade life. There are moments, perhaps even periods, of satisfaction, but they occur against a background of dissatisfied striving. Pollyannaism may cause most people to blur out this background, but it remains there. ~ David Benatar,
1132:There are gentle souls who would pronounce Lolita meaningless because it does not teach them anything. I am neither a reader nor a writer of didactic fiction, and, despite John Ray's assertion, Lolita has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm. There are not many such books. All the rest is either topical trash or what some call the Literature of Ideas, which very often is topical trash coming in huge blocks of plaster that are carefully transmitted from age to age until somebody comes along with a hammer and takes a good crack at Balzac, at Gorki, at Mann. ~ Vladimir Nabokov,
1133:In just the last issue of Science Today there had been an article on some new psychotropic agents of the group of so-called benignimizers (the N,N-dimethylpeptocryptomides), which induced states of undirected joy and beatitude. Yes, yes! I could practically see that article now. Hedonidil, Euphoril, Inebrium, Felicitine, Empathan, Ecstasine, Halcyonal and a whole spate of derivatives. Though by replacing an amino group with a hydroxyl, you obtained instead Furiol, Antagonil, Rabiditine, Sadistizine, Dementium, Flagellan, Juggernol and many other polyparanoidal stimulants of the group of so-called phrensobarbs (for these prompted the most vicious behavior, the lashing out at objects animate as well as inanimate—and especially powerful here were the cannibal-cannabinols and manicomimetics). ~ Stanis aw Lem,
1134:It has always been a mystery to me how Adam, Eve, and the serpent were taught the same language. Where did they get it? We know now, that it requires a great number of years to form a language; that it is of exceedingly slow growth. We also know that by language, man conveys to his fellows the impressions made upon him by what he sees, hears, smells and touches. We know that the language of the savage consists of a few sounds, capable of expressing only a few ideas or states of the mind, such as love, desire, fear, hatred, aversion and contempt. Many centuries are required to produce a language capable of expressing complex ideas. It does not seem to me that ideas can be manufactured by a deity and put in the brain of man. These ideas must be the result of observation and experience. ~ Robert G Ingersoll,
1135:At the foundation of Hegel’s thought was his understanding of dialectic, according to which all things unfold in a continuing evolutionary process whereby every state of being inevitably brings forth its opposite. The interaction between these opposites then generates a third stage in which the opposites are integrated —they are at once overcome and fulfilled— in a richer and higher synthesis, which in turn becomes the basis for another dialectical process of opposition and synthesis... Hegel’s overriding impulse was to comprehend all dimensions of existence as dialectically integrated in one unitary whole. In Hegel’s view, all human thought and all reality is pervaded by contradiction, which alone makes possible the development of higher states of consciousness and higher states of being. ~ Richard Tarnas,
1136:What I think I am saying is that phenomenal consciousness - the raw feel of experience - is invisible to conventional scientific scrutiny and will forever remain so. It is, by definition, subjective - where as science, by definition, adopts an objective stance. You can't be in two places at once. You either experience consciousness "from the inside" ([...]) or you view it "from the outside" ([...]). Science can study the neural activity, the bodily states, the environmental conditions, and the outward behaviours - including verbal behaviours that stand for different states of awareness ([...]), but the quality - the feel - of our experiences remains forever private and therefore out of bounds of scientific analysis. I can't see a way round this. Privateness is a fundamental constituent of consciousness. ~ Paul Broks,
1137:Declaration. Compositionality figures essentially in the creation of social and institutional reality. Given compositionality, the animal can do much more than just represent existing states of affairs; it can represent states of affairs that do not exist but which can be brought into existence by getting a community to accept a certain class of speech acts. So, for example, the man who says, “This is my property,” or the woman who says, “This is my husband” may be doing more than just reporting an antecedently existing state of affairs; he or she may be creating a state of affairs by Declaration. A person who can get other people to accept this Declaration will succeed in creating an institutional reality that did not exist prior to that Declaration. We do not yet have performatives, because they ~ John Rogers Searle,
1138:I am a storyteller, for better and for worse. I suspect that a feeling for stories, for narrative, is a universal human disposition, going with our powers of language, consciousness of self, and autobiographical memory. The act of writing, when it goes well, gives me a pleasure, a joy, unlike any other. It takes me to another place—irrespective of my subject—where I am totally absorbed and oblivious to distracting thoughts, worries, preoccupations, or indeed the passage of time. In those rare, heavenly states of mind, I may write nonstop until I can no longer see the paper. Only then do I realize that evening has come and that I have been writing all day. Over a lifetime, I have written millions of words, but the act of writing seems as fresh, and as much fun, as when I started it nearly seventy years ago. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1139:To live on a day-to-day basis is insufficient for human beings; we need to transcend, transport, escape; we need meaning, understanding, and explanation; we need to see over-all patterns in our lives. We need hope, the sense of a future. And we need freedom (or, at least, the illusion of freedom) to get beyond ourselves, whether with telescopes and microscopes and our ever-burgeoning technology, or in states of mind that allow us to travel to other worlds, to rise above our immediate surroundings.

We may seek, too, a relaxing of inhibitions that makes it easier to bond with each other, or transports that make our consciousness of time and mortality easier to bear. We seek a holiday from our inner and outer restrictions, a more intense sense of the here and now, the beauty and value of the world we live in. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1140:Whatever you wish to do, you must bring yourself to a moment of joy and clarity within yourself. Why I am saying joy is because when you are happy you are not compulsive. When you are very happy and clear, at that time if you look at things and see that “Yes, this is what is more sensible for me” – just do that. It does not matter if it feels like hell; it does not matter if you go through hell for ten years, you just do that, because that is where your wellbeing is. Whenever your emotions go up and down, your mind says many things – that is not important. It says one thing in the morning, one thing in the evening; it says one thing today and another thing tomorrow, that is of no consequence. When you are in differennt states of compulsiveness, if you make decisions as to which way to turn, you will be endlessly lost. ~ Sadhguru,
1141:Aiva Rozenberga was 13 years old when 2 million people stood hand in hand in 1989 across the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, forming a gigantic, peaceful human chain of defiance of Soviet occupation later called the Baltic Chain. Their voices raised in song, music carried the message: “We want freedom!” This past January, to kick off the tenure of Riga, Latvia, as a European Capital of Culture, 15,000 Latvians stood shoulder to shoulder again, this time passing books from one hand to the other to bring them from the current library to a new library across the Daugava River. Ms. Rozenberga was part of the chain, as program director for Riga 2014, the foundation that put together this year’s program of events. The chain of book lovers epitomizes the power of culture in a small, vulnerable country. ~ Anonymous,
1142:The last time Americans protested anything the government did was that Tea Party nonsense before the Republican Party collapsed a few years ago. The vast majority of Americans will meekly accept anything you tell them now, so don’t expect anyone to complain. At least not publicly and not online, but there are a few nut jobs out there, I’m sure. Your department will issue a correction in a few days, and it will be under-reported by the media. Your people will send out flyers informing the people about needing travel permits. With a few more actions, the United States of America and its people will be compliant completely to whatever I and the government want. Then, we can have the United Nations do whatever it wants without any resistance from this country. Overall, you’re doing a heck-of-a-job, Foster, keep up the good work. ~ Cliff Ball,
1143:And all the time the experience lasted, one hourone hour of that time is longI was in a state of extraordinary joyfulness, almost in an intoxicated state. The difference between the two states of consciousness is so great that when you are in one, the other seems unreal, like a dream. When I came back what struck me first of all was the futility of life here; our little conceptions down here seem so laughable, so comical. We say that some people are mad, but their madness is perhaps a great wisdom, from the supramental point of view, and their behaviour is perhaps nearer to the truth of thingsI am not speaking of the obscure mad men whose brains have been damaged, but of many other incomprehensible mad men, the luminous mad: they have wanted to cross the border too quickly and the rest has not followed. ~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 1, 1958-02,
1144:It is often difficult, I find, for people today to grasp the notion that one family, working through several restaurants could change the eating habit of an entire country. But such was the achievement of the Delmonicos in the United States of the last century. Before they opened their first small cafe on William Street in 1823, catering to the business and financial communities of Lower Manhattan, American food could generally be described as things boiled or fried whose purpose was to sustain hard work and hold down alcohol - usually bad alcohol. The Delmonicos, though Swiss, had brought the French method to America, and each generation of their family refined an expanded the experience ... The craving for first-rate dining became a kind of national fever in the latter decades of the century - and Delmonico's was responsible. ~ Caleb Carr,
1145:The up and down movement which you speak of is common to all ways of Yoga. It is there in the path of bhakti, but there are equally alternations of states of light and states of darkness, sometimes sheer and prolonged darkness, when one follows the path of knowledge. Those who have occult experiences come to periods when all experiences cease and even seem finished for ever. Even when there have been many and permanent realisations, these seem to go behind the veil and leave nothing in front except a dull blank, filled, if at all, only with recurrent attacks and difficulties. These alternations are the result of the nature of human consciousness and are not a proof of unfitness or of predestined failure. One has to be prepared for them and pass through. They are the day and night of the Vedic mystics.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,
1146:Dabrowski argued that fear and anxiety and sadness are not necessarily always undesirable or unhelpful states of mind; rather, they are often representative of the necessary pain of psychological growth. And to deny that pain is to deny our own potential. Just as one must suffer physical pain to build stronger bone and muscle, one must suffer emotional pain to develop greater emotional resilience, a stronger sense of self, increased compassion, and a generally happier life. Our most radical changes in perspective often happen at the tail end of our worst moments. It’s only when we feel intense pain that we’re willing to look at our values and question why they seem to be failing us. We need some sort of existential crisis to take an objective look at how we’ve been deriving meaning in our life, and then consider changing course. ~ Mark Manson,
1147:PERIODIC MOOD-CHANGES We have already spoken of the affective concomitants of common migraines—elated and irritable prodromal states, states of dread and depression associated with the main phase of the attack, and states of euphoric rebound. Any or all of these may be abstracted as isolated periodic symptoms of relatively short duration—some hours, or at most two or three days, and as such may present themselves as primary emotional disorders. The most acute of these mood-changes, generally no more than an hour in duration, usually represents concomitants or equivalents of migraine aura. We may confine our attention at this stage to attacks of depression, or truncated manic-depressive cycles, occurring at intervals in patients who have previously suffered from attacks of undoubted (classical, common, abdominal, etc.) migraine. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1148:I am a storyteller, for better and for worse.

I suspect that a feeling for stories, for narrative, is a universal human disposition, going with our powers of language, consciousness of self, and autobiographical memory.

The act of writing, when it goes well, gives me a pleasure, a joy, unlike any other. It takes me to another place — irrespective of my subject — where I am totally absorbed and oblivious to distracting thoughts, worries, preoccupations, or indeed the passage of time. In those rare, heavenly states of mind, I may write nonstop until I can no longer see the paper. Only then do I realize that evening has come and that I have been writing all day.

Over a lifetime, I have written millions of words, but the act of writing seems as fresh, and as much fun, as when I started it nearly seventy years ago. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1149:The District outranks the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia as a place suitable for aging in place, while Montgomery County edged its suburban counterparts, according to a new online rating tool that ranks nearly every neighborhood in the United States. The AARP Livability Index, which went live on Monday, uses factors such as safety, security, ease of getting around, access to health care, housing affordability and the prevalence of WiFi, farmers markets and public policies that promote successful aging. Users punch in their Zip code or street address, and the Web site crunches data to show how a community stacks up against others. Ratings come on a scale of zero to 100. Users can also rejigger the weight placed on certain factors to suit themselves. For an older person on Raleigh Avenue in Garrett Park, Md., the livability ~ Anonymous,
1150:A crisis of character is nothing new for the United States of America and its long history of abuses of power. When I look at our country today, I see a nation deep in the terror of its own retooling, stuck between a past it can’t outrun and the trajectory of a future it must outgrow. We are a nation that still cannot wrap its head around the overwhelming inequality among genders and races in our society and institutional systems. We are a nation that cannot agree on the definition of misogyny, let alone put a finger on its pervasiveness or manifestation. But there seem to be benchmark eras in our history that have brought great and radical change to fruition—times when we weren’t just living through difficulties, but actively confronting our values and agitating for revolutionary change. I believe we are in one of those eras right now. ~ Amber Tamblyn,
1151:Of the colors, blue and green have the greatest emotional range. Sad reds and melancholy yellows are difficult to turn up. Among the ancient elements, blue occurs everywhere: in ice and water, in the flame as purely as in the flower, overhead and inside caves, covering fruit and oozing out of clay. Although green enlivens the earth and mixes in the ocean, and we find it, copperish, in fire; green air, green skies, are rare. Gray and brown are widely distributed, but there are no joyful swatches of either, or any of exuberant black, sullen pink, or acquiescent orange. Blue is therefore most suitable as the color of interior life. Whether slick light sharp high bright thin quick sour new and cool or low deep sweet dark soft slow smooth heavy old and warm: blue moves easily among them all, and all profoundly qualify our states of feeling. ~ William H Gass,
1152:This Is My Creed I believe first in God, the same God in which my ancestors believed. I believe in Jesus Christ and that he is my saviour. Second, I believe in the Constitution of the Republic of the United States of America, without interpretation, as it was written and meant to work. I have given my sacred oath “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic.” I intend to fulfill that oath. Third, I believe in the family unit and, in particular, my family unit. I have sworn that I will give my life, if it is required, in defense of God, the Constitution, or my family. Fourth, I believe that any man without principles that he is ready and willing to die for at any given moment is already dead and is of no use or consequence whatsoever. William Cooper August 3, 1990 ~ Milton William Cooper,
1153:America is, and always has been, undecided about whether it will be the United States of Tom or the United States of Huck. The United States of Tom looks at misery and says: Hey, I didn't do it. It looks at inequity and says: All my life I busted my butt to get where I am, so don't come crying to me. Tom likes kings, codified nobility, unquestioned privilege. Huck likes people, fair play, spreading the truck around. Whereas Tom knows, Huck wonders. Whereas Huck hopes, Tom presumes. Whereas Huck cares, Tom denies. These two parts of the American Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the nation, and come to think of it, these two parts of the World Psyche have been at war since the beginning of the world, and the hope of the nation and of the world is to embrace the Huck part and send the Tom part back up the river, where it belongs. ~ George Saunders,
1154:Perinatal phenomena occur in four distinct experiential patterns, which I call the Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs). Each of the four matrices is closely related to one of the four consecutive periods of biological delivery. At each of these stages, the baby undergoes experiences that are characterized by specific emotions and physical feelings; each of these stages also seems to be associated with specific symbolic images. These come to represent highly individualized pyschospiritual blueprints that guide the way we experience our lives. They may be reflected in individual and social psychopathology or in religion, art, philosophy, politics, and other areas of life. And, or course, we can gain access to these psychospiritual blueprints through non-ordinary states of consciousness, which allow us to see the guiding forces of our lives much more clearly. ~ Stanislav Grof,
1155:After further conferences that late spring the following plan was drawn up. Speidel, almost alone among the Army conspirators in the West, survived to describe it: An immediate armistice with the Western Allies but not unconditional surrender. German withdrawal in the West to Germany. Immediate suspension of the Allied bombing of Germany. Arrest of Hitler for trial before a German court. Overthrow of Nazi rule. Temporary assumption of executive power in Germany by the resistance forces of all classes under the leadership of General Beck, Goerdeler, and the trade-union representative, Leuschner. No military dictatorship. Preparation of a “constructive peace” within the framework of a United States of Europe. In the East, continuation of the war. Holding a shortened line between the mouth of the Danube, the Carpathian Mountains, the River Vistula and Memel. ~ William L Shirer,
1156:In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, writing in The Communist Manifesto, declared: “In bourgeois society . . . the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past.”13 This view is shared by contemporary statists, including the current occupants of the White House. On May 14, 2008, the future First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, while campaigning for her husband, Barack Obama, proclaimed: “We are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history. We’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.”14 On October 30, 2008, when the polls showed him the likely winner of the upcoming presidential election, Barack Obama shouted during a campaign stop days before the vote: “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”15 ~ Mark R Levin,
1157:William James, in his lectures on exceptional mental states, referred to the trances of mediums who channel voices and images of the dead, and of scryers who see visions of the future in a crystal ball. Wheather the voices and visions in these contexts were veridical was less of a concern to James than the mental states which could produce them. Careful observation convinced him that mediums and crystal gazers were not usually conscious charlatans or liars in the ordinary sense, nor were they confabulators or phantasm. They were, he came to feel, in altered states of consciousness conducive to hallucinations - hallucinations whose content was shaped by the questions they were asked. These exceptional mental states, he thought, were achieved by self-hypnosis, no doubt facilitated by poorly lit and ambiguous surroundings and the eager expectations of their clients. ~ Oliver Sacks,
1158:My idea is not to try and charm you with subtle psychological observations. I have no desire to draw applause from you with my finesse and my humour. There are some authors who employ their talent in the delicate description of varying states of soul, character traits, etc. I shall not be counted among these. All that accumulation of realistic detail, with clearly differentiated characters hogging the limelight, has always seemed pure bullshit to me, I’m sorry to say. Daniel who is Hervé’s friend, but who feels a certain reticence about Gérard. Paul’s fantasy as embodied in Virginie, my cousin’s trip to Venice … One could spend hours on this. Might as well watch lobsters marching up the side of an aquarium (it suffices, for that, to go to a fish restaurant). Added to which, I associate very little with other human beings. To reach the otherwise philosophical ~ Michel Houellebecq,
1159:The notion of an impersonal, even hostile society is common--a society in which all actions and motives seem to have equal value and to be perversely detached from human direction. Common too is the helplessness of the individual before alien forces--not the hero who does things, but as Wynham Lewis has put it, the hero to whom things are done. The disenchanted, lonely figure, searching for ethical significance in the smallest of things, struggling for identification with race or class or group, incessantly striving to answer the question, "Who am I, What am I", has become, especially in Europe, almost the central literary type of the age.

Not the free individual, but the lost individual; not independence but isolation; not self-discovery but self-obsession; not to conquer but to be conquered; these are the major states of mind in contemporary literature. ~ Robert A Nisbet,
1160:Demonstrations of limitations in the way humans process and store information have generated much controversy among researchers in the cognitive sciences. A major theme concerns the capacity of working memory. Separate verbal, spatial, and visual object working memory systems can be distinguished (1-3), but similar estimates of their capacities have been established. These estimates have sometimes been made in terms of “magical numbers,” which have ranged from seven to about four words, numbers, or locations (4). In line with these results, recent studies suggest that it is possible to retain information of up to four objects in visual working memory (5-9). ~ Olsson Henrik, Poom Leo, Treisman Anne (2005). "Visual memory needs categories". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 102(24): 8776–8780. doi:10.1073/pnas.0500810102. PMC 1150822. PMID 15937119.,
1161:And now I begin to understand why I was imprisoned so many years in this lonely chamber, and why I could never break through the viewless bolts and bars; for if I had sooner made my escape into the world, I should have grown hard and rough, and been covered with earthly dust, and my heart might have become callous by rude encounters with the multi-tude.. ... But living in solitude till the fulness of time was come, I still kept the dew of my youth and the freshness of my heart..... I used to think that I could imagine all passions, all feelings and states of the heart and mind; but how little did I know!...Indeed, we are but shadows—we are not endowed with real life, and all that seems most real about us is but the thinnest substance of a dream—till the heart be touched. That touch creates us,—then we begin to be,—thereby we are beings of reality and inheritors of eternity. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne,
1162:Parikshita asked, “I have heard there are a great many regions that souls of the earth attain after they die. Is this true, my lord?’ Suka said, “There are, O Kshatriya, as many hells as there heavens, and those that sin surely do find these narakas for themselves, until they are purified and rise to the higher realms again. The hells, like all conditions are states of mind, too, resulting from ignorance, avidya, and from violence.” Parikshita wanted to know, “Where are these hells situated?” “They are deep inside the three worlds, in the southern direction, below the earth and above the waters. Here, the manes called the Agnisvattas dwell. They worship the great Gods with deep bhakti and ask them to bless their descendants. Here, too, Surya Deva’s son, Yama, the Lord Death, dwells with his retinue. And those souls that his dutas bring to him, he punishes according to their crimes, ~ Ramesh Menon,
1163:Moreover, seeing ourselves as a majority led at times to both a theological downgrade and a counter-productive public stance. The application of the promises to Israel to the United States of America, for example, caused many to miss, as we will see in the next chapter, the meaning of the kingdom of God, and thus to bypass Jesus Christ himself. The idea of America as a Christian nation is able to get “Amens” in the churches only as long as the churches believe America is, at least in some ways, with us and not against us. But what happens when the cultural climate starts to shift in obvious ways? If the church believes the United States is a sort of new Israel, then we become frantic when we see ourselves “losing America.” We then start to speak in gloomy terms of America as, at best, Babylon, a place of hopeless exile, or, at worst, Gomorrah, slouching toward the judgment of God. ~ Russell D Moore,
1164:Directly he was alone, he was assailed by her simulacra, in all states of acute sorrow, or smiling, of complete abstraction or painful animation, of dress and undress, as he had seen her these last few days: directly he was alone, the images came to mock everything he had seen. Her sadness became shrieking grief, and her animation riotous, immodest in dress and licentious in nakedness, many-limbed as some wild avatar of the Hindu cosmology assaulting the days he spent copying his work on clean scores, and the nights he passed alone in his chair where, instantly the lights went out, everything was transformed, and the body he had seen a moment before with no more surprise than its simple lines and modest unself-conscious movement permitted, rose up on him full-breasted and vaunting the belly, limbs undistinguishable until he was brought down between them and stifled in moist collapse. ~ William Gaddis,
1165:In December 1790, with other options foreclosed, Hamilton revived a proposal he had floated in his Report on Public Credit: an excise tax on whiskey and other domestic spirits. He knew the measure would be loathed in rural areas that thrived on moonshine, but he thought this might be more palatable to farmers than a land tax. Hamilton confessed to Washington an ulterior political motive for this liquor tax: he wanted to lay “hold of so valuable a resource of revenue before it was generally preoccupied by the state governments.” As with assumption, he wanted to starve the states of revenue and shore up the federal government. Jefferson did not exaggerate Hamilton’s canny capacity to clothe political objectives in technical garb. There were hidden agendas buried inside Hamilton’s economic program, agendas that he tended to share with high-level colleagues but not always with the public. To ~ Ron Chernow,
1166:For the same reason, we may leave out of consideration those backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage. The early difficulties in the way of spontaneous progress are so great, that there is seldom any choice of means for overcoming them; and a ruler full of the spirit of improvement is warranted in the use of any expedients that will attain an end, perhaps otherwise unattainable. Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion. Until then, there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne, if they are so fortunate as to find one. ~ John Stuart Mill,
1167:But if in passing from one domain to another we renounce what has already been given us from eagerness for our new attainment, if in reaching the mental life we cast away or belittle the physical life which is our basis, or if we reject the mental and physical in our attraction to the spiritual, we do not fulfil God integrally, nor satisfy the conditions of His selfmanifestation. We do not become perfect, but only shift the field of our imperfection or atmost attain a limited altitude. However high we may climb, even though it be to the Non-Being itself, we climb ill if we forget our base. Not to abandon the lower to itself, but to transfigure it in the light of the higher to which we have attained, is true divinity of nature. Brahman is integral and unifies many states of consciousness at a time; we also, manifesting the nature of Brahman, should become integral and all-embracing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,
1168:So states of unsatisfaction, objects which deceive or which reveal an absence, are the only forms through which the individual recovers his deceptive uniqueness. The city might fix it or establish it, but isolated existence alone has the chance to do what the city must and can do, without the power to do it. It is all very well for Sartre to say of Baudelaire: 'his dearest wish was to be like the stone, the statue, in the repose of immutability.' He can represent the poet as eager to extract some petrifiable image from the mists of the past, but the images which he left participated in a life which was open, infinite in Baudelaire's sense of the word, [here becoming indistinct] that is to say, unsatisfied. It is therefore misleading to maintain that Baudelaire wanted the impossible statue or that he could not exist, unless we immediately add that he wanted the impossible far more than he wanted the statue. ~ Harold Bloom,
1169:This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I've never stolen anything. Never cheated on my taxes or at cards. Never snuck into the movies or failed to give back the extra change to a drugstore cashier indifferent to the ways of mercantilism and minimum-wage expectations. I've never burgled a house. Held up a liquor store. Never boarded a crowded bus or subway car, sat in a seat reserved for the elderly, pulled out my gigantic penis and masturbated to satisfaction with a perverted, yet somehow crestfallen, look on my face. But here I am, in the cavernous chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, my car illegally and somewhat ironically parked on Constitution Avenue, my hands cuffed and crossed behind my back, my right to remain silent long since waived and said goodbye to as I sit in a thickly padded chair that, much like this country, isn't quite as comfortable as it looks. ~ Paul Beatty,
1170:This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything. Never cheated on my taxes or at cards. Never snuck into the movies or failed to give back the extra change to a drugstore cashier indifferent to the ways of mercantilism and minimum-wage expectations. I’ve never burgled a house. Held up a liquor store. Never boarded a crowded bus or subway car, sat in a seat reserved for the elderly, pulled out my gigantic penis and masturbated to satisfaction with a perverted, yet somehow crestfallen, look on my face. But here I am, in the cavernous chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, my car illegally and somewhat ironically parked on Constitution Avenue, my hands cuffed and crossed behind my back, my right to remain silent long since waived and said goodbye to as I sit in a thickly padded chair that, much like this country, isn’t quite as comfortable as it looks. ~ Paul Beatty,
1171:He called for all Americans to celebrate their differences but to never forget we are one people under God. At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, ‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.’ We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. This passage is important, because it expresses an aspect of President Trump’s personality that is completely overlooked by the media. To Trump, bigotry cannot exist within a patriotic heart. To be racist—to hold any other American in low regard based on their gender, religion, race or heritage—is to be completely unpatriotic. ~ Newt Gingrich,
1172:A world without God to give people faith that all their suffering is not meaningless is a nightmare. A world without religion means a world without any systematic way of ennobling people. A world without countries is a world without the United States of America, and it is a world governed by the amoral United Nations, where mass murderers sit on “human rights” councils. A world without heaven or hell is a world without any ultimate justice, where torturers and their victims have identical fates. A world without possessions is a world in which some enormous state possesses everything, and the individual is reduced to the status of a well-fed serf. Liberals frequently criticize conservatives for fearing change. What we fear is transforming that which is already good. The moral record of humanity does not fill us with optimism about “fundamentally transforming” something as rare as America. Evil is normal. America is not. ~ Dennis Prager,
1173:The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct, Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal. ~ Nikola Tesla,
1174:The Cult of Done Bre Pettis wrote this manifesto on his blog: 1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion. 2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done. 3. There is no editing stage. 4. Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it. 5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it. 6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done. 7. Once you’re done you can throw it away. 8. Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done. 9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right. 10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes. 11. Destruction is a variant of done. 12. If you have an idea and publish it on the Internet, that counts as a ghost of done. 13. Done is the engine of more. ~ Seth Godin,
1175:Liberals have elections to contest and centrist working-class voters to win back. That is job number one. And nothing will turn voters off more surely than being hectored in this way. So a couple of reminders to the identity conscious: Elections are not prayer meetings, and no one is interested in your personal testimony. They are not therapy sessions or occasions to obtain recognition. They are not seminars or “teaching moments.” They are not about exposing degenerates and running them out of town. If you want to save America’s soul, consider becoming a minister. If you want to force people to confess their sins and convert, don a white robe and head to the River Jordan. If you are determined to bring the Last Judgment down on the United States of America, become a god. But if you want to win the country back from the right, and bring about lasting change for the people you care about, it’s time to descend from the pulpit.* ~ Mark Lilla,
1176:People have gotten used to living a botched-up life — to be anxious, insecure, hateful, jealous, and in various states of unpleasantness through the day — slowly humanity has begun to see it as normal. None of these things are normal. These are abnormalities. Once you accept them as part of life they become normal because the majority has joined the gang of unpleasantness. They are all saying, "Unpleasantness is normal. Being nasty to each other is normal. Being nasty to myself is normal." Someone trusted that you would be doing good things at least to yourself and said, "Do unto others what you do unto yourself." I am telling you, never do unto others what you are doing to yourself! By being with people, I know what they are doing to themselves is the worst thing. Fortunately, they are not doing such horrible things to others. Only once in a while they are giving a dose to others, but to themselves they are giving it throughout the day. ~ Sadhguru,
1177:Harry Truman,” Mark was saying to the crowd,” had only one regret in his Presidency, according to his sister’s testimony, and that is signing the National Security Act into power. Truman felt he had been tricked into signing it, and foresaw it as the downfall of the country he loved and served so well. The 1947 National Security Act fully allows for the takeover of the American government by a secret government, or shadow government as it has been called. Here in the United States of America we have laws, Constitutional Laws, and the Bill of Rights enabling we-the-people from succumbing to such takeover; yet the National Security Act overrides them all. We don’t need more laws to stop the proliferation of these criminals in control of our country and their blatant child abuse, mind control, erosion of justice, drug dealings, murders, genocide, and dominance of the world’s technology and resources. We only need to repeal the 1947 National Security Act! ~ Cathy O Brien,
1178:So far in my life, I’ve been a lawyer. I’ve been a vice president at a hospital and the director of a nonprofit that helps young people build meaningful careers. I’ve been a working-class black student at a fancy mostly white college. I’ve been the only woman, the only African American, in all sorts of rooms. I’ve been a bride, a stressed-out new mother, a daughter torn up by grief. And until recently, I was the First Lady of the United States of America—a job that’s not officially a job, but that nonetheless has given me a platform like nothing I could have imagined. It challenged me and humbled me, lifted me up and shrank me down, sometimes all at once. I’m just beginning to process what took place over these last years—from the moment in 2006 when my husband first started talking about running for president to the cold morning this winter when I climbed into a limo with Melania Trump, accompanying her to her husband’s inauguration. It’s been quite a ride. ~ Michelle Obama,
1179:Whatever its pros and cons, the invention and dissemination of Thorazine is ultimately as significant for what it did not do as for what it did. Yes, the drug reversed states of psychosis so severe they had trapped patients for years. Yes, by doing so, the drug helped to birth the deinstitutionalization movement and the corresponding rise of the community mental health center. And the drug finally put a dent in the deeply held American affinity for psychoanalysis, as even the clinicians most dedicated to “the talking cure” had to concede that this capsule could clear the mind more effectively and efficiently than could any leather couch and conversation. But the drug did not, at least initially, spur anyone to ask how or why it was working. No one had the slightest idea. It was simply enough for everyone that it was working. Clearly the capsule suggested that mental illness, at least in some respects, was a brain-based phenomenon, but beyond that, few had a clue. ~ Lauren Slater,
1180:The Ingallses had no way of knowing it, but the locust swarm descending upon them was the largest in recorded human history. It would become known as “Albert’s swarm”: in Nebraska, a meteorologist named Albert Child measured its flight for ten days in June, telegraphing for further information from east and west, noting wind speed and carefully calculating the extent of the cloud of insects. He startled himself with his conclusions: the swarm appeared to be 110 miles wide, 1,800 miles long, and a quarter to a half mile in depth. The wind was blowing at ten miles an hour, but the locusts were moving even faster, at fifteen. They covered 198,000 square miles, Child concluded, an area equal to the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont combined.49 “This is utterly incredible,” he wrote, “yet how can we put it aside?”50 The cloud consisted of some 3.5 trillion insects. ~ Caroline Fraser,
1181:You tell me why the government needs this information on every Verizon customer but they don’t need to know who’s coming across our border? They don’t need to know where the 15,000 foreign nationals are that skipped out on their visa, just didn’t show up to school but they’re here in the United States. You tell me why they need my grandmother’s phone records but they don’t need to know where the Saudi nationals are. Why they don’t need — why they need to know who’s calling who inside the United States of America. They need to know who’s calling who, how long the phone conversations were lasting, the GPS locators for all of the cellphones, when those phones, when that phone call was made. Why do they need all of that for domestic terror but they can’t seem to get it right with the Boston bombers? They don’t know where that guy was. You tell me why they need all of this information. Why do you need to go for the AP? You don’t need to go for the AP and target the reporters. ~ Glenn Beck,
1182:Most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering people... appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks. The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution... production is carried on for profit, not for use.... The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness... This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success... The education of the individual... would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success... ~ Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?, Monthly Review (1 May 2009) Originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949).,
1183:When we live with another person, we should help each other transform the internal formations that we have produced in each other. By practicing understanding and loving speech, we can help each other a great deal. Happiness is no longer an individual matter. If the other person is not happy, we will not be happy either. Therefore, to transform the internal formations in the other is to bring about our own happiness as well. A person can create internal formations in her partner, and her partner can do so for her, and if they continue to create knots in each other, one day they’ll have no happiness left. A person needs to recognize quickly any newly formed knot inside herself. She should take the time to observe it and, with her partner’s help, transform the internal formation. She might say, “Darling, I have an internal formation. Can you please help me?” This is easy when the states of mind of both partners are still light and not loaded with many internal formations. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,
1184:As he lay there, fragments of past states of emotion, fugitive felicities of thought and sensation, rose and floated on the surface of his thoughts. It was one of those moments when the accumulated impressions of life converge on heart and brain, elucidating, enlacing each other, in a mysterious confusion of beauty. He had had glimpses of such a state before, of such mergings of the personal with the general life that one felt one's self a mere wave on the wild stream of being, yet thrilled with a sharper sense of individuality than can be known within the mere bounds of the actual. But now he knew the sensation in its fulness, and with it came the releasing power of language. Words were flashing like brilliant birds through the boughs overhead; he had but to wave his magic wand to have them flutter down to him. Only they were so beautiful up there, weaving their fantastic flights against the blue, that it was pleasanter, for the moment, to watch them and let the wand lie. ~ Edith Wharton,
1185:What he wasn’t so good at was manipulating the internal states of other humans, getting them to see things his way, do things for him. His baseline attitude toward other humans was that they could all just go fuck themselves and that he was not going to expend any effort whatsoever getting them to change the way they thought. This was probably rooted in a belief that had been inculcated to him from the get-go: that there was an objective reality, which all people worth talking to could observe and understand, and that there was no point in arguing about anything that could be so observed and so understood. As long as you made a point of hanging out exclusively with people who had the wit to see and to understand that objective reality, you didn’t have to waste a lot of time talking. When a thunderstorm was headed your way across the prairie, you took the washing down from the line and closed the windows. It wasn’t necessary to have a meeting about it. The sales force didn’t need to get involved. ~ Neal Stephenson,
1186:It’s an old term, “white trash,” older than the United States of America itself. Its roots lie in the seventeenth century, when “lubbers” and “crackers,” these formerly indentured and escaped white servants, formed their own communities on the outskirts of the Chesapeake tidewater region. These whites flouted the colonists’ nascent cultural mold, disrespected their ideas of property, color, and labor. The mass of men thought them boondock curios, except during political and economic crises, when they considered them criminal savages. “White trash” nowadays is a contemptuous term. It implies that one had all the privileges of whiteness but squandered them; one’s poverty is one’s own fault. It’s a shocking term, because it suggests that even without unions and factories, class in America is real, and it cuts across racial lines. But mostly it’s a useful term, because it has no set definition. It’s protean. It’s for when the majority of white people want to delineate what they are by saying, “What we are not is them. ~ Kent Russell,
1187: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,
1188:He accused Democrats of attempting to “dehumanize the negro—to take away from him the right of ever striving to be a man…to make property, and nothing but property of the Negro in all the states of this Union.” In the rhetorical high point of the seven debates, he identified the long crusade against slavery with the global progress of democratic egalitarianism: That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles—right and wrong—throughout the world…. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings…. It is the same spirit that says, “You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.30 While ~ Eric Foner,
1189:Literature has always been related to utopia, so when the utopia loses meaning, so does literature. What I was trying to do, and perhaps what all writers try to do-- what on earth do I know?-- was to combat fiction with fiction. What I ought to do was affirm what existed, affirm the state of things as they are, in other words, revel in the world outside instead of searching for a way out, for in that way I could undoubtedly have a better life, but I couldn't do it, I couldn't, something had congealed inside me, a conviction was rooted inside me, and although it was essentialist, that is, outmoded and, furthermore, romantic, I could not get past it, for the simple reason that it had not only been thought but also experienced, in these sudden states of clear-sightedness that everyone must know, where for a few seconds you catch sight of another world from the one you were in only a moment earlier, where the world seems to step forward and show itself for a brief glimpse before reverting and leaving everything as before... ~ Karl Ove Knausg rd,
1190:the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD . . . for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. PSALM 22:27–28 NOVEMBER 4 It is said that the United States of America was formed by the convergence of two streams of history. One took its rise in the thinking of the philosophers of classical antiquity: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero. These men believed that the human mind must always be free. The other stream took its rise when Moses addressed a nation of slaves and told them that they were children of God, that other men should not put shackles on their wrists or lay whips to their backs. The confluence of these two great streams of thought formed a government predicated upon the greatness of the human mind and the sovereignty of the human soul. I have enormous faith in the continuity of these ideals in the American people. You cannot break a nation built upon such foundations, unless that nation becomes arrogant, forgets its great heritage, and, worse than all else, turns away from God. ~ Norman Vincent Peale,
1191:On the eve of her fortieth birthday, Dot began to fear death. Up until then everything had been PERFECT. She had a perfect husband, perfect children (or WOULD, if she'd ever had any), a perfect home, perfect body, ... a PERFECT LIFE!...

Ah, but near-perfection's better! The haphazard, the untried. There's no FUTURE in perfection, nowhere left to go. There's no LIFE in it. You stop loving, stop trying, when everything is perfect.

There is pleasure in decay, in the awkward and the fumbling...in states of disrepair, disuse, the doomed, degenerate, unconnected, out-of-place, the miserable, malodorous, uncorrected and uncontained. There is deep pleasure to be had in old cement and gravel, cemeteries and the overgrown gardens of people who don't care. In lakes the color of anti-freeze, in which bacteria bloom. In rotting refuse and its attendant gulls, old army bases, abandoned runways, brickwork as it crumbles.

INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND, the last real wilderness on offer! Stare at the cracks in which green things grow. ~ Lucy Ellmann,
1192:All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD . . . for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. PSALM 22:27–28 NOVEMBER 4 It is said that the United States of America was formed by the convergence of two streams of history. One took its rise in the thinking of the philosophers of classical antiquity: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero. These men believed that the human mind must always be free. The other stream took its rise when Moses addressed a nation of slaves and told them that they were children of God, that other men should not put shackles on their wrists or lay whips to their backs. The confluence of these two great streams of thought formed a government predicated upon the greatness of the human mind and the sovereignty of the human soul. I have enormous faith in the continuity of these ideals in the American people. You cannot break a nation built upon such foundations, unless that nation becomes arrogant, forgets its great heritage, and, worse than all else, turns away from God. ~ Norman Vincent Peale,
1193:the welfare states of western Europe were not politically divisive. They were socially re-distributive in general intent (some more than others) but not at all revolutionary—they did not ‘soak the rich’. On the contrary: although the greatest immediate advantage was felt by the poor, the real long-term beneficiaries were the professional and commercial middle class. In many cases they had not previously been eligible for work-related health, unemployment or retirement benefits and had been obliged, before the war, to purchase such services and benefits from the private sector. Now they had full access to them, either free or at low cost. Taken with the state provision of free or subsidized secondary and higher education for their children, this left the salaried professional and white-collar classes with both a better quality of life and more disposable income. Far from dividing the social classes against each other, the European welfare state bound them closer together than ever before, with a common interest in its preservation and defense. ~ Tony Judt,
1194:I would say that the ability of people to agree on matters of fact not immediately visible—states of affairs removed from them in space and time—ramped up from a baseline of approximately zero to a pretty high level around the time of the scientific revolution and all that, and stayed there and became more globally distributed up through the Cronkite era, and then dropped to zero incredibly quickly when the Internet came along. And I think that the main thing it conferred on people was social mobility, so that if you were a smart kid growing up on a farm in Kansas or a slum in India you had a chance to do something interesting with your life. Before it—before that three-hundred-year run when there was a way for people to agree on facts—we had kings and warlords and rigid social hierarchy. During it, a lot of brainpower got unlocked and things got a lot better materially. A lot better. Now we’re back in a situation where the people who have the power and the money can get what they want by dictating what the mass of people ought to believe. ~ Neal Stephenson,
1195:All the evidence from the science of complexity says that given certain clear parameters...communities or teams will become self-organizing. They will be attracted to certain flowing states of organization natural to the people who make them up. In complexity theory, these flowing states are poetically called strange attractors. ...

A work team made up of collaborating individuals would...have, if you could measure and plot creativity, failure, and success, a strange attractor that depicted the edges and patterns of the team's behavior. This pattern would be constrained by the forces operating within the company and outside in the market, but it would be most affected by the focus and vision of the team. A strong vision and purpose acts as a kind of strange attractor, allowing individual creativity while acting as a natural constraint to behavior that is detrimental to the team. Without repressive rules, then, a cohesive team with a strong sense of its mission, ethics, and tasks can be allowed a lot of leeway to develop its own approach to problems. ~ David Whyte,
1196:African Americans weren’t the only ones who took a hit. The states of the Deep South, which fought Brown tooth and nail, today all fall in the bottom quartile of state rankings for educational attainment, per capita income, and quality of health.139 Prince Edward County, in particular, bears the scars of a place that saw fit to fight the Civil War right into the middle of the twentieth century. Certainly it is no accident that, in 2013, despite a knowledge-based, technology-driven global economy, the number one occupation in the county seat of Farmville was “cook and food preparation worker.” Nor is it any accident that in 2013, while 9.9 percent of white households in the county made less than ten thousand dollars in annual income, fully 32.9 percent of black households fell below that threshold.140 The insistence on destroying Brown, and thus the viability of America’s schools and the quality of education children receive regardless of where they live, has resulted in “the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession” for wide swaths of the American public. ~ Carol Anderson,
1197:Thus we see, that the mind can undergo many changes, and can pass sometimes to a state of greater perfection, sometimes to a state of lesser perfection. These passive states of transition explain to us the emotions of pleasure and pain. By pleasure therefore in the following propositions I shall signify a passive state wherein the mind passes to a greater perfection. By pain I shall signify a passive state wherein the mind passes to a lesser perfection. Further, the emotion of pleasure in reference to the body and mind together I shall call stimulation (titillatio) or merriment (hilaritas), the emotion of pain in the same relation I shall call suffering or melancholy. But we must bear in mind, that stimulation and suffering are attributed to man, when one part of his nature is more affected than the rest, merriment and melancholy, when all parts are alike affected. What I mean by desire I have explained in the note to Prop. ix. of this part; beyond these three I recognize no other primary emotion; I will show as I proceed, that all other emotions arise from these three. ~ Baruch Spinoza,
1198:Richard was, at bottom, a guy who did stuff. A farmer. A plumber. A Barney.
What he wasn't so good at was manipulating the internal states of other humans, getting them to see things his way, do things for him. His baseline attitude toward other humans was that they could all just go fuck themselves and that he was not going to expend any effort whatsoever getting them to change the way they thought. This was probably rooted in the belief that had been inculcated to him from the get-go: that there was an objective reality, which all people worth talking to could observe and understand, and that there was no point in arguing about anything that could be so observed and so understood. As long as you made a point of hanging out exclusively with people who had the wit to see and to understand that objective reality, you didn't have to waste a lot of time talking. When a thunderstorm was headed your way across the prairie, you took the washing down from the line and closed the windows. It wasn't necessary to have a meeting about it. The sales force didn't need to get involved. ~ Neal Stephenson,
1199:[...]For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states of his being, - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone self-existent, not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable, not existing by them, but they exist because of Him. It follows that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any aspect. His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and ineffable, because he is himself magically, mysteriously, transcendently marvellous and ineffable. He can then be sought after for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of one aspect of another of his. The only thing needed for that is, first, to arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine in himself and, secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital and each thing else begins to feel too that that was what it was wanting and the surface hunt after Ananda or what else was only an excuse for drawing the nature towards that supreme magnet. ...
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II,
1200:It is not my job to explain the story or understand the story or reduce it to a phrase or offer it as being a story about any specific person, place, or thing. My job is to have been true enough to the world of my story that I was able to present it as a forceful and convincing drama. Every story is a kind of puzzle. Many have obvious solutions, and some have no solution at all. We write to present questions, sometimes complicated questions, not to offer easy or not-so-easy answers. Do not be misled by the limited vocabulary the American marketplace uses to describe the possibilities for story and drama. If we’re really writing we are exploring the unnamed emotional facets of the human heart. Not all emotions, not all states of mind have been named. Nor are all the names we have been given always accurate. The literary story is a story that deals with the complicated human heart with an honest tolerance for the ambiguity in which we live. No good guys, no bad guys, just guys: that is, people bearing up the crucible of their days and certainly not always—if ever—capable of articulating their condition. ~ Ron Carlson,
1201:Quinn seemed to have become one of a jaded philosophical society, a group of arcane deviates. Their raison d'etre was a kind of mystical masochism, forcing initiates toward feats of occult daredevilry - "glimpsing the inferno with eyes of ice", to take from the notebook a phrase that was repeated often and seemed a sort of chant of power. As I suspected, hallucinogenic drugs were used by the sect, and there was no doubt that they believed themselves communing with strange metaphysical venues. Their chief aim, in true mystical fashion, was to transcend common reality in the search for higher states of being, but their stratagem was highly unorthodox, a strange detour along the usual path toward positive illumination. Instead, they maintained a kind of blasphemous fatalism, a doomed determinism which brought them face to face with realms of obscure horror. Perhaps it was this very obscurity that allowed them the excitement of their central purpose, which seemed to be a precarious flirting with personal apocalypse, the striving for horrific dominion over horror itself.

("The Dreaming In Nortown") ~ Thomas Ligotti,
1202:Throughout history, wise observers of human behavior have pinpointed over and over again a core group of unhealthy human tendencies that are obstacles to happiness. They're the states of mind that distract us in meditation practice, and trip us up in the rest of our lives. Broadly speaking, they are: desire, aversion, sloth, restlessness, and doubt. And they manifest in a variety of ways - many of which you'll recognize. Desire includes grasping, clinging, wanting, or attachment. Aversion can appear as hatred, anger, fear, or impatience. Sloth is not just laziness, but also numbing out, switching off, disconnecting, and the sluggishness that comes with denial or feeling overwhelmed: This is going to be difficult; I think I'll take a nap. Restlessness shows itself as anxiety, worry, fretfulness, or agitation. The kind of doubt we're talking about is not healthy questioning but rather the inability to make a decision or commitment. Doubt keeps us feeling stuck; we don't know what to do next. Doubt undermines wholehearted involvement (in relationships, in our meditation practice) and robs us of in-depth experience. ~ Sharon Salzberg,
1203:Many of the great world religions teach that God demands a particular faith and form of worship. It should not be surprising that SOME of the people who take these teachings seriously should sincerely regard these divine commands as incomparably more important than any merely secular virtues like tolerance or compassion or reason.
Across Asia and Africa the forces of religious enthusiasm are gathering strength, and reasom and tolerance are not safe even in the secular states of the West. The historian Huge Trevor-Roper has said that it was the spread of the spirit of science in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that finally ended the burning pf the witches in Europe. We may need to rely again on the influence of science to preserve a sane wolrd.It's not the certainty of the scientific knowledge that fits it for this role, but its UNCERTAINTY. Seeing scientists change their minds again and again about the matters that can be studied directly in laboratory experiments, how can one take seriously the claims of religious traditions or sacred writings to certain knowledge about matters beyond human experience ~ Steven Weinberg,
1204:It was Southern, therefore, to put it brutally, because of the history of America—the United States of America: and small black boys and girls were now paying for this holocaust. They were attempting to go to school. They were attempting to get an education, in a country in which education is a synonym for indoctrination, if you are white, and subjugation, if you are black. It was rather as though small Jewish boys and girls, in Hitler’s Germany, insisted on getting a German education in order to overthrow the Third Reich. Here they were, nevertheless, scrubbed and shining, in their never-to-be-forgotten stiff little dresses, in their never-to-be-forgotten little blue suits, facing an army, facing a citizenry, facing white fathers, facing white mothers, facing the progeny of these co-citizens, facing the white past, to say nothing of the white present: small soldiers, armed with stiff, white dresses, and long or short dark blue pants, entering a leper colony, and young enough to believe that the colony could be healed, and saved. They paid a dreadful price, those children, for their missionary work among the heathen. ~ James Baldwin,
1205:A true standard requires us to find some way of defining what we mean by one unit of time which is the same for everyone no matter where or when they are observing. This desire for universality naturally moves us to seek some time standard that is determined by the constants of Nature alone. And this is indeed how modern absolute time standards are defined. They avoid the use of any characterisitic of the Earth or its gravitational field and focus instead upon the natural oscillation frequencies of certain atomic transitions between states of different energy. The time for one of these transitions to occur in an atom of caesium is determined by the velocity of light in a vacuum, the masses of the electron and proton, Planck's constant, and the charge on a single electron. All these quantities are taken to be constants of Nature. A time interval of one second is then defined to be a certain number of these oscillations. Despite the esoteric nature of this definition of time, it is a powerful one. It should allow us to communicate precisely what length of time we were talking about to the inhabitants of a distant galaxy. ~ John D Barrow,
1206:This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization.

We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some--perhaps many--may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:

This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe ~ Jimmy Carter,
1207:Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of consciousness and finally go beyond it. The art of meditation is the art of shifting the focus of attention to ever subtler levels, without losing one's grip on the levels left behind. In a way it is like having death under control. One begins with the lowest levels: social circumstances, customs and habits; physical surroundings, the posture and the breathing of the body, the senses, their sensation s and perceptions; the mind, its thoughts and feelings; until the entire mechanism of personality is grasped and firmly held. The final stage of meditation is reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the 'I-am-so-and-so', beyond 'so-l-am', beyond 'I-am-the-witness-only', beyond 'there-is', beyond all ideas into the impersonally personal pure being. But you must be energetic when you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation. Limit your interests and activities to what is needed for you and your dependents' barest needs.
Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind had built around you. Believe me, you will not regret. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,
1208:PageRank, the algorithm that gave rise to Google, is itself a Markov chain. Larry Page’s idea was that web pages with many incoming links are probably more important than pages with few, and links from important pages should themselves count for more. This sets up an infinite regress, but we can handle it with a Markov chain. Imagine a web surfer going from page to page by randomly following links: the states of this Markov chain are web pages instead of characters, making it a vastly larger problem, but the math is the same. A page’s score is then the fraction of the time the surfer spends on it, or equivalently, his probability of landing on the page after wandering around for a long time. Markov chains turn up everywhere and are one of the most intensively studied topics in mathematics, but they’re still a very limited kind of probabilistic model. We can go one step further with a model like this: The states form a Markov chain, as before, but we don’t get to see them; we have to infer them from the observations. This is called a hidden Markov model, or HMM for short. (Slightly misleading, because it’s the states that are hidden, not the model.) ~ Pedro Domingos,
1209:Since then, several other conjectures have been resolved with the aid of computers (notably, in 1988, the nonexistence of a projective plane of order 10). Meanwhile, mathematicians have tidied up the Haken-Appel argument so that the computer part is much shorter, and some still hope that a traditional, elegant, and illuminating proof of the four-color theorem will someday be found. It was the desire for illumination, after all, that motivated so many to work on the problem, even to devote their lives to it, during its long history. (One mathematician had his bride color maps on their honeymoon.) Even if the four-color theorem is itself mathematically otiose, a lot of useful mathematics got created in failed attempts to prove it, and it has certainly made grist for philosophers in the last few decades. As for its having wider repercussions, I’m not so sure. When I looked at the map of the United States in the back of a huge dictionary that I once won in a spelling bee for New York journalists, I noticed with mild surprise that it was colored with precisely four colors. Sadly, though, the states of Arkansas and Louisiana, which share a border, were both blue. ~ Jim Holt,
1210:Statements such as ‘There are systems, there are memories, there are cultures, there is artificial intelligence’76 depend on the statement ‘There is information.’ Also the statement ‘There are genes’ can only be understood as a product of the new situation—it indicates the leap of the principle of information into the sphere of nature. On the basis of these gains in concepts that are capable of seizing hold of reality, the interest in traditional figures of theory such as the subject-object relation fades. The constellation of ego and world has lost its sheen, to say nothing of the polarity of individual and society that has become completely lusterless. What is crucial is that with the idea of really existing memories and self-organizing systems the metaphysical distinction between nature and culture becomes untenable, because both sides of the difference only present regional states of information and its processing. One must brace oneself for the fact that understanding this insight will be especially difficult for intellectuals who have made their living on positioning culture against nature, and now suddenly find themselves in a reactive situation. ~ Peter Sloterdijk,
1211:Images are mediations between the world and human beings. Human beings 'ex-ist', i.e. the world is not immediately accessible to them and therefore images are needed to make it comprehensible. However, as soon as this happens, images come between the world and human beings. They are supposed to be maps but they turn into screens: Instead of representing the world, they obscure it until human beings' lives finally become a function of the images they create. Human beings cease to decode the images and instead project them, still encoded, into the world 'out there', which meanwhile itself becomes like an image - a context of scenes, of states of things. This reversal of the function of the image can be called 'idolatry'; we can observe the process at work in the present day: The technical images currently all around us are in the process of magically restructuring our 'reality' and turning it into a 'global image scenario'. Essentially this is a question of 'amnesia'. Human beings forget they created the images in order to orientate themselves in the world. Since they are no longer able to decode them, their lives become a function of their own images: Imagination has turned into hallucination. ~ Vil m Flusser,
1212:In short: by imagining a space-filling fluid, and allowing for its possible effects, we are able to consider a wide variety of transformed images as representations of the same scene, viewed through different states of the fluid.

In a similar way, by introducing just the right kind of material into space-time, Einstein was able to allow the distortions of physical law, which are introduced by Galilean transformations that vary in space and time, to be accomplished as modifications of a new material. That material is called the metric field or, as I prefer to say, metric fluid. The expanded system, containing the original world plus a hypothetical new material, obeys laws that remain the same even when we make variable changes in velocity, though the state of the metric fluid changes. In other words, the equations for the expanded system can support our huge, "outrageous" local symmetry.

We might expect that systems of equations that support such an enormous amount of symmetry are very special, and hard to come by. The new material must have just the right properties. Equations with such enormous symmetry are the analogue of the Platonic solids-or, better, the spheres-among equations! ~ Frank Wilczek,
1213:Nevertheless, the idea that Europeans have simply stopped having enough children and must as a result ensure that the next generation is comprised of immigrants is a disastrous fallacy for several reasons. The first is because of the mistaken assumption that a country’s population should always remain the same or indeed continue rising. The nation states of Europe include some of the most densely populated countries on the planet. It is not at all obvious that the quality of life in these countries will improve if the population continues growing. What is more, when migrants arrive in these countries they move to the big cities, not to the remaining sparsely populated areas. So although among European states Britain, along with Belgium and the Netherlands, is one of the most densely populated countries, England taken on its own would be the second most densely populated country in Europe. Migrants tend not to head to the Highlands of Scotland or the wilds of Dartmoor. And so a constantly increasing population causes population problems in areas that are already suffering housing supply problems and where infrastructure like public transport struggles to keep up with swiftly expanding populations. ~ Douglas Murray,
1214:If they studied their paper money for clues as to what their country was all about, they found, among a lot of other baroque trash, a picture of a truncated pyramid with a radiant eye on top of it, like this: Not even the President of the United States knew what that was all about. It was as though the country were saying to its citizens, “In nonsense is strength.” *** A lot of the nonsense was the innocent result of playfulness on the part of the founding fathers of the nation of Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout. The founders were aristocrats, and they wished to show off their useless education, which consisted of the study of hocus-pocus from ancient times. They were bum poets as well. But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crimes. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them. Here ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1215:In 2015, in a BBC interview, President Barack Obama said that he felt “frustrated” and “stymied” in failing to get the gun control laws he wanted. In fact, he said, “The United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings. And you know, if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands.” You read that right: Barack Obama said that American gun owners are a bigger threat to our safety than are Muslim terrorists; and he said that Americans who believe in the Second Amendment lack “common sense.” My first response is that this just exposes how liberals like Obama have no grasp of the reality of the terrorist threat. They downplay the dangers of Islamist terrorism. Second, they have no respect for the Constitution. They treat that noble document with contempt. Third, they fail to consider how many crimes are prevented, deterred, or foiled by gun owners. Scholar John Lott has shown repeatedly that in American cities, in his famous phrase, more guns equals less crime. That’s a fact. ~ Sarah Palin,
1216:There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous [founding nations upon superstition]; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful. The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature: and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history... [T]he detail of the formation of the American governments... may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven... it will for ever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses... Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind.

[A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America, 1787] ~ John Adams,
1217:A great many skeptics are unfortunately put to waste, in that they vainly focus their energy on ridiculing a certain tiny denomination of Biblical fundamentalism, a denomination seated just one chair away from unbelief. They, the skeptics, cannot believe because they are the most literal of fundamentalists: of those who must interpret Scripture as simply an obsolete, absolutely dead compilation of intellectual incompetence. Nevertheless, by all means, because, after all, that is supposed to happen - Scripture states of itself that all thought and interpretation is folly without the Holy Spirit - however the ironic thing is the case in which one believes that the Bible is, in its true essence, completely outdated. And like flashes in a pan, he hints at his naivety, that he knows little about the world around him, little about those who live in it. Either that, or he knows little about what Scripture really says in relation to the world around him, little about what it really says in relation to those who live in it. It is as though he is the one dead to the world and it to him. He has not the Spirit to give life to his own spirit; he can only possibly understand Scripture as long-deceased rather than the modern world's very living narrative. ~ Criss Jami,
1218:One of the questions I asked Ken was “what’s your vision of an ideal education curriculum for children?” This is what Ken told me: Humanity is flying way under its full potential simply because we do not educate for the whole or complete human being. We educate for just a small part, a slice, a fragment of just what’s possible for us. . . . Because according to the great wisdom traditions around the world—not only do humans possess typical states of consciousness like waking, dreaming, or deep sleep, they also possess profoundly high states of consciousness like enlightenment or awakening—and none of our education systems teach ANY of that. Now, all of these factors I’ve mentioned . . . none of these are rare, isolated, esoteric, far-out, strange, or occult. They are all some of the very most basic and most fundamental potentials of a human being everywhere. They are simply human 101. Yet we don’t educate human 101. We educate something like human 1/10. So yes, I firmly believe that we can bring about health on this planet for the planet and the humans on it if we started educating the whole person with all their fundamental potentials and capacities and skills and stopped this fragmented, partial, broken system that we have now. Consciousness ~ Vishen Lakhiani,
1219:The pendule always swings widely to and fro twixt good cheer and melancholy, that is customary, and is, so to speak, still of the more civilly moderate, more Nurembergish sort, in comparison with what we purvey. For in this respect we purvey in extremes: We furnish upliftings and illuminations, experiences of release and unshackling, of liberty, security, facility, such states of power and triumph that our man trusts not his senses-incorporating, moreover, a colossal admiration of his own achievement, for which he could easily forgo that of any stranger and alien the self-glorious shudder, yea the precious horror of himself, in which he seems to himself a mouthpiece well graced, a divine monster. And commensurably deep, venerably deep, is likewise his descent at intervals-not only into emptiness and waste and rich sorrow, but also into pain and nauseas-companions, by the by, who were always there, who are part of the propensity, yet now
most worthily enhanced by illumination and sensible pot-valiance. They are pains that one gladly and proudly takes in the bargain with pleasures so enormous, pains such as one knows from a fairy tale, pains like slashing knives, like those the little mermaid felt in the beautiful human legs she had acquired for a tail. ~ Thomas Mann,
1220:It is estimated that Josef Stalin killed more than twenty million people during his reign of terror. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia lost more than a third of their population during the Soviet genocide. The deportations reached as far as Finland. To this day, many Russians deny they ever deported a single person. But most Baltic people harbor no grudge, resentment, or ill will. They are grateful to the Soviets who showed compassion. Their freedom is precious, and they are learning to live within it. For some, the liberties we have as American citizens came at the expense of people who lie in unmarked graves in Siberia. Like Joana for Lina, our freedom cost them theirs.

Some wars are about bombing. For the people of the Baltics, this war was about believing. In 1991, after 50 years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. Please research it. Tell someone. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy - love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit. ~ Ruta Sepetys,
1221:For the same reason, we may leave out of consideration those backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage. The early difficulties in the way of spontaneous progress are so great, that there is seldom any choice of means for overcoming them; and a ruler full of the spirit of improvement is warranted in the use of any expedients that will attain an end, perhaps otherwise unattainable. Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion. Until then, there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne, if they are so fortunate as to find one. But as soon as mankind have attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion (a period long since reached in all nations with whom we need here concern ourselves), compulsion, either in the direct form or in that of pains and penalties for non-compliance, is no longer admissible as a means to their own good, and justifiable only for the security of others. ~ John Stuart Mill,
1222:POWER PRINCIPLES PRINCIPLE #1 Power is about altering the states of others. PRINCIPLE #2 Power is part of every relationship and interaction. PRINCIPLE #3 Power is found in everyday actions. PRINCIPLE #4 Power comes from empowering others in social networks. PRINCIPLE #5 Groups give power to those who advance the greater good. PRINCIPLE #6 Groups construct reputations that determine the capacity to influence. PRINCIPLE #7 Groups reward those who advance the greater good with status and esteem. PRINCIPLE #8 Groups punish those who undermine the greater good with gossip. PRINCIPLE #9 Enduring power comes from empathy. PRINCIPLE #10 Enduring power comes from giving. PRINCIPLE #11 Enduring power comes from expressing gratitude. PRINCIPLE #12 Enduring power comes from telling stories that unite. PRINCIPLE #13 Power leads to empathy deficits and diminished moral sentiments. PRINCIPLE #14 Power leads to self-serving impulsivity. PRINCIPLE #15 Power leads to incivility and disrespect. PRINCIPLE #16 Power leads to narratives of exceptionalism. PRINCIPLE #17 Powerlessness involves facing environments of continual threat. PRINCIPLE #18 Stress defines the experience of powerlessness. PRINCIPLE #19 Powerlessness undermines the ability to contribute to society. PRINCIPLE #20 Powerlessness causes poor health. ~ Dacher Keltner,
1223:Consider an AI that has hedonism as its final goal, and which would therefore like to tile the universe with “hedonium” (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for the generation of pleasurable experience). To this end, the AI might produce computronium (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for computation) and use it to implement digital minds in states of euphoria. In order to maximize efficiency, the AI omits from the implementation any mental faculties that are not essential for the experience of pleasure, and exploits any computational shortcuts that according to its definition of pleasure do not vitiate the generation of pleasure. For instance, the AI might confine its simulation to reward circuitry, eliding faculties such as a memory, sensory perception, executive function, and language; it might simulate minds at a relatively coarse-grained level of functionality, omitting lower-level neuronal processes; it might replace commonly repeated computations with calls to a lookup table; or it might put in place some arrangement whereby multiple minds would share most parts of their underlying computational machinery (their “supervenience bases” in philosophical parlance). Such tricks could greatly increase the quantity of pleasure producible with a given amount of resources. ~ Nick Bostrom,
1224:The following brief points are like magic moccasins. They
guarantee safe guidance through the forest of people. To walk
safely, wear them!
1. The most persuasive power you have toward others is a
mature self.
2. The mark of greatness is to be superior without feeling
superior.
3. "The consciousness of being loved softens the keenest
pang." (Joseph Addison)
4. The turning point in all your exterior relations comes
when you start changing your inner self.
5. Strong people attract the weak.
6. Possessiveness and dependency are not states of love.
7. Your own level of being attracts the kind of people who
enter your life.
8. "He is happy as well as great who needs neither to obey
nor command in order to be something." (Goethe)
9. Your True Self cannot be afraid of anyone.
10. You break the cord of painful thought toward another
person by snipping the connection within your own
mind.
11. It is very painful to pretend to be someone.
12. Any sincere effort at bettering your human relations
returns a reward.
13. Don't drain your energy by thinking negatively toward
people who harm you.
14. You get along with others to the exact degree that you
get along with yourself.
15. A real person stands out like a human being among statues. ~ Vernon Howard,
1225:Whatever the evolutionary precursors of drug use are, a permanently “drug-free” human culture has yet to be discovered. Like music, language, art, and tool use, the pursuit of altered states of consciousness is a human universal. With access to few alternatives, Siberian shamans imbibe reindeer and human urine to maximize the psychedelic yield of Amanita muscaria mushrooms (the metabolite that is excreted may be stronger than the substance initially ingested); on nearly the opposite side of the world, New Zealanders party with untested “research chemicals” synthesized by Chinese chemists. Drug use spans time and culture. It is a rare human who has never taken a drug to alter her mood; statistically, it is non-users who are abnormal. Indeed, today, around two thirds of Americans over 12 have had at least one drink in the last year, and 1 in 5 are current smokers. (In the 1940s and ’50s, a whopping 67% of men smoked.) Among people ages 21 to 25, 60% have taken an illegal drug at least once—overwhelmingly marijuana—and 20% have taken one in the past month. Moreover, around half of us could suffer from physical withdrawal symptoms if denied our daily coffee. While Americans are relatively prodigious drug users—topping the charts in the use of many substances—we are far from alone in our psychoactive predilections. ~ Maia Szalavitz,
1226:Objection: “Surely, the individual perceiver is made up of dualistic mental constructs, and the mind is the basis of these mental constructs. So, if the perceiver is the mind, how can it be God?” Addressing this doubt, in order to explain the mind, it is taught: Awareness itself, descending from its state of pure consciousness, becomes contracted by the object perceived: this is [called] the mind. || 5 || The mind is nothing other than this very Goddess Awareness. To explain: when She conceals Her true nature and takes on contraction, there are two modes in which She does so. Sometimes, She vibrates predominantly as Awareness, subordinating contraction, even though it is still present. Other times, contraction is predominant. In the case of Awareness being predominant, If it predominates exclusively as the innate Light of Awareness, that is the state of the Vijñānākala. However, when the Light’s capacity for Self-reflection is predominant, that is the state of being a Wisdom-perceiver. In that state, through the progressive diminution of contraction, one ascends through successively higher layers: the states of Īśvara, Sadāśiva, and Transcendent Śiva. And when the predominance of Awareness is achieved through effort in meditation, the state of being a knower of the Pure Realm keeps gradually becoming greater. ~ Christopher D Wallis,
1227:I believe that the story of how Jimmy and I, coming from such different backgrounds, were able to enjoy such a productive life together can be instructive to other Americans, especially in light of the rapidly changing ethnic composition of this country. In the past few decades the majority of immigrants entering this country are no longer Europeans but people of color from the Third World, especially Asia and Latin America. In some cities Hispanics and Asians are already the majority, and it is widely predicted that by the middle of the twenty-first century both Europeans and African Americans will be among the many minorities that make up the majority of the American population. With this new situation will inevitably come new stresses and strains. If the new immigrants are viewed as a threat, these tensions can explode as they did in South Central Los Angeles in 1992. On the other hand, if older migrants—and except for Native Americans, we have all migrated to this country, by choice or in chains—can see the new arrivals as people on whose backs we have prospered and whom we now need to make ourselves whole, we can embark together on the struggles necessary to make the United States of America what it was meant to be—a country that all of us, regardless of national or ethnic origin, will be proud to call our own. ~ Grace Lee Boggs,
1228:That’s why I joined, to go over there and bust heads,” Ryan told me when he got back. “When I was actually over there, it wasn’t how I thought it’d be. It wasn’t romantic. Not noble or ideological. You weren’t fighting for your country. It was a group of guys in the mountains trying to kill another group of guys in the mountains. You and a group of guys who are like you, fighting against a group of guys who aren’t like you. In the midst of all this, civilians die because of you. People are killing kids. Are these people a threat to the United States of America? Nah, dude, they don’t even have shoes. “These people don’t know that we want to help them. They see us in their mountains and go, ‘What the fuck?!’ The guys who died didn’t die for America, they died for Afghanistan. Afghanis don’t give a shit about us. They don’t give a shit about their corrupt-ass government. They play both sides of the fence. Guzman got blown up on a mission we weren’t even supposed to go on. I’m sitting there eating an MRE as he’s dying, and I don’t know it. “I’m the crazy guy? I am. I want to get the bad guys. I still do. The older guys who were in real wars, they’d tell us, ‘You’re in the right division, wrong war.’ Nobody gives a shit you’re doing this except the guys next to you—your friends, your brothers. It’s not a war. It’s a gang war. ~ Kent Russell,
1229:Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product...if we should judge the United States of America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans. ~ Robert F Kennedy,
1230:I wrote Dr. Allen Guelzo for his perspective. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and the director of the Civil War Era Studies Program at Gettysburg College. He is one of the great students of Lincoln and one of the great historians in the country. Frankly, I expected Allen to respond, “Have you just lost your mind!?” But he didn’t. Guelzo responded: Your points are entirely on the mark. I have done a quick comparative outline of both inaugural addresses, and while the existential situation of the two are different, on March 4th, 1861, Lincoln was already facing the secession of seven states, the official creation of a Confederate States of America, and demands for the surrender of federal property, there is this common thread, the sovereignty of the people. Lincoln used that principle to deny that one part of the nation, the seven seceding states, could break up the union without the consent of the American people, as well as denying that one branch of the government, the Supreme Court, could overrule the American people’s will. This was enough to make me feel better. But Guelzo continued. Trump invokes that principle. To deny that a federal bureaucracy can enrich and empower itself at the expense of the people, as well as denying that identity enclaves can overrule the fundamental unity of the American people. ~ Newt Gingrich,
1231:Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on [E]arth. According to the United Nations' Human Development Report (2005) they are also the healthiest, as indicated by life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate, and infant mortality. Insofar as there is a crime problem in Western Europe, it is largely the product of immigration. Seventy percent of the inmates of France's jails, for instance, are Muslim. The Muslims of Western Europe are generally not atheists. Conversely, the fifty nations now ranked lowest in terms of the United Nations' [H]uman [D]evelopment [I]ndex are unwaveringly religious.
Other analyses paint the same picture: the United States is unique among wealthy democracies in its level of religious adherence; it is also uniquely beleaguered by high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and infant mortality. The same comparison holds true within the United States itself: Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious literalism, are especially plagued by the above indicators of societal dysfunction, while the comparatively secular states of the Northeast conform to European norms. ~ Sam Harris,
1232:You will remember that every psychological or inner state finds some outer representation via the moving centre—that is, it is represented in some particular muscular movements or contractions, etc. You may have noticed that a state of worry is often reflected by a contracted wrinkling of the forehead or a twisting of the hands. States of joy never have this representation. Negative states, states of worry, or fear, or anxiety, or depression, represent themselves in the muscles by contraction, flexion, being bowed down, etc. (and often, also, by weakness in the muscles), whereas opposite emotional states are reflected into the moving centre as expansion, as standing upright, as extension of the limbs, relaxing of tension, and usually by a feeling of strength. To stop worry, people who worry and thereby frown too much or pucker up and corrugate their foreheads, clench their fists, almost cease breathing, etc., should begin here—by relaxing the muscles expressing the emotional state, and freeing the breath. Relaxing in general has behind it, esoterically speaking, the idea of preventing negative states. Negative states are less able to come when a person is in a state of relaxation. That is why it is said so often that it is necessary to practise relaxing every day, by passing the attention over the body and deliberately relaxing all tense muscles. ~ Maurice Nicoll,
1233:When Communism fell in 1989, the temptation for Western commentators to gloat triumphantly proved irresistible. This, it was declared, marked the end of History. Henceforth, the world belonged to liberal capitalism – there was no alternative – and we would all march forward in unison towards a future shaped by peace, democracy and free markets. Twenty years on this assertion looks threadbare.

There can be no question that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the domino-like collapse of Communism states from the suburbs of Vienna to the shores of the Pacific marked a very significant transition: one in which millions of men and women were liberated from a dismal and defunct ideology and its authoritarian institutions. But no one could credibly assert that what replaced Communism was an era of idyllic tranquility. There was no peace in post-Communist Yugoslavia, and precious little democracy in any of the successor states of the Soviet Union.

As for free markets, they surely flourished, but it is not clear for whom. The West – Europe and the United States above all – missed a once-in-a-century opportunity to re-shape the world around agreed and improved international institutions and practices. Instead, we sat back and congratulated ourselves upon having won the Cold War: a sure way to lose the peace. The years from 1989 to 2009 were consumed by locusts. ~ Tony Judt,
1234:Cultures are organisms," Spengler explains, "and world-history is their collective biography." Like any other vital organism, then, each culture goes through the stages of youth, maturity, and decline. "Culture is the prime phenomenon of all past and future world-history." "Every Culture has its own Civilization...The Civilization is the inevitable destiny of the Culture....Civilizations are the most external and artificial states of which a species of developed humanity is capable. They are a conclusion, the thing-become succeeding the thing-becoming, death following life, rigidity following expansion, intellectual age and the stone-built, petrifying world-city following mother-earth and the spiritual childhood of Doric and Gothic. They are an end, irrevocable, yet by inward necessity reached again and again." Thus, while the culture is a period of ebullient creativity, the civilization that inevitably follows is a period of reflection, organization, and search for material comfort and convenience. For example, classical Greece was the culture; imperial Rome the civilization. From the beauties of Greek poetry to the imperialism of Roman law, we now live in the civilization of Western ("Faustian") culture and cannot avoid the consequences. Among these Spengler foresaw the "megalopolis," the city of faceless masses, the omnipotence of money, and a new Caesarism. ~ Daniel J Boorstin,
1235:There are some immediately obvious problems with this “proof” that Pacelli helped Hitler to power. First, there was no Reich in the 1920s. Hitler was not in power then; there is also a problem of how a Papal concordat would have prevented the rise to power of the Nazi party when the infamous 1933 elections saw the overwhelming majority of the Weimar Republic vote against freedom by voting either Nazi or Communist. It is also difficult to imagine how Pacelli could have foreseen the worth of a failed Austrian painter in the early 1920s, soon to be in the jail from which he would write Mein Kampf, and then prevented the signing of the concordat (this is, of course, assuming that the concordat would have made a difference one way or the other). Second, when the concordant was signed, Eugenio Pacelli was then Papal Secretary of State, so it was left to the German bishops to “submit” to Hitler, and even then, Pacelli was not overly happy about it—he is said to have exclaimed “Why did the bishops have to meet the government halfway?”[184] This also ignores that the Catholic Church had made concordats with the three most Catholic German states of Bavaria, Prussia, and Baden, and the Hitler pursued a concordat in an attempt to seek international recognition,[185] and harassed the Catholics of Germany in order to get one[186] in what some have called “Nazi terror against the German Catholics.”[187] Besides, ~ Declan Finn,
1236:If these civilizing potentials were to be generalized, then the homeotechnological era would be distinguished by the fact that in it spaces of leeway for errancy become narrower while spaces of leeway for gratification and positive association grow. Advanced biotechnology and nootechnology groom a refined, cooperative subject who plays with himself, who is formed in association with complex texts and hyper-complex contexts. Here emerges the matrix of a humanism after humanism. Domination must tend in the direction of ceasing because, as crudeness, it makes itself impossible. In the interconnected, inter-intelligently condensed world masters and violators only still have chances for success that last little more than a moment, while cooperators, promoters, and enrichers—at least in their contexts—find more numerous, more adequate, more sustainable connections. After the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century a more extensive dissolution of the remnants of domination looms for the twenty-first or twenty-second—no one will believe that this can happen without intense conflicts. One cannot rule out the possibility that reactionary domination will once again band together with the mass ressentiments of losers to form a new mode of fascism. The ingredients for this are above all present in the mass culture of the United States of America. But like their rise, the foundering of such reactions is foreseeable. ~ Peter Sloterdijk,
1237:All of us have two minds, a private one, which is usually strange, I guess, and symbolic, and a public one, a social one. Most of us stream back and forth between those two minds, drifting around in our private self and then coming forward into the public self whenever we need to. But sometimes you get a little slow making the transition, you drag out the private part of your life and people know you’re doing it. They almost always catch on, knowing that someone is standing before them thinking about things that can’t be shared, like the one monkey that knows where a freshwater pond is. And sometimes the public mind is such a total bummer and the private self is alive with beauty and danger and secrets and things that don’t make any sense but that repeat and repeat and demand to be listened to, and you find it harder and harder to come forward. The pathway between those two states of mind suddenly seems very steep, a hell of a lot of work and not really worth it. Then I think it becomes a matter of what side of the great divide you get caught on. Some people get stuck on the public, approved side and they’re all right, for what it’s worth. And some people get stuck on the completely strange and private side of the divide, and that’s what we call crazy and its not really completely wrong to call it that but it doesn’t say it as it truly is. It’s more like a lack of mobility, a transportation problem, getting stuck, being the us we are in private but not stopping… ~ Scott Spencer,
1238:If we eliminate the recurrence of the causes for suffering, we definitely experience the absence of the suffering that would have arisen as their results. Without a cause, a result cannot arise. Moreover, since the root cause of the recurrence of our problems is the confusion with which we imagine that things actually exist in the impossible manner in which our muddled mind deceptively makes them appear to exist, it is possible to eliminate the recurrence of this cause. This is because confusion cannot be verified. Based on fantasy, not fact, it lacks a stable foundation and cannot withstand close scrutiny. Therefore true endings can definitely occur. In order to realize a true stopping of our problems and their causes, however, we must actively do something to bring it about. Otherwise, due to strong habit, we endlessly continue to make our life miserable — for instance by generating tension over and over again. Since the root cause of our suffering is a confused state of mind, we need to replace it permanently with an unconfused state so that it never arises again. Such unconfused states of mind with which we see reality are the fourth true fact in life — true pathways of mind, or true “paths.” It is not sufficient, therefore, merely to mask over the problem of stress, for example, by taking a tranquilizer or having a drink. We must rid ourselves, or “abandon” the confusion with which we believe that somehow the tension exists “out there.” We must replace confusion ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
1239:American planes full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires gathered them into cylindrical steel containers and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though German fighters came up again made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America where factories were operating night and day dismantling the cylinders separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground to hide them cleverly so they would never hurt anybody ever again. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1240:Europe was not born in the early Middle Ages. No common identity in 1000 linked Spain to Russia, Ireland to the Byzantine empire (in what is now the Balkans, Greece and Turkey), except the very weak sense of community that linked Christian polities together. There was no common European culture, and certainly not any Europe-wide economy. There was no sign whatsoever that Europe would, in a still rather distant future, develop economically and militarily, so as to be able to dominate the world. Anyone in 1000 looking for future industrialization would have put bets on the economy of Egypt, not of the Rhineland and Low Countries, and that of Lancashire would have seemed like a joke. In politico-military terms, the far south-east and south-west of Europe, Byzantium and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), provided the dominant states of the Continent, whereas in western Europe the Carolingian experiment (see below, Chapters 16 and 17) had ended with the break-up of Francia (modern France, Belgium and western Germany), the hegemonic polity for the previous four hundred years. The most coherent western state in 1000, southern England, was tiny. In fact, weak political systems dominated most of the Continent at the end of our period, and the active and aggressive political systems of later on in the Middle Ages were hardly visible.

National identities, too, were not widely prominent in 1000, even if one rejects the association between nationalism and modernity made in much contemporary scholarship. ~ Chris Wickham,
1241:The Constitution says: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." The meaning of this is simply We, the people of the United States, acting freely and voluntarily as individuals, consent and agree that we will cooperate with each other in sustaining such a government as is provided for in this Constitution. The necessity for the consent of "the people" is implied in this declaration. The whole authority of the Constitution rests upon it. If they did not consent, it was of no validity. Of course it had no validity, except as between those who actually consented. No one's consent could be presumed against him, without his actual consent being given, any more than in the case of any other contract to pay money, or render service. And to make it binding upon any one, his signature, or other positive evidence of consent, was as necessary as in the case of any other-contract. If the instrument meant to say that any of "the people of the United States" would be bound by it, who did not consent, it was a usurpation and a lie. The most that can be inferred from the form, "We, the people," is, that the instrument offered membership to all "the people of the United States;" leaving it for them to accept or refuse it, at their pleasure. ~ Lysander Spooner,
1242:Now the children, there, are not born as the children are born in worlds nearer to the sun. For they arrive no one knows how. A maiden, walking alone, hears a cry: for even there a cry is the first utterance; and searching about, she findeth, under an overhanging rock, or within a clump of bushes, or, it may be, betwixt gray stones on the side of a hill, or in any other sheltered and unexpected spot, a little child. This she taketh tenderly, and beareth home with joy, calling out, "Mother, mother"—if so be that her mother lives—"I have got a baby—I have found a child!" All the household gathers round to see;—"WHERE IS IT? WHAT IS IT LIKE? WHERE DID YOU FIND IT?" and such-like questions, abounding. And thereupon she relates the whole story of the discovery; for by the circumstances, such as season of the year, time of the day, condition of the air, and such like, and, especially, the peculiar and never-repeated aspect of the heavens and earth at the time, and the nature of the place of shelter wherein it is found, is determined, or at least indicated, the nature of the child thus discovered. Therefore, at certain seasons, and in certain states of the weather, according, in part, to their own fancy, the young women go out to look for children. They generally avoid seeking them, though they cannot help sometimes finding them, in places and with circumstances uncongenial to their peculiar likings. But no sooner is a child found, than its claim for protection and nurture obliterates all feeling of choice in the matter. ~ George MacDonald,
1243:There is no freedom, but everything in the world takes place entirely according to nature....Transcendental freedom is therefore opposed to the law of causality, and represents such a connection of successive states of effective causes, that no unity of experience is possible with it. It is therefore an empty fiction of the mind, and not to be met with in any experience.
We have, therefore, nothing but nature, in which we must try to find the connection and order of cosmical events. Freedom (independence) from the laws of nature is no doubt a deliverance from restraint, but also from the guidance of all rules. For we cannot say that, instead of the laws of nature, laws of freedom may enter into the causality of the course of the world, because, if determined by laws, it would not be freedom, but nothing else but nature. Nature, therefore, and transcendental freedom differ from each other like legality and lawlessness. The former, no doubt, imposes upon the understanding the difficult task of looking higher and higher for the origin of events in the series of causes, because their causality is always conditioned. In return for this, however, it promises a complete and well-ordered unity of experience; while, on the other side, the fiction of freedom promises, no doubt, to the enquiring mind, rest in the chain of causes, leading him up to an unconditioned causality, which begins to act by itself, but which, as it is blind itself, tears the thread of rules by which alone a complete and coherent experience is possible. ~ Immanuel Kant,
1244:On The Civil War On The East Coast Of The United
States Of North America 1860-64
Because of the unaccountable spirit of the troops
oh we were marched as we were never marched before
and flanked them off from home. Stupid Meade
was after them, head on to tail, but we convinced
him, finally, to flank, flank, cut off their head.
He finally understood, the idiot, and got a fort
named after him, for wisdom. He probably thought
Lee would conquer Washington from Appomattox
if he, Meade, should march his infantry behind
him, Lee. Ah well, the unaccountable spirit of the troops
triumphed, Meade got his fort, Grant got his presidency,
Sherman got his motto, what was it? War is heck?, Lee got a military school
for the education of young Southern gentlemen, and the Union
Army was taken over by Southern noncommissioned officers
in the wars against the Indians to the west. I know all
about this, I know who won, I served under them
for three hundred and fifty years in World War II,
just long enough not to be called a rookie but a veteran,
and realized the rank and order of my enemies:
first, the West Point officers; second, the red-neck sergeants;
third, the Nazis and perhaps the Japanese. I won
all of these wars as a private soldier, for a while,
and am happy to have done so: without me
Hitler and Hirohito would he ruling the world
instead of America and Russia, but I still will not
drive through Georgia with New York license plates.
~ Alan Dugan,
1245:As one sat in the aeroplane amidst all the noise, smoking and loud talking, most unexpectedly, the sense of immensity and that extraordinary benediction which was felt at il L., that imminent feeling of sacredness, began to take place. The body was nervously tense because of the crowd, noise, etc. but in spite of all this, it was there. The pressure and the strain were intense and there was acute pain at the back of the head. There was only this state and there was no observer. The whole body was wholly in it and the feeling of sacredness was so intense that a groan escaped from the body and passengers were sitting in the next seats. It went on for several hours, late into the night. It was as though one was looking, not with eyes only but with a thousand centuries; it was altogether a strange occurrence. The brain was completely empty, all reaction had stopped; during all those hours, one was not aware of this emptiness but only in writing it is the thing known, but this knowledge is only descriptive and not real. That the brain could empty itself is an odd phenomenon. As the eyes were closed, the body, the brain seemed to plunge into unfathomable depths, into states of incredible sensitivity and beauty. The passenger in the next seat began to ask something and having replied, this intensity was there; there was no continuity but only being. And dawn was coming leisurely and the clear sky was filling with light - As this is being written late in the day, with sleepless fatigue, that sacredness is there. The pressure and the strain too. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti,
1246:Rogue Elephant
The reason to be autonomous is to stand there,
a cleared instrument, ready to act, to search
the moral realm and actual conditions for what
needs to be done and to do it: fine, the
best, if it works out, but if, like a gun, it
comes in handy to the wrong choice, why then
you see the danger in the effective: better
then an autonomy that stands and looks about,
negotiating nothing, the supreme indifferences:
is anything to be gained where as much is lost:
and if for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction has the loss been researched
equally with the gain: you can see how the
milling actions of millions could come to a
buzzard-like glide as from a coincidental,
warm bottom of water stuck between chilled
peaks: it is not so easy to say, OK, go on
out and act: who, doing what, to what or
whom: just a minute: should the bunker be
bombed (if it stores gas): should all the
rattlers die just because they rattle: if I
hear the young gentleman vomiter roaring down
the hall in the men's room, should I go and
inquire of him, reducing him to my care: no
wonder the great sayers (who say nothing) sit
about in inaccessible states of mind: no
40
wonder still wisdom and catatonia appear to
exchange places occasionally: but if anything
were easy, our easy choices soon would carry
away our ignorance with the world-better
let the mixed-up mix and let the surface shine
with all the possibilities, each in itself.
~ Archie Randolph Ammons,
1247:Is this flesh of yours you? Or is it an extraneous something possessed by you? Your body—what is it? A machine for converting stimuli into reactions. Stimuli and reactions are remembered. They constitute experience. Then you are in your consciousness these experiences. You are at any moment what you are thinking at that moment. Your I is both subject and object; it predicates things of itself and is the things predicated. The thinker is the thought, the knower is what is known, the possessor is the things possessed. "After all, as you know well, man is a flux of states of consciousness, a flow of passing thoughts, each thought of self another self, a myriad thoughts, a myriad selves, a continual becoming but never being, a will-of-the-wisp flitting of ghosts in ghostland. But this, man will not accept of himself. He refuses to accept his own passing. He will not pass. He will live again if he has to die to do it. "He shuffles atoms and jets of light, remotest nebulae, drips of water, prick-points of sensation, slime-oozings and cosmic bulks, all mixed with pearls of faith, love of woman, imagined dignities, frightened surmises, and pompous arrogances, and of the stuff builds himself an immortality to startle the heavens and baffle the immensities. He squirms on his dunghill, and like a child lost in the dark among goblins, calls to the gods that he is their younger brother, a prisoner of the quick that is destined to be as free as they—monuments of egotism reared by the epiphenomena; dreams and the dust of dreams, that vanish when the dreamer vanishes and are no more when he is not. ~ Jack London,
1248:It was not until the year 1808 that Great Britain abolished the slave trade. Up to that time her judges, sitting upon the bench in the name of justice, her priests, occupying her pulpits, in the name of universal love, owned stock in the slave ships, and luxuriated upon the profits of piracy and murder. It was not until the same year that the United States of America abolished the slave trade between this and other countries, but carefully preserved it as between the States. It was not until the 28th day of August, 1833, that Great Britain abolished human slavery in her colonies; and it was not until the 1st day of January, 1863, that Abraham Lincoln, sustained by the sublime and heroic North, rendered our flag pure as the sky in which it floats.

Abraham Lincoln was, in my judgment, in many respects, the grandest man ever President of the United States. Upon his monument these words should be written: 'Here sleeps the only man in the history of the world, who, having been clothed with almost absolute power, never abused it, except upon the side of mercy.'

Think how long we clung to the institution of human slavery, how long lashes upon the naked back were a legal tender for labor performed. Think of it.

With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. ~ Robert G Ingersoll,
1249:Cognitive scientists recognize two types of rationality: instrumental and epistemic. The simplest definition of instrumental rationality-the one that emphasizes most that it is grounded in the practical world-is: Behaving in the world so that you get exactly what you most want, given the resources (physical and mental) available to you. Somewhat more technically, we could characterize instrumental rationality as the optimization of the individual's goal fulfillment. Economists and cognitive scientists have refined the notion of optimization of goal fulfillment into the technical notion of expected utility. The model of rational judgment used by decision scientists is one in which a person chooses options based on which option has the largest expected utility.' One discovery of modern decision science is that if people's preferences follow certain patterns (the so-called axioms of choice) then they are behaving as if they are maximizing utility-they are acting to get what they most want. This is what makes people's degrees of rationality measurable by the experimental methods of cognitive science. The deviation from the optimal choice pattern is an (inverse) measure of the degree of rationality.
The other aspect of rationality studied by cognitive scientists is termed epistemic rationality. This aspect of rationality concerns how well beliefs map onto the actual structure of the world.' The two types of rationality are related. Importantly, a critical aspect of beliefs that enter into instrumental calculations (that is, tacit calculations) is the probabilities of states of affairs in the world. ~ Keith E Stanovich,
1250:It was a movie about American bombers in World War II and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers , and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1251:It was now my responsibility to build my own culture within the U.S. Attorney’s office, one that would get the best out of our team and drawing, in different ways, on the lessons of Giuliani and Fahey. I tried to attend to this task from the very first day. I hired about fifty new prosecutors during my time as U.S. Attorney and sat with each of them as they took the oath of office. I invited them to bring their families. I told them that something remarkable was going to happen when they stood up and said they represented the United States of America—total strangers were going to believe what they said next. I explained to them that, although I didn’t want to burst their bubbles, this would not happen because of them. It would happen because of those who had gone before them and, through hundreds of promises made and kept, and hundreds of truths told and errors instantly corrected, built something for them. I called it a reservoir. I told them it was a reservoir of trust and credibility built for you and filled for you by people you never knew, by those who are long gone. A reservoir that makes possible so much of the good that is done by the institution you serve. A remarkable gift. I would explain to these bright young lawyers that, like all great gifts, this one comes with a responsibility, a solemn obligation to guard and protect that reservoir and pass it on to those who follow as full as you received it, or maybe even fuller. I would explain that the problem with reservoirs is that they take a very long time to fill but they can be drained by one hole in the dam. The actions of one person can destroy what it took hundreds of people years to build. ~ James Comey,
1252:Frederick Cuvier and several of the older metaphysicians have compared instinct with habit. This comparison gives, I think, an accurate notion of the frame of mind under which an instinctive action is performed, but not necessarily of its origin. How unconsciously many habitual actions are performed, indeed not rarely in direct opposition to our conscious will! yet they may be modified by the will or reason. Habits easily become associated with other habits, with certain periods of time and states of the body. When once acquired, they often remain constant throughout life. Several other points of resemblance between instincts and habits could be pointed out. As in repeating a well-known song, so in instincts, one action follows another by a sort of rhythm; if a person be interrupted in a song, or in repeating anything by rote, he is generally forced to go back to recover the habitual train of thought: so P. Huber found it was with a caterpillar, which makes a very complicated hammock; for if he took a caterpillar which had completed its hammock up to, say, the sixth stage of construction, and put it into a hammock completed up only to the third stage, the caterpillar simply re-performed the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of construction. If, however, a caterpillar were taken out of a hammock made up, for instance, to the third stage, and were put into one finished up to the sixth stage, so that much of its work was already done for it, far from deriving any benefit from this, it was much embarrassed, and, in order to complete its hammock, seemed forced to start from the third stage, where it had left off, and thus tried to complete the already finished work. ~ Charles Darwin,
1253:Vladimir Nabokov and George Orwell had quite different gifts, and their self-images were quite different. But, I shall argue, their accomplishment was pretty much the same. Both of them warn the liberal ironist intellectual against temptations to be cruel. Both of them dramatise the tension between private irony and liberal hope.

In the following passage, Nabokov helped blur the distinctions which I want to draw:

...'Lolita' has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only in so far as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm. There are not many such books. All the rest is either topical trash or what some call the Literature of Ideas, which very often is topical trash coming in huge blocks of plaster that are carefully transmitted from age to age until somebody comes along with a hammer and takes a good crack at Balzac, at Gorki, at Mann.

Orwell blurred the same distinctions when, in one of his rare descents into rant, "The Frontiers of Art and Propaganda," he wrote exactly the sort of thing Nabokov loathed:

You cannot take a purely aesthetic interest in a disease you are dying from; you cannot feel dispassionately about a man who is about to cut your throat. In a world in which Fascism and Socialism were fighting one another, any thinking person had to take sides... This period of ten years or so in which literature, even poetry was mixed up with pamphleteering, did a great service to literary criticism, because it destroyed the illusion of pure aestheticism... It debunked art for art's sake. ~ Richard M Rorty,
1254:Even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction - purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all.

Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.

It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.

It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.

It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in world. ~ Robert F Kennedy,
1255:Under Christianity neither morality nor religion has any point of contact with actuality. It offers purely imaginary causes ("God" "soul," "ego," "spirit," "free will" -- "unfree will" for that matter), and purely imaginary effects ("sin," "salvation," "grace," "punishment," "forgiveness of sins"). Intercourse between imaginary beings ("God," "spirits," "souls"); an imaginary natural science (anthropocentric; a total denial of the concept of natural causes); an imaginary psychology (misunderstandings of self, misinterpretations of agreeable or disagreeable general feelings -- for example, of the states of the nervus sympathicus with the help of the sign-language of religio-ethical balderdash -- , "repentance," "pangs of conscience," "temptation by the devil," "the presence of God"); an imaginary teleology (the "kingdom of God," "the last judgment," "eternal life"). -- This purely fictitious world, greatly to its disadvantage, is to be differentiated from the world of dreams; the later at least reflects reality, whereas the former falsifies it, cheapens it and denies it. Once the concept of "nature" had been opposed to the concept of "God," the word "natural" necessarily took on the meaning of "abominable" -- the whole of that fictitious world has its sources in hatred of the natural (-- the real! --), and is no more than evidence of a profound uneasiness in the presence of reality. . . . This explains everything. Who alone has any reason for lying his way out of reality? The man who suffers under it. But to suffer from reality one must be a botched reality. . . . The preponderance of pains over pleasures is the cause of this fictitious morality and religion: but such a preponderance also supplies the formula for decadence... ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,
1256:1:THE “CRISIS”: Although Chief Judge Bazelon said in 1960 that “we desperately need all the help we can get from modern behavioral scientists”69 in dealing with the criminal law, the cold facts suggest no such desperation or crisis. Since the most reliable long-term crime data are on murder, what was the murder rate at that point? The number of murders committed in the United States in 1960 was less than in 1950, 1940, or 1930—even though the population was growing over those decades and murders in the two new states of Hawaii and Alaska were counted in the national statistics for the first time in 1960.70 The murder rate, in proportion to population, was in 1960 just under half of what it had been in 1934.71 As Judge Bazelon saw the criminal justice system in 1960, the problem was not with “the so-called criminal population”72 but with society, whose “need to punish” was a “primitive urge” that was “highly irrational”73—indeed, a “deep childish fear that with any reduction of punishment, multitudes would run amuck.”74 It was this “vindictiveness,” this “irrationality” of “notions and practices regarding punishment”75 that had to be corrected. The criminal “is like us, only somewhat weaker,” according to Judge Bazelon, and “needs help if he is going to bring out the good in himself and restrain the bad.”76 Society is indeed guilty of “creating this special class of human beings,” by its “social failure” for which “the criminal serves as a scapegoat.”77 Punishment is itself a “dehumanizing process” and a “social branding” which only promotes more crime.78 Since criminals “have a special problem and need special help,” Judge Bazelon argued for “psychiatric treatment” with “new, more sophisticated techniques” and asked: Would it really be the end of the world if all jails were turned into hospitals or rehabilitation centers?79 ~ Thomas Sowell,
1257:American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation. The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new. •  •  • When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again. The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn’t in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1258:This is an empirical claim: Look closely enough at your own mind in the present moment, and you will discover that the self is an illusion. The problem with a claim of this kind, however, is that one can’t borrow another person’s contemplative tools to test it. To see how the feeling of “I” is a product of thought—indeed, to even appreciate how distracted by thought you tend to be in the first place—you have to build your own contemplative tools. Unfortunately, this leads many people to dismiss the project out of hand: They look inside, notice nothing of interest, and conclude that introspection is a dead end. But just imagine where astronomy would be if, centuries after Galileo, a person were still obliged to build his own telescope before he could even judge whether astronomy was a legitimate field of inquiry. It wouldn’t make the sky any less worthy of investigation, but astronomy’s development as a science would become immensely more difficult. A few pharmacological shortcuts exist—and I discuss some of them in a later chapter—but generally speaking, we must build our own telescopes to judge the empirical claims of contemplatives. Judging their metaphysical claims is another matter; many of them can be dismissed as bad science or bad philosophy after merely thinking about them. But to determine whether certain experiences are possible—and if possible, desirable—and to see how these states of mind relate to the conventional sense of self, we have to be able to use our attention in the requisite ways. Primarily, that means learning to recognize thoughts as thoughts—as transient appearances in consciousness—and to no longer be distracted by them, if only for short periods of time. This may sound simple enough, but actually accomplishing it can take a lot of work. Unfortunately, it is not work that the Western intellectual tradition knows much about. LOST ~ Sam Harris,
1259:There is a tendency for people affected by this epidemic to police each other or prescribe what the most important gestures would be for dealing with this experience of loss. I resent that. At the same time, I worry that friends will slowly become professional pallbearers, waiting for each death of their lovers, friends, and neighbors, and polishing their funeral speeches; perfecting their rituals of death rather than a relatively simple ritual of life such as screaming in the streets. I worry because of the urgency of the situations, because of seeing death coming in from the edges of abstraction where those with the luxury of time have cast it. I imagine what it would be like if friends had a demonstration each time a lover or a friend or a stranger died of AIDS. I imagine what it would be like if, each time a lover, friend or stranger died of this disease, their friends, lovers or neighbors would take the dead body and drive with it in a car a hundred miles an hour to washington d.c. and blast through the gates of the white house and come to a screeching halt before the entrance and dump their lifeless form on the front steps. It would be comforting to see those friends, neighbors, lovers and strangers mark time and place and history in such a public way.

But, bottom line, this is my own feelings of urgency and need; bottom line, emotionally, even a tiny charcoal scratching done as a gesture to mark a person's response to this epidemic means whole worlds to me if it is hung in public; bottom line, each and every gesture carries a reverberation that is meaningful in its diversity; bottom line, we have to find our own forms of gesture and communication. You can never depend on the mass media to reflect us or our needs or our states of mind; bottom line, with enough gestures we can deafen the satellites and lift the curtains surrounding the control room. ~ David Wojnarowicz,
1260:Some of us are confused by children’s needs for both dependency and independence, and instead of listening to them, we impatiently hurry them along. In an article on dependency in Mothering, a parenting magazine I respect, Peggy O’Mara, the editor, wrote, We have a cultural bias against dependency, against any emotion or behavior that indicates weakness. This is nowhere more tragically evident than in the way we push our children beyond their limitations and timetables. We establish outside standards as more important than inner experience when we wean our children rather than trusting that they will wean themselves, when we insist that our children sit at the table and finish their meals rather than trusting that they will eat well if healthful food is provided on a regular basis, and when we toilet train them at an early age rather than trusting that they will learn to use the toilet when they are ready to do so. It is the nature of the child to be dependent and it is the nature of dependence to be outgrown. Dependency, insecurity, and weakness are natural states for a child. They’re the natural states of all of us at times, but for children, especially young ones, they are predominant conditions and they are outgrown. Just as we grow from crawling to walking, from babbling to talking, from puberty into sexuality, as humans we move from weakness to strength, from uncertainty to mastery. When we refuse to acknowledge the stages prior to mastery, we teach our children to hate and distrust their weaknesses, and we start them on a journey of a lifetime of conflict, conflict with themselves, using external standards to set up an inner duality, a conflict between what is immediately their experience and how they’re supposed to be. Begrudging dependency because it is not independence is like begrudging winter because it is not yet spring. Dependency blossoms into independence in its own sweet time. ~ Jack Kornfield,
1261:Twenty percent of Americans describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Although the claim seems to annoy believers and atheists equally, separating spirituality from religion is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It is to assert two important truths simultaneously: Our world is dangerously riven by religious doctrines that all educated people should condemn, and yet there is more to understanding the human condition than science and secular culture generally admit. One purpose of this book is to give both these convictions intellectual and empirical support.

Before going any further, I should address the animosity that many readers feel toward the term spiritual. Whenever I use the word, as in referring to meditation as a “spiritual practice,” I hear from fellow skeptics and atheists who think that I have committed a grievous error.
The word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, which is a translation of the Greek pneuma, meaning “breath.” Around the thirteenth century, the term became entangled with beliefs about immaterial souls, supernatural beings, ghosts, and so forth. It acquired other meanings as well: We speak of the spirit of a thing as its most essential principle or of certain volatile substances and liquors as spirits. Nevertheless, many nonbelievers now consider all things “spiritual” to be contaminated by medieval superstition.

I do not share their semantic concerns.[1] Yes, to walk the aisles of any “spiritual” bookstore is to confront the yearning and credulity of our species by the yard, but there is no other term—apart from the even more problematic mystical or the more restrictive contemplative—with which to discuss the efforts people make, through meditation, psychedelics, or other means, to fully bring their minds into the present or to induce nonordinary states of consciousness. And no other word links this spectrum of experience to our ethical lives. ~ Sam Harris,
1262:The New Cry
Ere cherries ripe, and strawberries be gone;
Unto the cries of London I'll add one;
Ripe statesmen, ripe: they grow in ev'ry street;
At six-and-twenty, ripe. You shall 'em meet,
And have him yield no favour, but of state.
Ripe are their ruffs, their cuffs, their beards, their gate,
And grave as ripe, like mellow as their faces.
They know the states of Christendom, not the places:
Yet have they seen the maps, and bought 'em too,
And understand 'em, as most chapmen do.
The counsels, projects, practices they know,
And what each prince doth for intelligence owe,
And unto whom; they are the almanacks
For twelve years yet to come, what each state lacks.
They carry in their pockets Tacitus,
And the Gazetti, or Gallo-Belgicus:
And talk reserv'd, lock'd up, and full of fear;
Nay, ask you how the day goes, in your ear.
Keep a Star-chamber sentence close twelve days:
And whisper what a Proclamation says.
They meet in sixes, and at ev'ry mart,
Are sure to con the catalogue by heart;
Or ev'ry day, some one at Rimee's looks,
Or bills, and there he buys the name of books.
They all get Porta, for the sundry ways
To write in cypher, and the several keys,
To ope the character. They've found the slight
With juice of lemons, onions, piss, to write;
To break up seals and close 'em. And they know,
If the states make peace, how it will go
With England. All forbidden books they get,
And of the powder-plot, they will talk yet.
At naming the French king, their heads they shake,
And at the Pope, and Spain, slight faces make.
Or 'gainst the bishops, for the brethren rail
Much like those brethren; thinking to prevail
With ignorance on us, as they have done
On them: and therefore do not only shun
Others more modest, but contemn us too,
110
That know not so much state, wrong, as they do.
~ Ben Jonson,
1263:Fear is one of the persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited. There is nothing new or recent about fear—it is doubtless as old as the life of man on the planet. Fears are of many kinds—fear of objects, fear of people, fear of the future, fear of nature, fear of the unknown, fear of old age, fear of disease, and fear of life itself. Then there is fear which has to do with aspects of experience and detailed states of mind.

Our homes, institutions, prisons, churches, are crowded with people who are hounded by day and harrowed by night because of some fear that lurks ready to spring into action as soon as one is alone, or as soon as the lights go out, or as soon as one’s social defenses are temporarily removed.

The ever-present fear that besets the vast poor, the economically and socially insecure, is a fear of still a different breed. It is a climate closing in; it is like the fog in San Francisco or in London. It is nowhere in particular yet everywhere. It is a mood which one carries around with himself, distilled from the acrid conflict with which his days are surrounded. It has its roots deep in the heart of the relations between the weak and the strong, between the controllers of environment and those who are controlled by it.

When the basis of such fear is analyzed, it is clear that it arises out of the sense of isolation and helplessness in the face of the varied dimensions of violence to which the underprivileged are exposed. Violence, precipitate and stark, is the sire of the fear of such people. It is spawned by the perpetual threat of violence everywhere. Of course, physical violence is the most obvious cause. But here, it is important to point out, a particular kind of physical violence or its counterpart is evidenced; it is violence that is devoid of the element of contest. It is what is feared by the rabbit that cannot ultimately escape the hounds. ~ Howard Thurman,
1264:Anthony’s current wealth is 1 million. Betty’s current wealth is 4 million. They are both offered a choice between a gamble and a sure thing. The gamble: equal chances to end up owning 1 million or 4 million OR The sure thing: own 2 million for sure In Bernoulli’s account, Anthony and Betty face the same choice: their expected wealth will be 2.5 million if they take the gamble and 2 million if they prefer the sure-thing option. Bernoulli would therefore expect Anthony and Betty to make the same choice, but this prediction is incorrect. Here again, the theory fails because it does not allow for the different reference points from which Anthony and Betty consider their options. If you imagine yourself in Anthony’s and Betty’s shoes, you will quickly see that current wealth matters a great deal. Here is how they may think: Anthony (who currently owns 1 million): “If I choose the sure thing, my wealth will double with certainty. This is very attractive. Alternatively, I can take a gamble with equal chances to quadruple my wealth or to gain nothing.” Betty (who currently owns 4 million): “If I choose the sure thing, I lose half of my wealth with certainty, which is awful. Alternatively, I can take a gamble with equal chances to lose three-quarters of my wealth or to lose nothing.” You can sense that Anthony and Betty are likely to make different choices because the sure-thing option of owning 2 million makes Anthony happy and makes Betty miserable. Note also how the sure outcome differs from the worst outcome of the gamble: for Anthony, it is the difference between doubling his wealth and gaining nothing; for Betty, it is the difference between losing half her wealth and losing three-quarters of it. Betty is much more likely to take her chances, as others do when faced with very bad options. As I have told their story, neither Anthony nor Betty thinks in terms of states of wealth: Anthony thinks of gains and Betty thinks of losses. The psychological outcomes they assess are entirely different, although the possible states of wealth they face are the same. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1265:One needed reform, and the eighth proposal in my ten-point blueprint, is to address declining voter participation by making voting mandatory. Established democracies, according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, have seen “a slow but steady decline in turnout since the 1970s.”8 In November 2014, only 36 percent of eligible voters in the United States cast a vote—the lowest turnout in more than seventy years. And while estimates show more than 58 percent of eligible voters voted in the 2016 US presidential election, turnout was down from 2008 (when it was 62 percent). Since 1900, the percentage of voters voting in US presidential elections has scarcely gone above 60 percent. Many of the world’s countries whose turnout rates are highest—including Australia, Singapore, Belgium, and Liechtenstein, where the 93 percent turnout rate is the highest in Western Europe—enforce compulsory voting laws. As of August 2016, of the thirty-five member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), five had forms of compulsory voting. In those countries, turnout rates were near 100 percent. There are more than twenty countries where voting is compulsory, including Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, and Singapore. In Australia, voter turnout is usually around 90 percent. A more direct comparison within the European Union member states reveals remarkable turnouts from states where voting is mandatory, with 89.6 percent in Belgium and 85.6 percent in Luxembourg. For the sake of comparison, voter turnout was only 42.4 percent in France, 43.8 percent in Spain, and a mere 35.6 percent in the United Kingdom.9 Most often, compulsory voting is enforced through fines on those who don’t vote. Typically these fines are relatively small; in Australia it is AUD 20 the first time you don’t vote and have no good reason, and AUD 50 afterward, while it ranges from 10 to 20 pesos in Argentina.10 Many times, the penalty amounts to little more than a symbolic slap on the wrist. ~ Dambisa Moyo,
1266:We ought to recognize the darkness of the culture of death when it shows up in our own voices. I am startled when I hear those who claim the name of Christ, and who loudly profess to be pro-life, speaking of immigrants with disdain as “those people” who are “draining our health care and welfare resources.” Can we not see the same dehumanizing strategies at work in the abortion-rights activism that speaks of the “product of conception” and the angry nativism that calls the child of an immigrant mother an “anchor baby”? At root, this is a failure to see who we are. We are united to a Christ who was himself a sojourner, fleeing political oppression (Matt. 2:13–23), and our ancestors in Israel were themselves a migrant people (Exod. 1:1–14; 1 Chron. 16:19; Acts. 7:6). Moreover, our God sees the plight of the fatherless and the blood of the innocent, but he also tells us that because he loves the sojourner and cares for him so should we, “for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:18–19). We might disagree on the basis of prudence about what specific policies should be in place to balance border security with compassion for the immigrants among us, but a pro-life people have no option to respond with loathing or disgust at persons made in the image of God. We might or might not be natural-born Americans, but we are, all of us, immigrants to the kingdom of God (Eph. 2:12–14). Whatever our disagreements on immigration as policy, we must not disagree on whether immigrants are persons. No matter how important the United States of America is, there will come a day when the United States will no longer exist. But the sons and daughters of God will be revealed. Some of them are undocumented farm-workers and elementary-school janitors now. They will be kings and queens then. They are our brothers and sisters forever. We need to stand up against bigotry and harassment and exploitation, even when such could be politically profitable to those who stand with us on other issues. The image of God cannot be bartered away, at the abortion clinic counter or anywhere else. ~ Russell D Moore,
1267:The mystic knows that the essence of prayer is the hidden secret, “I am He whom I love, He whom I love is me.” In the deepest prayer of the heart there is only oneness, for when the heart is open and looks towards God, He reveals His unity. In this state of prayer there are a merging and melting that transcend the mind and its notions of duality: the heart overwhelms us with His presence which obliterates any sense of our own self.
These moments of prayer are moments of union in which the lover is lost. The lover has stepped from the shore of his own being into the limitless ocean of the Beloved.
(...)

When love reveals its real nature we come to know that there is neither lover nor Beloved. There is no one to pray and no one to pray to. We do not even know that we are lost; we return from these states of merging only knowing that we gave ourself and were taken. Our gift of ourself was accepted so completely that we knew nothing. We looked towards Him and He took us in His arms, embraced us in oneness, dissolved us in nearness. For so many years we cried to Him, we called to Him, and when He came the meeting was so intimate that we knew nothing.

But when we return from this merging of oneness,
when the mind again surrounds us, we can see the footprints that led us to this shore, to the place where the two worlds meet. We can tell stories of the journey that led us to the edge of the heart’s infinite ocean, of the nights we called to Him, and the tears we cried in our calling. For so many years our need was all that we knew, a need born of the despair of separation, the deepest despair known to the soul.

This need was our first prayer, planted in the soul by Him who loves us, who wants us for Himself. This need of the soul is the bond of love, the mystic’s pledge to remember Him. The awakening of this remembrance is the knowledge of our forgetfulness, the knowledge of separation. The lover is made to know that she is separate from her Beloved, that she has forgotten Him. Awakening to this knowledge, the lover brings into consciousness the soul’s need to return Home, to journey from separation to union. ~ Llewellyn Vaughan Lee,
1268:What finally turned me back toward the older traditions of my own [Chickasaw] and other Native peoples was the inhumanity of the Western world, the places--both inside and out--where the culture's knowledge and language don't go, and the despair, even desperation, it has spawned. We live, I see now, by different stories, the Western mind and the indigenous. In the older, more mature cultures where people still live within the kinship circles of animals and human beings there is a connection with animals, not only as food, but as 'powers,' a word which can be taken to mean states of being, gifts, or capabilities.

I've found, too, that the ancient intellectual traditions are not merely about belief, as some would say. Belief is not a strong enough word. They are more than that: They are part of lived experience, the on-going experience of people rooted in centuries-old knowledge that is held deep and strong, knowledge about the natural laws of Earth, from the beginning of creation, and the magnificent terrestrial intelligence still at work, an intelligence now newly called ecology by the Western science that tells us what our oldest tribal stories maintain--the human animal is a relatively new creation here; animal and plant presences were here before us; and we are truly the younger sisters and brothers of the other animal species, not quite as well developed as we thought we were. It is through our relationships with animals and plants that we maintain a way of living, a cultural ethics shaped from an ancient understanding of the world, and this is remembered in stories that are the deepest reflections of our shared lives on Earth.

That we held, and still hold, treaties with the animals and plant species is a known part of tribal culture. The relationship between human people and animals is still alive and resonant in the world, the ancient tellings carried on by a constellation of stories, songs, and ceremonies, all shaped by lived knowledge of the world and its many interwoven, unending relationships. These stories and ceremonies keep open the bridge between one kind of intelligence and another, one species and another.

(from her essay "First People") ~ Linda Hogan,
1269:I stick to the road out of habit, but it’s a bad choice, because it’s full of the remains of those who tried to flee. Some were incinerated entirely. But others, probably overcome with smoke, escaped the worst of the flames and now lie reeking in various states of decomposition, carrion for scavengers, blanketed by flies. I killed you, I think as I pass a pile. And you. And you. Because I did. It was my arrow, aimed at the chink in the force field surrounding the arena, that brought on this firestorm of retribution. That sent the whole country of Panem into chaos. In my head I hear President Snow’s words, spoken the morning I was to begin the Victory Tour. “Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem.” It turns out he wasn’t exaggerating or simply trying to scare me. He was, perhaps, genuinely attempting to enlist my help. But I had already set something in motion that I had no ability to control. Burning. Still burning, I think numbly. The fires at the coal mines belch black smoke in the distance. There’s no one left to care, though. More than ninety percent of the district’s population is dead. The remaining eight hundred or so are refugees in District 13 — which, as far as I’m concerned, is the same thing as being homeless forever. I know I shouldn’t think that; I know I should be grateful for the way we have been welcomed. Sick, wounded, starving, and empty-handed. Still, I can never get around the fact that District 13 was instrumental in 12’s destruction. This doesn’t absolve me of blame — there’s plenty of blame to go around. But without them, I would not have been part of a larger plot to overthrow the Capitol or had the wherewithal to do it. The citizens of District 12 had no organized resistance movement of their own. No say in any of this. They only had the misfortune to have me. Some survivors think it’s good luck, though, to be free of District 12 at last. To have escaped the endless hunger and oppression, the perilous mines, the lash of our final Head Peacekeeper, Romulus Thread. To have a new home at all is seen as a wonder since, up until a short time ago, we hadn’t even known that District 13 still existed. ~ Suzanne Collins,
1270:Amongst human beings the state of the case is as follows: There exist all sorts of intermediate conditions between male and female — sexual transitional forms. In physical inquiries an ideal gas is assumed, that is to say, a gas, the behaviour of which follows the law of Boyle-Guy-Lussac exactly, although, in fact, no such gas exists, and laws are deduced from this so that the deviations from the ideal laws may be established in the case of actually existing gases. In the same fashion we may suppose the existence of an ideal man, M, and of an ideal woman, W, as sexual types although these types do not actually exist. Such types not only can be constructed, but must be constructed. As in art so in science, the real purpose is to reach the type, the Platonic Idea. The science of physics investigates the behaviour of bodies that are absolutely rigid or absolutely elastic, in the full knowledge that neither the one nor the other actually exists. The intermediate conditions actually existing between the two absolute states of matter serve merely as a starting-point for investigation of the types and in the practical application of the theory are treated as mixtures and exhaustively analysed. So also there exist only the intermediate stages between absolute males and females, the absolute conditions never presenting themselves.

Let it be noted clearly that I am discussing the existence not merely of embryonic sexual neutrality, but of a permanent bisexual condition. Nor am I taking into consideration merely those intermediate sexual conditions, those bodily or psychical hermaphrodites upon which, up to the present, attention has been concentrated. In another respect my conception is new. Until now, in dealing with sexual intermediates, only hermaphrodites were considered; as if, to use a physical analogy, there were in between the two extremes a single group of intermediate forms, and not an intervening tract equally beset with stages in different degrees of transition.

The fact is that males and females are like two substances combined in different proportions, but with either element never wholly missing. We find, so to speak, never either a man or a woman, but only the male condition and the female condition. ~ Otto Weininger,
1271:Question 2: How Do You Want to Grow? When you watch how young children soak up information, you realize how deeply wired we are to learn and grow. Personal growth can and should happen throughout life, not just when we’re children. In this section, you’re essentially asking yourself: In order to have the experiences above, how do I have to grow? What sort of man or woman do I need to evolve into? Notice how this question ties to the previous one? Now, consider these four categories from the Twelve Areas of Balance: 5.​YOUR HEALTH AND FITNESS. Describe how you want to feel and look every day. What about five, ten, or twenty years from now? What eating and fitness systems would you like to have? What health or fitness systems would you like to explore, not because you think you ought to but because you’re curious and want to? Are there fitness goals you’d like to achieve purely for the thrill of knowing you accomplished them (whether it’s hiking a mountain, learning to tap dance, or getting in a routine of going to the gym)? 6.​YOUR INTELLECTUAL LIFE. What do you need to learn in order to have the experiences you listed above? What would you love to learn? What books and movies would stretch your mind and tastes? What kinds of art, music, or theater would you like to know more about? Are there languages you want to master? Remember to focus on end goals—choosing learning opportunities where the joy is in the learning itself, and the learning is not merely a means to an end, such as a diploma. 7.​YOUR SKILLS. What skills would help you thrive at your job and would you enjoy mastering? If you’d love to switch gears professionally, what skills would it take to do that? What are some skills you want to learn just for fun? What would make you happy and proud to know how to do? If you could go back to school to learn anything you wanted just for the joy of it, what would that be? 8.​YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE. Where are you now spiritually, and where would you like to be? Would you like to move deeper into the spiritual practice you already have or try out others? What is your highest aspiration for your spiritual practice? Would you like to learn things like lucid dreaming, deep states of meditation, or ways to overcome fear, worry, or stress? ~ Vishen Lakhiani,
1272:Billy looked at the clock on the gas stove. He had an hour to kill before the saucer came. He went into the living room, swinging the bottle like a dinner bell, turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this: American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground., to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again.
The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1273:IN ADDITION TO having become a distinctly Christian party, the GOP is more than ever America’s self-consciously white party. The nationalization of its Southern Strategy from the 1960s worked partly because it rode demographic change. In 1960, 90 percent of Americans were white and non-Hispanic. Only a few states had white populations of less than 70 percent—specifically Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Alabama. Today the white majority in the whole country is down nearly to 60 percent; in other words, America’s racial makeup is now more “Southern” than the Deep South’s was in the 1960s. For a while, the party’s leaders were careful to clear their deck of explicit racism. It was reasonable, wasn’t it, to be concerned about violent crime spiraling upward from the 1960s through the ’80s? We don’t want social welfare programs to encourage cultures of poverty and dependency, do we? Although the dog-whistled resentment of new policies disfavoring or seeming to disfavor white people became more audible, Republican leaders publicly stuck to not-entirely-unreasonable arguments: affirmative action is an imperfect solution; too much multiculturalism might Balkanize America; we shouldn’t let immigrants pour into the U.S. helter-skelter. But in this century, more Republican leaders started cozying up to the ugliest fantasists, unapologetic racists. When Congressman Ron Paul ran for the 2008 GOP nomination, he appeared repeatedly with the neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, who was just coining the term “alt-right” for his movement. Senator Rand Paul employed as an aide and wrote a book with a former leader of the League of the South, an organization devoted to a twenty-first-century do-over of Confederate secession. After we elected a black president, more regular whistles joined the kind only dogs can hear. Even thoughtful Ross Douthat, one of the Times’s conservative columnists, admitted to a weakness for the Old South fantasy. During the debate about governments displaying Confederate symbols after nine black people were shot dead by a white supremacist in Charleston, he discussed “the temptation…to regard the Confederate States of America as the political and historical champion of all…attractive Southern distinctives….Even a secession-hating Yankee like myself has felt, at certain moments the pull of that idea, the lure of that fantasy. ~ Kurt Andersen,
1274:Which brings me back to Ecclesiastes, his search for happiness, and mine. I spoke in chapter 4 about my first meeting, as a student, with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. As I was waiting to go in, one of his disciples told me the following story. A man had recently written to the Rebbe on something of these lines: ‘I need the Rebbe’s help. I am deeply depressed. I pray and find no comfort. I perform the commands but feel nothing. I find it hard to carry on.’ The Rebbe, so I was told, sent a compelling reply without writing a single word. He simply ringed the first word in every sentence of the letter: the word ‘I’. It was, he was hinting, the man’s self-preoccupation that was at the root of his depression. It was as if the Rebbe were saying, as Viktor Frankl used to say in the name of Kierkegaard, ‘The door to happiness opens outward.’23 It was this insight that helped me solve the riddle of Ecclesiastes. The word ‘I’ does not appear very often in the Hebrew Bible, but it dominates Ecclesiastes’ opening chapters. I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. (Ecclesiastes 2:4–8) Nowhere else in the Bible is the first-person singular used so relentlessly and repetitively. In the original Hebrew the effect is doubled because of the chiming of the verbal suffix and the pronoun: Baniti li, asiti li, kaniti li, ‘I built for myself, I made for myself, I bought for myself.’ The source of Ecclesiastes’ unhappiness is obvious and was spelled out many centuries later by the great sage Hillel: ‘If I am not for myself, who will be? But if I am only for myself, what am I?’24 Happiness in the Bible is not something we find in self-gratification. Hence the significance of the word simchah. I translated it earlier as ‘joy’, but really it has no precise translation into English, since all our emotion words refer to states of mind we can experience alone. Simchah is something we cannot experience alone. Simchah is joy shared. ~ Jonathan Sacks,
1275:Addressing this doubt, in order to explain the mind, it is taught: || citir eva cetana-padād avarūḍhā cetya-saṅkocinī cittam || 5 || Awareness (citi) itself, descending from its state of pure consciousness (cetana), becomes contracted by the object perceived: this is [called] the mind (citta). Far from teaching an absolute distinction of divine spirit and mundane matter, Tantra teaches that they are in fact different phases of one thing, i.e., Awareness. Take the example of h2o: in one phase, we call it steam, in another, water, in another, ice. These three states are very different from one another, and we necessarily interact with each of them in very different ways. This is a perfect analogy for what Kṣemarāja intends here: there are three different states or phases of one ‘thing’—in one state, we call it God, in another, pure consciousness, in another, the mind. The implications of this are of course huge. First, though, let’s explore the specific three terms that Kṣemarāja is using here for these three states of the One. First we have citi, introduced in the first sūtra, which we translate (imperfectly) as Awareness. Citi (pronounced CHIT-ee) is the state in which Awareness is fully expanded, that is to say, untouched by any trace of contraction, including that of subjectivity or selfhood. In other words, there is no concealment whatsoever operative on the citi level (not that it’s really a level, of course). When citi manifests as an individuated subject, then that is the phase called cetana, here translated as ‘pure consciousness’. We have to define this second phase, cetana, more carefully so that we don’t confuse it with the third phase (the mind). Cetana (CHAY-tuh-nuh) is the state of being the conscious knower or agent of consciousness. We experience cetana in the space between trains of thought, a space of awareness momentarily devoid of thought-forms (vikalpas). That’s why I translate it as ‘pure consciousness’. We experience it dozens of times a day, but usually only for a second, and usually without the reflective self-awareness (vimarśa) by which we can know that we are experiencing cetana. (This ‘knowing’, when it does occur, does not take the form of a thought, or else it is no longer the cetana state.) The cetana state is open and expansive awareness; in fact, it is as expanded as awareness can be while still having a subtle ‘sense of self’. ~ Christopher D Wallis,
1276:If Samkhya-Yoga philosophy does not explain the reason and origin of the strange partnership between the spirit and experience, at least tries to explain the nature of their association, to define the character of their mutual relations. These are not real relationships, in the true sense of the word, such as exist for example between external objects and perceptions. The true relations imply, in effect, change and plurality, however, here we have some rules essentially opposed to the nature of spirit.
“States of consciousness” are only products of prakriti and can have no kind of relation with Spirit the latter, by its very essence, being above all experience. However and for SamPhya and Yoga this is the key to the paradoxical situation the most subtle, most transparent part of mental life, that is, intelligence (buddhi) in its mode of pure luminosity (sattva), has a specific quality that of reflecting Spirit. Comprehension of the external world is possible only by virtue of this reflection of purusha in intelligence. But the Self is not corrupted by this reflection and does not lose its ontological modalities (impassibility, eternity, etc.). The Yoga-sutras (II, 20) say in substance: seeing (drashtri; i.e., purusha) is absolute consciousness (“sight par excellence”) and, while remaining pure, it knows cognitions (it “looks at the ideas that are presented to it”). Vyasa interprets: Spirit is reflected in intelligence (buddhi), but is neither like it nor different from it. It is not like intelligence because intelligence is modified by knowledge of objects, which knowledge is ever-changing whereas purusha commands uninterrupted knowledge, in some sort it is knowledge. On the other hand, purusha is not completely different from buddhi, for, although it is pure, it knows knowledge. Patanjali employs a different image to define the relationship between Spirit and intelligence: just as a flower is reflected in a crystal, intelligence reflects purusha. But only ignorance can attribute to the crystal the qualities of the flower (form, dimensions, colors). When the object (the flower) moves, its image moves in the crystal, though the latter remains motionless. It is an illusion to believe that Spirit is dynamic because mental experience is so. In reality, there is here only an illusory relation (upadhi) owing to a “sympathetic correspondence” (yogyata) between the Self and intelligence. ~ Mircea Eliade,
1277:Karmic Cause and Effect It is very important to contemplate the connection between our mental states and our actions. Our karmic patterns are formed and sustained by the intentional actions of the “three gates” of body, speech, and mind—everything we do, say, or think with volitional intention. Our actions and reactions form the cause and effect of action (Skt. karma; Tib. las) that in turn determines the kinds of experiences we have. As such, our mind has the potential to transport us to elevated states of existence or to plunge us into demeaning states of confusion and anguish. Our actions are not like footprints left on water; they leave imprints in our minds, the consequences of which will invariably manifest unless we can somehow nullify them. As the thirteenth Karmapa, Dudul Dorje (1733–97) states: In the empty dwelling place of confusion, Desire is unchanging, marked on the mind Like an etching on rock.13 The thoughts and emotions we experience and the attitudes and beliefs we hold all help to mold our character and dispositions and the kind of people we become. Conditioned existence is characterized by delusions, defilements, confusions, and disturbances of all kinds. We have to ask ourselves why we experience so much pain, while our pleasures are so ephemeral and transient. The answer is that these are the karmic fruits of our negative actions (Skt. papa-karma; Tib. sdig pa’i las). Jamgön Kongtrül says: The result of wholesome action is happiness; the result of unwholesome action is suffering, and nothing else. These results are not interchangeable: when you plant buckwheat, you get buckwheat; when you plant barley, you get barley.14 This cycle of cause and effect continues relentlessly, unless we embark on a virtuous spiritual path and learn to reverse this process by performing wholesome actions (Skt. kusala-karma; Tib. dge ba’i las). It is our intentions that determine whether an action is wholesome or unwholesome, and therefore it is our intentions that will dictate the quality of our future experiences. We have to think of karmic cause and effect in the following terms: “My current suffering is due to the negative actions, attitudes, thoughts, and emotions I performed in the past, and whatever I think, say, and do now will determine what I experience and become in the future. So from now on, I will contemplate the truth of karma, and pursue my spiritual practices with enthusiasm and positive intentions. ~ Traleg Kyabgon,
1278:If Mamaw's second God was the United States of America, then many people in my community were losing something akin to a religion. The tie that bound them to the neighbors, that inspired them in the way my patriotism had always inspired me, had seemingly vanished.

The symptoms are all around us. Significant percentages of white conservative voters--about one-third--believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim. In one poll, 32 percent of conservatives said that they believed Obama was foreign-born and another 19 percent said they were unsure--which means that a majority of white conservatives aren't certain that Obama is even an American. I regularly hear from acquaintances or distant family members that Obama has ties to Islamic extremists, or is a traitor, or was born in some far-flung corner of the world.

Many of my new friends blame racism for this perception of the president. But the president feels like an alien to many Middletonians for reasons that have nothing to do with skin color. Recall that not a single one of my high school classmates attended an Ivy League school. Barack Obama attended two of them and excelled at both. He is brilliant, wealthy, and speaks like a constitutional law professor--which, of course, he is. Nothing about him bears any resemblance to the people I admired growing up; His accent--clean, perfect, neutral--is foreign; his credentials are so impressive that they're frightening; he made his life in Chicago, a dense metropolis; and he conducts himself with a confidence that comes from knowing that the modern American meritocracy was built for him. Of course, Obama overcame adversity in his own right--adversity familiar to many of us--but that was long before any of us knew him.

President Obama came on the scene right as so many people in my community began to believe that the modern American meritocracy was not built for them. We know we're not doing well. We see it every day: in the obituaries for teenage kids that conspicuously omit the cause of death (reading between the lines: overdose), in the deadbeats we watch our daughters waste their time with. Barack Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities. He is a good father while many of us aren't. He wears suits to his job while we wear overalls, if we're lucky enough to have a job at all. His wife tells us that we shouldn't be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it--not because we think she's wrong, but because we know she's right. ~ J D Vance,
1279:A lot of the nonsense was the innocent result of playfulness on the part of the founding fathers of the nation of Dwayne Hoover and Kilgore Trout. The founders were aristocrats, and they wished to show off their useless eduction, which consisted of the study of hocus-pocus from ancient times. They were bum poets as well.

But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crime. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy:

1492

The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.

Here was another piece of nonsense which children were taught: that the sea pirates eventually created a government which became a beacon of freedom of human beings everywhere else. There were pictures and statues of this supposed imaginary beacon for children to see. It was sort of ice-cream cone on fire. It looked like this:

[image]

Actually, the sea pirates who had the most to do with the creation of the new government owned human slaves. They used human beings for machinery, and, even after slavery was eliminated, because it was so embarrassing, they and their descendants continued to think of ordinary human beings as machines.

The sea pirates were white. The people who were already on the continent when the pirates arrived were copper-colored. When slavery was introduced onto the continent, the slaves were black.

Color was everything.

Here is how the pirates were able to take whatever they wanted from anybody else: they had the best boats in the world, and they were meaner than anybody else, and they had gunpowder, which is a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulphur. They touched the seemingly listless powder with fire, and it turned violently into gas. This gas blew projectiles out of metal tubes at terrific velocities. The projectiles cut through meat and bone very easily; so the pirates could wreck the wiring or the bellows or the plumbing of a stubborn human being, even when he was far, far away.

The chief weapon of the sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it was much too late, how heartless and greedy they were. ~ Kurt Vonnegut,
1280:I feel to that the gap between my new life in New York and the situation at home in Africa is stretching into a gulf, as Zimbabwe spirals downwards into a violent dictatorship. My head bulges with the effort to contain both worlds. When I am back in New York, Africa immediately seems fantastical – a wildly plumaged bird, as exotic as it is unlikely.

Most of us struggle in life to maintain the illusion of control, but in Africa that illusion is almost impossible to maintain. I always have the sense there that there is no equilibrium, that everything perpetually teeters on the brink of some dramatic change, that society constantly stands poised for some spasm, some tsunami in which you can do nothing but hope to bob up to the surface and not be sucked out into a dark and hungry sea. The origin of my permanent sense of unease, my general foreboding, is probably the fact that I have lived through just such change, such a sudden and violent upending of value systems.

In my part of Africa, death is never far away. With more Zimbabweans dying in their early thirties now, mortality has a seat at every table. The urgent, tugging winds themselves seem to whisper the message, memento mori, you too shall die. In Africa, you do not view death from the auditorium of life, as a spectator, but from the edge of the stage, waiting only for your cue. You feel perishable, temporary, transient. You feel mortal.

Maybe that is why you seem to live more vividly in Africa. The drama of life there is amplified by its constant proximity to death. That’s what infuses it with tension. It is the essence of its tragedy too. People love harder there. Love is the way that life forgets that it is terminal. Love is life’s alibi in the face of death.

For me, the illusion of control is much easier to maintain in England or America. In this temperate world, I feel more secure, as if change will only happen incrementally, in manageable, finely calibrated, bite-sized portions. There is a sense of continuity threaded through it all: the anchor of history, the tangible presence of antiquity, of buildings, of institutions. You live in the expectation of reaching old age.

At least you used to.

But on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, those two states of mind converge. Suddenly it feels like I am back in Africa, where things can be taken away from you at random, in a single violent stroke, as quick as the whip of a snake’s head. Where tumult is raised with an abruptness that is as breathtaking as the violence itself. ~ Peter Godwin,
1281:I feel to that the gap between my new life in New York and the situation at home in Africa is stretching into a gulf, as Zimbabwe spirals downwards into a violent dictatorship. My head bulges with the effort to contain both worlds. When I am back in New York, Africa immediately seems fantastical – a wildly plumaged bird, as exotic as it is unlikely.

Most of us struggle in life to maintain the illusion of control, but in Africa that illusion is almost impossible to maintain. I always have the sense there that there is no equilibrium, that everything perpetually teeters on the brink of some dramatic change, that society constantly stands poised for some spasm, some tsunami in which you can do nothing but hope to bob up to the surface and not be sucked out into a dark and hungry sea. The origin of my permanent sense of unease, my general foreboding, is probably the fact that I have lived through just such change, such a sudden and violent upending of value systems.

In my part of Africa, death is never far away. With more Zimbabweans dying in their early thirties now, mortality has a seat at every table. The urgent, tugging winds themselves seem to whisper the message, memento mori, you too shall die. In Africa, you do not view death from the auditorium of life, as a spectator, but from the edge of the stage, waiting only for your cue. You feel perishable, temporary, transient. You feel mortal.

Maybe that is why you seem to live more vividly in Africa. The drama of life there is amplified by its constant proximity to death. That’s what infuses it with tension. It is the essence of its tragedy too. People love harder there. Love is the way that life forgets that it is terminal. Love is life’s alibi in the face of death.

For me, the illusion of control is much easier to maintain in England or America. In this temperate world, I feel more secure, as if change will only happen incrementally, in manageable, finely calibrated, bite-sized portions. There is a sense of continuity threaded through it all: the anchor of history, the tangible presence of antiquity, of buildings, of institutions. You live in the expectation of reaching old age.

At least you used to.

But on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, those two states of mind converge. Suddenly it feels like I am back in Africa, where things can be taken away from you at random, in a single violent stroke, as quick as the whip of a snake’s head. Where tumult is raised with an abruptness that is as breathtaking as the violence itself. ~ Peter Godwin,
1282:Why do we forget things?

   Ah! I suppose there are several reasons. First, because one makes use of the memory to remember. Memory is a mental instrument and depends on the formation of the brain. Your brain is constantly growing, unless it begins to degenerate, but still its growth can continue for a very, very long time, much longer than that of the body. And in this growth, necessarily some things will take the place of others. And as the mental instrument develops, things which have served their term or the transitory moment in the development may be wiped out to give place to the result. So the result of all that you knew is there, living in itself, but the road traversed to reach it may be completely blurred. That is, a good functioning of the memory means remembering only the results so as to be able to have the elements for moving forward and a new construction. That is more important than just retaining things rigidly in the mind.
   Now, there is another aspect also. Apart from the mental memory, which is something defective, there are states of consciousness. Each state of consciousness in which one happens to be registers the phenomena of a particular moment, whatever they may be. If your consciousness remains limpid, wide and strong, you can at any moment whatsoever, by concentrating, call into the active consciousness what you did, thought, saw, observed at any time before; all this you can remember by bringing up in yourself the same state of consciousness. And that, that is never forgotten. You could live a thousand years and you would still remember it. Consequently, if you don't want to forget, it must be your consciousness which remembers and not your mental memory. Your mental memory will be wiped out inevitably, get blurred, and new things will take the place of the old ones. But things of which you are conscious you do not forget. You have only to bring up the same state of consciousness again. And thus one can remember circumstances one has lived thousands of years ago, if one knows how to bring up the same state of consciousness. It is in this way that one can remember one's past lives. This never gets blotted out, while you don't have any more the memory of what you have done physically when you were very young. You would be told many things you no longer remember. That gets wiped off immediately. For the brain is constantly changing and certain weaker cells are replaced by others which are much stronger, and by other combinations, other cerebral organisations. And so, what was there before is effaced or deformed.
   ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,
1283:If democracy seems to work, and if people receive a consistent, reliable, and meaningful response from others when they communicate their opinions and feelings about shared experiences, they begin to assume that self-expression in democracy matters. When they can communicate with others regularly, in ways that produce meaningful changes, they learn that democracy matters. If they receive responses that seem to be substantive but actually are not, citizens begin to feel as if they were being manipulated. If the messages they receive from the media feed this growing cynicism, the decline of democracy can be accelerated. Moreover, if citizens of a country express their opinions and feelings over an extended period of time without evoking a meaningful response, then they naturally begin to feel angry. If the flow of communication provides little opportunity for citizens to express themselves meaningfully, they naturally begin to feel frustration and powerlessness. This has happened all too often to minority communities who suffer prejudice and are not given a fair hearing by the majority for complaints. My generation learned in our youth to expect that democracy would work. Our frustration with the ineptitude and moral insensitivity of our national leaders in the last several years is balanced by the knowledge we gained in an earlier time and is influenced by the basic posture we adopted during our first experiences as citizens. Although many in my generation became disillusioned with self-government, most of us still believe that democracy works—or can work—and that communication and participation are the keys to making it work well. In the United States of America, the torch of democracy—to use John F. Kennedy’s metaphor—is regularly passed from one generation to the next. But what happens if the torch is passed to a generation that has learned to adopt a different posture toward democracy and to assume that their opinions are not likely to evoke an appropriate, much less consistent, response from the broader community? Many young Americans now seem to feel that the jury is out on whether American democracy actually works or not. In contemporary America, we have created a wealthy society with tens of millions of incredibly talented and resourceful individuals who play virtually no role whatsoever as citizens. Compare this with when our country was founded and only a handful of people had the modern equivalent of a college education—but when so many were vitally engaged in the historic task of bringing forth into the world an ingenious republic that embodied a new form of representative democracy. ~ Al Gore,
1284:Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions. We probably adopt this strategy not so much because of any lack of interest or power but because of a longstanding conviction that for much of human behavior there are no relevant antecedents. The function of the inner man is to provide an explanation which will not be explained in turn. Explanation stops with him. He is not a mediator between past history and current behavior, he is a center from which behavior emanates. He initiates, originates, and creates, and in doing so he remains, as he was for the Greeks, divine. We say that he is autonomous—and, so far as a science of behavior is concerned, that means miraculous. The position is, of course, vulnerable. Autonomous man serves to explain only the things we are not yet able to explain in other ways. His existence depends upon our ignorance, and he naturally loses status as we come to know more about behavior. The task of a scientific analysis is to explain how the behavior of a person as a physical system is related to the conditions under which the human species evolved and the conditions under which the individual lives. Unless there is indeed some capricious or creative intervention, these events must be related, and no intervention is in fact needed. The contingencies of survival responsible for man’s genetic endowment would produce tendencies to act aggressively, not feelings of aggression. The punishment of sexual behavior changes sexual behavior, and any feelings which may arise are at best by-products. Our age is not suffering from anxiety but from the accidents, crimes, wars, and other dangerous and painful things to which people are so often exposed. Young people drop out of school, refuse to get jobs, and associate only with others of their own age not because they feel alienated but because of defective social environments in homes, schools, factories, and elsewhere. We can follow the path taken by physics and biology by turning directly to the relation between behavior and the environment and neglecting supposed mediating states of mind. Physics did not advance by looking more closely at the jubilance of a falling body, or biology by looking at the nature of vital spirits, and we do not need to try to discover what personalities, states of mind, feelings, traits of character, plans, purposes, intentions, or the other perquisites of autonomous man really are in order to get on with a scientific analysis of behavior. ~ B F Skinner,
1285:It is a common belief that we breathe with our lungs alone, but in point of fact, the work of breathing is done by the whole body. The lungs play a passive role in the respiratory process. Their expansion is produced by an enlargement, mostly downward, of the thoracic cavity and they collapse when that cavity is reduced. Proper breathing involves the muscles of the head, neck, thorax, and abdomen. It can be shown that chronic tension in any part of the body's musculature interferes with the natural respiratory movements.
Breathing is a rhythmic activity. Normally a person at rest makes approximately 16 to 17 respiratory incursions a minute. The rate is higher in infants and in states of excitation. It is lower in sleep and in depressed persons. The depth of the respiratory wave is another factor which varies with emotional states. Breathing becomes shallow when we are frightened or anxious. It deepens with relaxation, pleasure and sleep. But above all, it is the quality of the respiratory movements that determines whether breathing is pleasurable or not. With each breath a wave can be seen to ascend and descend through the body. The inspiratory wave begins deep in the abdomen with a backward movement of the pelvis. This allows the belly to expand outward. The wave then moves upward as the rest of the body expands. The head moves very slightly forward to suck in the air while the nostrils dilate or the mouth opens. The expiratory wave begins in the upper part of the body and moves downward: the head drops back, the chest and abdomen collapse, and the pelvis rocks forward.
Breathing easily and fully is one of the basic pleasures of being alive. The pleasure is clearly experienced at the end of expiration when the descending wave fills the pelvis with a delicious sensation. In adults this sensation has a sexual quality, though it does not induce any genital feeling. The slight backward and forward movements of the pelvis, similar to the sexual movements, add to the pleasure. Though the rhythm of breathing is pronounced in the pelvic area, it is at the same time experienced by the total body as a feeling of fluidity, softness, lightness and excitement.
The importance of breathing need hardly be stressed. It provides the oxygen for the metabolic processes; literally it supports the fires of life. But breath as "pneuma" is also the spirit or soul. We live in an ocean of air like fish in a body of water. By our breathing we are attuned to our atmosphere. If we inhibit our breathing we isolate ourselves from the medium in which we exist. In all Oriental and mystic philosophies, the breath holds the secret to the highest bliss. That is why breathing is the dominant factor in the practice of Yoga. ~ Alexander Lowen,
1286:The preliminary movement of Rajayoga is careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless movements that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of truth, by renunciation of all forms of egoistic seeking, by abstention from injury to others, by purity, by constant meditation and inclination to the divine Purusha who is the true lord of the mental kingdom, a pure, clear state of mind and heart is established.
   This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery. But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts therefore from the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pranayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kundalini, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.
   By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on its object which our philosophy asserts as the primary cosmic energy and the method of divine action upon the world. By this capacity the Yogin, already possessed of the highest supracosmic knowledge and experience in the state of trance, is able in the waking state to acquire directly whatever knowledge and exercise whatever mastery may be useful or necessary to his activities in the objective world.
   ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga, 36,
1287:Neoliberal economics, the logic of which is tending today to win out throughout the world thanks to international bodies like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund and the governments to whom they, directly or indirectly, dictate their principles of ‘governance’,10 owes a certain number of its allegedly universal characteristics to the fact that it is immersed or embedded in a particular society, that is to say, rooted in a system of beliefs and values, an ethos and a moral view of the world, in short, an economic common sense, linked, as such, to the social and cognitive structures of a particular social order. It is from this particular economy that neoclassical economic theory borrows its fundamental assumptions, which it formalizes and rationalizes, thereby establishing them as the foundations of a universal model. That model rests on two postulates (which their advocates regard as proven propositions): the economy is a separate domain governed by natural and universal laws with which governments must not interfere by inappropriate intervention; the market is the optimum means for organizing production and trade efficiently and equitably in democratic societies. It is the universalization of a particular case, that of the United States of America, characterized fundamentally by the weakness of the state which, though already reduced to a bare minimum, has been further weakened by the ultra-liberal conservative revolution, giving rise as a consequence to various typical characteristics: a policy oriented towards withdrawal or abstention by the state in economic matters; the shifting into the private sector (or the contracting out) of ‘public services’ and the conversion of public goods such as health, housing, safety, education and culture – books, films, television and radio – into commercial goods and the users of those services into clients; a renunciation (linked to the reduction in the capacity to intervene in the economy) of the power to equalize opportunities and reduce inequality (which is tending to increase excessively) in the name of the old liberal ‘self-help’ tradition (a legacy of the Calvinist belief that God helps those who help themselves) and of the conservative glorification of individual responsibility (which leads, for example, to ascribing responsibility for unemployment or economic failure primarily to individuals, not to the social order, and encourages the delegation of functions of social assistance to lower levels of authority, such as the region or city); the withering away of the Hegelian–Durkheimian view of the state as a collective authority with a responsibility to act as the collective will and consciousness, and a duty to make decisions in keeping with the general interest and contribute to promoting greater solidarity. Moreover, ~ Pierre Bourdieu,
1288:In the first place, this is a history of Europe’s reduction. The constituent states of Europe could no longer aspire, after 1945, to international or imperial status. The two exceptions to this rule—the Soviet Union and, in part, Great Britain—were both only half-European in their own eyes and in any case, by the end of the period recounted here, they too were much reduced. Most of the rest of continental Europe had been humiliated by defeat and occupation. It had not been able to liberate itself from Fascism by its own efforts; nor was it able, unassisted, to keep Communism at bay. Post-war Europe was liberated—or immured—by outsiders. Only with considerable effort and across long decades did Europeans recover control of their own destiny. Shorn of their overseas territories Europe’s erstwhile sea-borne empires (Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal) were all shrunk back in the course of these years to their European nuclei, their attention re-directed to Europe itself.
Secondly, the later decades of the twentieth century saw the withering away of the ‘master narratives’ of European history: the great nineteenth-century theories of history, with their models of progress and change, of revolution and transformation, that had fuelled the political projects and social movements that tore Europe apart in the first half of the century. This too is a story that only makes sense on a pan-European canvas: the decline of political fervor in the West (except among a marginalized intellectual minority) was accompanied—for quite different reasons—by the loss of political faith and the discrediting of official Marxism in the East. For a brief moment in the 1980s, to be sure, it seemed as though the intellectual Right might stage a revival around the equally nineteenth-century project of dismantling ‘society’ and abandoning public affairs to the untrammelled market and the minimalist state; but the spasm passed. After 1989 there was no overarching ideological project of Left or Right on offer in Europe—except the prospect of liberty, which for most Europeans was a promise now fulfilled.
Thirdly, and as a modest substitute for the defunct ambitions of Europe’s ideological past, there emerged belatedly—and largely by accident—the ‘European model’. Born of an eclectic mix of Social Democratic and Christian Democratic legislation and the crab-like institutional extension of the European Community and its successor Union, this was a distinctively ‘European’ way of regulating social intercourse and inter-state relations. Embracing everything from child-care to inter-state legal norms, this European approach stood for more than just the bureaucratic practices of the European Union and its member states; by the beginning of the twenty-first century it had become a beacon and example for aspirant EU members and a global challenge to the United States and the competing appeal of the ‘American way of life’. ~ Tony Judt,
1289:In the first place, this is a history of Europe’s reduction. The constituent states of Europe could no longer aspire, after 1945, to international or imperial status. The two exceptions to this rule—the Soviet Union and, in part, Great Britain—were both only half-European in their own eyes and in any case, by the end of the period recounted here, they too were much reduced. Most of the rest of continental Europe had been humiliated by defeat and occupation. It had not been able to liberate itself from Fascism by its own efforts; nor was it able, unassisted, to keep Communism at bay. Post-war Europe was liberated—or immured—by outsiders. Only with considerable effort and across long decades did Europeans recover control of their own destiny. Shorn of their overseas territories Europe’s erstwhile sea-borne empires (Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal) were all shrunk back in the course of these years to their European nuclei, their attention re-directed to Europe itself.

Secondly, the later decades of the twentieth century saw the withering away of the ‘master narratives’ of European history: the great nineteenth-century theories of history, with their models of progress and change, of revolution and transformation, that had fuelled the political projects and social movements that tore Europe apart in the first half of the century. This too is a story that only makes sense on a pan-European canvas: the decline of political fervor in the West (except among a marginalized intellectual minority) was accompanied—for quite different reasons—by the loss of political faith and the discrediting of official Marxism in the East. For a brief moment in the 1980s, to be sure, it seemed as though the intellectual Right might stage a revival around the equally nineteenth-century project of dismantling ‘society’ and abandoning public affairs to the untrammelled market and the minimalist state; but the spasm passed. After 1989 there was no overarching ideological project of Left or Right on offer in Europe—except the prospect of liberty, which for most Europeans was a promise now fulfilled.

Thirdly, and as a modest substitute for the defunct ambitions of Europe’s ideological past, there emerged belatedly—and largely by accident—the ‘European model’. Born of an eclectic mix of Social Democratic and Christian Democratic legislation and the crab-like institutional extension of the European Community and its successor Union, this was a distinctively ‘European’ way of regulating social intercourse and inter-state relations. Embracing everything from child-care to inter-state legal norms, this European approach stood for more than just the bureaucratic practices of the European Union and its member states; by the beginning of the twenty-first century it had become a beacon and example for aspirant EU members and a global challenge to the United States and the competing appeal of the ‘American way of life’. ~ Tony Judt,
1290:Something happened to you before you were born, and this is what it was:
   STAGE ONE: THE CHIKHAI
   The events of the 49-day Bardo period are divided into three major stages, the Chikhai, the Chonyid, and the Sidpa (in that order). Immediately following physical death, the soul enters the Chikhai, which is simply the state of the immaculate and luminous Dharmakaya, the ultimate Consciousness, the BrahmanAtman. This ultimate state is given, as a gift, to all individuals: they are plunged straight into ultimate reality and exist as the ultimate Dharmakaya. "At this moment," says the Bardo Thotrol, "the first glimpsing of the Bardo of the Clear Light of Reality, which is the Infallible Mind of the Dharmakaya, is experienced by all sentient beings.''110 Or, to put it a different way, the Thotrol tells us that "Thine own consciousness, shining, void, and inseparable from the Great Body of Radiance, hath no birth, nor death, and is the Immutable Light-Buddha Amitabha. Knowing this is sufficient. Recognizing the voidness of thine own intellect to be Buddhahood ... is to keep thyself in the Divine Mind."110 In short, immediately following physical death, the soul is absorbed in and as the ultimate-causal body (if we may treat them together).
   Interspersed with this brief summary of the Bardo Thotrol, I will add my commentaries on involution and on the nature of the Atman project in involution. And we begin by noting that at the start of the Bardo experience, the soul is elevated to the utter heights of Being, to the ultimate state of Oneness-that is, he starts his Bardo career at the top. But, at the top is usually not where he remains, and the Thotrol tells us why. In Evans-Wentz's words, "In the realm of the Clear Light [the highest Chikhai stage] the mentality of a person . . . momentarily enjoys a condition of balance, of perfect equilibrium, and of [ultimate] oneness. Owing to unfamiliarity with such a state, which is an ecstatic state of non-ego, of [causal] consciousness, the . . . average human being lacks the power to function in it; karmic propensities becloud the consciousness-principle with thoughts of personality, of individualized being, of dualism, and, losing equilibrium, the consciousness-principle falls away from the Clear Light."
   The soul falls away from the ultimate Oneness because "karmic propensities cloud consciousness"-"karmic propensities'' means seeking, grasping, desiring; means, in fact, Eros. And as this Erosseeking develops, the state of perfect Oneness starts to "break down" (illusorily). Or, from a different angle, because the individual cannot stand the intensity of pure Oneness ("owing to unfamiliarity with such a state"), he contracts away from it, tries to ''dilute it," tries to extricate himself from Perfect Intensity in Atman. Contracting in the face of infinity, he turns instead to forms of seeking, desire, karma, and grasping, trying to "search out" a state of equilibrium. Contraction and Eros-these karmic propensities couple and conspire to drive the soul away from pure consciousness and downwards into multiplicity, into less intense and less real states of being. ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project,
1291:Cool, Fragrant Lotus Feet
Cool, fragrant lotus feet
with anklets tinkling sweet,
gold girdle, flower-soft garment
setting off the comely hips,
pot-belly and big, heavy tusk,
elephant-face with the bright red mark,
five hands, the goad, the noose,
blue body dwelling in the heart,
pendulous jaws, four mighty shoulders,
three eyes and the three required marks,
two ears, the gold crown gleaming,
the breast aglow with the triple thread,
O Being, bright and beautiful!
Wish-yielding elephant, born of the
Master of Mystery in Mount Kailasa,
mouse-rider, fond of the three famed fruits,
desiring to make me yours this instant,
you like a mother have appeared before me
and cut the delusion of unending births.
You have come and entered my heart,
imprinting clear the five prime letters,
set foot in the world in the form of a guru,
declared the final truth is this, gladly,
graciously shown the way of life unfading.
With that unfailing weapon, your glance,
you have put an end to my heinous sins,
poured in my ear uncloying precepts,
laid bare for me the clarity
of ever-fresh awareness,
sweetly given me your sweet grace
for firm control of the senses five,
taught how to still the organs of action;
snapped my two-fold karma and dispelled
my darkness, giving, out of grace,
a place for me in all four states;
dissolved the illusion of triple filth,
taught me how to shut the five
sense gates of the nine-door temple,
fixed me firm in the six yogic centers,
stilled my speech, taught me
the writ of ida and pingala,
shown me at last the head of sushumna.
To the tongue of the serpent that sinks and soars
you have brought the force sustaining the three
bright spheres of sun, moon and fire the mantra unspoken asleep in the snake and explicitly uttered it;
imparted the skill of raising by breath
the raging flame of muladhara;
explained the secret of immortality,
the sun's movement and the charm
of the moon; the water lily's friend,
the sixteen states of the prasada mantra;
revealed to me in thoughtful wisdom
the six-faced form and the meanings four;
disclosed to me the subtle body
and the eight separate modes of being;
the orifice of Brahman opened,
giving me miraculous powers,
by your sweet grace, and mukti, too;
revealed my Self to me and by your grace
swept away accumulated karma,
stilled my mind in tranquil calm
beyond speech and thought;
clarified my intellect, plunged me
in bliss which is the common ground
of light and darkness.
Boundless beatitude you have given me,
ended all affliction, shown the way of grace:
Siva eternal at the core of sound,
Sivalinga within the heart,
atom within atom, vast beyond all vastness,
sweetness hid in the hardened node.
You have steadied me clear in human form
all besmeared with holy ashes;
added me to the congregation
of your servants true and trusty;
made me experience in my heart
the inmost meaning of the five letters;
restored my real state to me;
and rule me now, O Master of Wisdom,
Vinayaka. Your feet alone,
O Master of Wisdom, Vinayaka, your feet alone, are my sole refuge.
~ Avvaiyar,
1292:What in water did Bloom, waterlover, drawer of water, watercarrier, returning to the range, admire?

Its universality: its democratic equality and constancy to its nature in seeking its own level: its vastness in the ocean of Mercator's projection: its unplumbed profundity in the Sundam trench of the Pacific exceeding 8000 fathoms: the restlessness of its waves and surface particles visiting in turn all points of its seaboard: the independence of its units: the variability of states of sea: its hydrostatic quiescence in calm: its hydrokinetic turgidity in neap and spring tides: its subsidence after devastation: its sterility in the circumpolar icecaps, arctic and antarctic: its climatic and commercial significance: its preponderance of 3 to 1 over the dry land of the globe: its indisputable hegemony extending in square leagues over all the region below the subequatorial tropic of Capricorn: the multisecular stability of its primeval basin: its luteofulvous bed: its capacity to dissolve and hold in solution all soluble substances including millions of tons of the most precious metals: its slow erosions of peninsulas and islands, its persistent formation of homothetic islands, peninsulas and downwardtending promontories: its alluvial deposits: its weight and volume and density: its imperturbability in lagoons and highland tarns: its gradation of colours in the torrid and temperate and frigid zones: its vehicular ramifications in continental lakecontained streams and confluent oceanflowing rivers with their tributaries and transoceanic currents, gulfstream, north and south equatorial courses: its violence in seaquakes, waterspouts, Artesian wells, eruptions, torrents, eddies, freshets, spates, groundswells, watersheds, waterpartings, geysers, cataracts, whirlpools, maelstroms, inundations, deluges, cloudbursts: its vast circumterrestrial ahorizontal curve: its secrecy in springs and latent humidity, revealed by rhabdomantic or hygrometric instruments and exemplified by the well by the hole in the wall at Ashtown gate, saturation of air, distillation of dew: the simplicity of its composition, two constituent parts of hydrogen with one constituent part of oxygen: its healing virtues: its buoyancy in the waters of the Dead Sea: its persevering penetrativeness in runnels, gullies, inadequate dams, leaks on shipboard: its properties for cleansing, quenching thirst and fire, nourishing vegetation: its infallibility as paradigm and paragon: its metamorphoses as vapour, mist, cloud, rain, sleet, snow, hail: its strength in rigid hydrants: its variety of forms in loughs and bays and gulfs and bights and guts and lagoons and atolls and archipelagos and sounds and fjords and minches and tidal estuaries and arms of sea: its solidity in glaciers, icebergs, icefloes: its docility in working hydraulic millwheels, turbines, dynamos, electric power stations, bleachworks, tanneries, scutchmills: its utility in canals, rivers, if navigable, floating and graving docks: its potentiality derivable from harnessed tides or watercourses falling from level to level: its submarine fauna and flora (anacoustic, photophobe), numerically, if not literally, the inhabitants of the globe: its ubiquity as constituting 90 percent of the human body: the noxiousness of its effluvia in lacustrine marshes, pestilential fens, faded flowerwater, stagnant pools in the waning moon. ~ James Joyce,
1293:I’m the kind of patriot whom people on the Acela corridor laugh at. I choke up when I hear Lee Greenwood’s cheesy anthem “Proud to Be an American.” When I was sixteen, I vowed that every time I met a veteran, I would go out of my way to shake his or her hand, even if I had to awkwardly interject to do so. To this day, I refuse to watch Saving Private Ryan around anyone but my closest friends, because I can’t stop from crying during the final scene. Mamaw and Papaw taught me that we live in the best and greatest country on earth. This fact gave meaning to my childhood. Whenever times were tough—when I felt overwhelmed by the drama and the tumult of my youth—I knew that better days were ahead because I lived in a country that allowed me to make the good choices that others hadn’t. When I think today about my life and how genuinely incredible it is—a gorgeous, kind, brilliant life partner; the financial security that I dreamed about as a child; great friends and exciting new experiences—I feel overwhelming appreciation for these United States. I know it’s corny, but it’s the way I feel. If Mamaw’s second God was the United States of America, then many people in my community were losing something akin to a religion. The tie that bound them to their neighbors, that inspired them in the way my patriotism had always inspired me, had seemingly vanished. The symptoms are all around us. Significant percentages of white conservative voters—about one-third—believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim. In one poll, 32 percent of conservatives said that they believed Obama was foreign-born and another 19 percent said they were unsure—which means that a majority of white conservatives aren’t certain that Obama is even an American. I regularly hear from acquaintances or distant family members that Obama has ties to Islamic extremists, or is a traitor, or was born in some far-flung corner of the world. Many of my new friends blame racism for this perception of the president. But the president feels like an alien to many Middletonians for reasons that have nothing to do with skin color. Recall that not a single one of my high school classmates attended an Ivy League school. Barack Obama attended two of them and excelled at both. He is brilliant, wealthy, and speaks like a constitutional law professor—which, of course, he is. Nothing about him bears any resemblance to the people I admired growing up: His accent—clean, perfect, neutral—is foreign; his credentials are so impressive that they’re frightening; he made his life in Chicago, a dense metropolis; and he conducts himself with a confidence that comes from knowing that the modern American meritocracy was built for him. Of course, Obama overcame adversity in his own right—adversity familiar to many of us—but that was long before any of us knew him. President Obama came on the scene right as so many people in my community began to believe that the modern American meritocracy was not built for them. We know we’re not doing well. We see it every day: in the obituaries for teenage kids that conspicuously omit the cause of death (reading between the lines: overdose), in the deadbeats we watch our daughters waste their time with. Barack Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities. He is a good father while many of us aren’t. He wears suits to his job while we wear overalls, if we’re lucky enough to have a job at all. His wife tells us that we shouldn’t be feeding our children certain foods, and we hate her for it—not because we think she’s wrong but because we know she’s right. ~ J D Vance,
1294:You think you know what a man is? You have no idea what a man is. You think you know what a daughter is? You have no idea what a daughter is. You think you know what this country is? You have no idea what this country is. You have a false image of everything. All you know is what a fucking glove is. This country is frightening. Of course she was raped. What kind of company do you think she was keeping? Of course out there she was going to get raped. This isn't Old Rimrock, old buddy - she's out there, old buddy, in the USA. She enters that world, that loopy world out there, with whats going on out there - what do you expect? A kid from Rimrock, NJ, of course she didn't know how to behave out there, of course the shit hits the fan. What could she know? She's like a wild child out there in the world. She can't get enough of it - she's still acting up. A room off McCarter Highway. And why not? Who wouldn't? You prepare her for life milking the cows? For what kind of life? Unnatural, all artificial, all of it. Those assumptions you live with. You're still in your olf man's dream-world, Seymour, still up there with Lou Levov in glove heaven. A household tyrannized by gloves, bludgeoned by gloves, the only thing in life - ladies' gloves! Does he still tell the one about the woman who sells the gloves washing her hands in a sink between each color? Oh where oh where is that outmoded America, that decorous America where a woman had twenty-five pairs of gloves? Your kid blows your norms to kingdom come, Seymour, and you still think you know what life is?" Life is just a short period of time in which we are alive. Meredith Levov, 1964. "You wanted Ms. America? Well, you've got her, with a vengeance - she's your daughter! You wanted to be a real American jock, a real American marine, a real American hotshot with a beautiful Gentile babe on your arm? You longed to belong like everybody else to the United States of America? Well, you do now, big boy, thanks to your daughter. The reality of this place is right up in your kisser now. With the help of your daughter you're as deep in the sit as a man can get, the real American crazy shit. America amok! America amuck! Goddamn it, Seymour, goddamn you, if you were a father who loved his daughter," thunders Jerry into the phone - and the hell with the convalescent patients waiting in the corridor for him to check out their new valves and new arteries, to tell how grateful they are to him for their new lease on life, Jerry shouts away, shouts all he wants if it's shouting he wants to do, and the hell with the rules of hte hospital. He is one of the surgeons who shouts; if you disagree with him he shouts, if you cross him he shouts, if you just stand there and do nothing he shouts. He does not do what hospitals tell him to do or fathers expect him to do or wives want him to do, he does what he wants to do, does as he pleases, tells people just who and what he is every minute of the day so that nothing about him is a secret, not his opinions, his frustrations, his urges, neither his appetite nor his hatred. In the sphere of the will, he is unequivocating, uncompromising; he is king. He does not spend time regretting what he has or has not done or justifying to others how loathsome he can be. The message is simple: You will take me as I come - there is no choice. He cannot endure swallowing anything. He just lets loose. And these are two brothers, the same parents' sons, one for whom the aggression's been bred out, the other for whom the aggression's been bred in. "If you were a father who loved your daughter," Jerry shouts at the Swede, "you would never have left her in that room! You would have never let her out of your sight! ~ Philip Roth,
1295:It was the general opinion of ancient nations, that the divinity alone was adequate to the important office of giving laws to men... and modern nations, in the consecrations of kings, and in several superstitious chimeras of divine rights in princes and nobles, are nearly unanimous in preserving remnants of it... Is the jealousy of power, and the envy of superiority, so strong in all men, that no considerations of public or private utility are sufficient to engage their submission to rules for their own happiness? Or is the disposition to imposture so prevalent in men of experience, that their private views of ambition and avarice can be accomplished only by artifice? — … There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful. The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature: and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven, any more than those at work upon ships or houses, or labouring in merchandize or agriculture: it will for ever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. As Copley painted Chatham, West, Wolf, and Trumbull, Warren and Montgomery; as Dwight, Barlow, Trumbull, and Humphries composed their verse, and Belknap and Ramzay history; as Godfrey invented his quadrant, and Rittenhouse his planetarium; as Boylston practised inoculation, and Franklin electricity; as Paine exposed the mistakes of Raynal, and Jefferson those of Buffon, so unphilosophically borrowed from the Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains those despicable dreams of de Pauw — neither the people, nor their conventions, committees, or sub-committees, considered legislation in any other light than ordinary arts and sciences, only as of more importance. Called without expectation, and compelled without previous inclination, though undoubtedly at the best period of time both for England and America, to erect suddenly new systems of laws for their future government, they adopted the method of a wise architect, in erecting a new palace for the residence of his sovereign. They determined to consult Vitruvius, Palladio, and all other writers of reputation in the art; to examine the most celebrated buildings, whether they remain entire or in ruins; compare these with the principles of writers; and enquire how far both the theories and models were founded in nature, or created by fancy: and, when this should be done, as far as their circumstances would allow, to adopt the advantages, and reject the inconveniences, of all. Unembarrassed by attachments to noble families, hereditary lines and successions, or any considerations of royal blood, even the pious mystery of holy oil had no more influence than that other of holy water: the people universally were too enlightened to be imposed on by artifice; and their leaders, or more properly followers, were men of too much honour to attempt it. Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind.

[Preface to 'A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America', 1787] ~ John Adams,
1296:The Yew-Berry
I call this idle history the ‘Berry of the Yew;
Because there's nothing sweeter than its husk of scarlet glue,
And nothing half so bitter as its black core bitten through.
I loved, saw hope, and said so; learn'd that Laura loved again:
Why speak of joy then suffer'd? My head throbs, and I would fain
Find words to lay the spectre starting now before my brain.
She loved me: all things told it; eye to eye, and palm to palm:
As the pause upon the ceasing of a thousand-voiced psalm
Was the mighty satisfaction and the full eternal calm.
On her face, when she was laughing, was the seriousness within;
Her sweetest smiles, (and sweeter did a lover never win,)
In passing, grew so absent that they made her fair cheek thin.
On her face, when she was speaking, thoughts unworded used to live;
So that when she whisper'd to me, ‘Better joy Earth cannot give,’
Her following silence added, ‘But Earth's joy is fugitive.’
For there a nameless something, though suppress'd, still spread around;
The same was on her eyelids, if she look'd towards the ground;
In her laughing, singing, talking, still the same was in the sound;—
A sweet dissatisfaction, which at no time went away,
But shadow'd on her spirit, even at its brightest play,
That her mirth was like the sunshine in the closing of the day.
II
Let none ask joy the highest, save those who would have it end
There's weight in earthly blessings; they are earthy, and they tend,
By predetermin'd impulse, at their highest, to descend.
I still for a happy season, in the present, saw the past,
Mistaking one for the other, feeling sure my hold was fast
On that of which the symbols vanish'd daily: but, at last,
As when we watch bright cloud-banks round about the low sun ranged,
We suddenly remember some rich glory gone or changed,
All at once I comprehended that her love was grown estranged.
From this time, spectral glimpses of a darker fear came on:
They came; but, since I scorn'd them, were no sooner come than gone.—
At times, some gap in sequence frees the spirit, and, anon,
We remember states of living ended ere we left the womb,
And see a vague aurora flashing to us from the tomb,
349
The dreamy light of new states, dash'd tremendously with gloom.
We tremble for an instant, and a single instant more
Brings absolute oblivion, and we pass on as before!
Ev'n so those dreadful glimpses came, and startled, and were o'er.
III
One morning, one bright morning, Wortley met me. He and I,
As we rode across the country, met a friend of his. His eye
Caught Wortley's, who rode past him. ‘What,’ said he, ‘pass old friends by?
So I've heard your game is grounded! Why your life's one long romance
After your last French fashion. But, ah! ha! should Herbert chance—’
‘Nay, Herbert's here,’ said he, and introduced me, with a glance
Of easy smiles, ignoring this embarrassment; and then
This pass'd off, and soon after I went home, and took a pen,
And wrote the signs here written, with much more, and where, and when;
And, having read them over once or twice, sat down to think,
From time to time beneath them writing more, till, link by link,
The evidence against her was fulfill'd: I did not shrink,
But I read them all together, and I found it was no dream.
What I felt I can't remember; an oblivion which the gleam
Of light which oft comes through it shews for blessedness extreme.
At last I moved, exclaiming, ‘I will not believe, until
‘I've spoken once with Laura.’ Thereon all my heart grew still
For doubt and faith are active, and decisions of the will.
IV
I found my Love. She started: I suppose that I was pale.
We talk'd; but words on both sides, seem'd to sicken, flag, and fail.
Then I gave her what I'd written, watching whether she would quail.
In and out flew sultry blushes: so, when red reflections rise
From conflagrations, filling the alarm'd heart with surmise,
They lighten now, now darken, up and down the gloomy skies.
She finish'd once; but fearing to look from it, read it o'er
Ten times at least. Poor Laura, had those readings been ten score,
That refuge from confusion had confused thee more and more!
I said, ‘You're ill, sit Laura,’ and she sat down and was meek.
‘Ah tears! not lost to God then. But pray Laura, do not speak
I understand you better by the moisture on your cheek.’
She shook with sobs, in silence. I yet checking passion's sway,
Said only, ‘Farewell Laura!’ then got up, and strode away;
350
For I felt that she would burst my heart asunder should I stay.
Oh, ghastly corpse of Love so slain! it makes the world its hearse;
Or, as the sun extinct and dead, after the doomsday curse,
It rolls, an unseen danger, through the darken'd universe.
I struggled to forget this; but, forgetfulness too sweet!
It startled with its sweetness, thus involv'd its own defeat;
And, every time this happen'd, aching memory would repeat
The shock of that discovery: so at length I learn'd by heart
And never, save when sleeping, suffer'd thenceforth to depart,
The feeling of my sorrow: and in time this sooth'd the smart.
Yet even now not seldom, in my leisure, in the thick
Of other thoughts, unchallenged, words and looks come crowding quick—
They do while I am writing, till the sunshine makes me sick.
~ Coventry Patmore,
1297:Tom Paine has almost no influence on present-day thinking in the United States because he is unknown to the average citizen. Perhaps I might say right here that this is a national loss and a deplorable lack of understanding concerning the man who first proposed and first wrote those impressive words, 'the United States of America.'

But it is hardly strange.

Paine's teachings have been debarred from schools everywhere and his views of life misrepresented until his memory is hidden in shadows, or he is looked upon as of unsound mind.

We never had a sounder intelligence in this Republic. He was the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible. Where Washington performed Paine devised and wrote. The deeds of one in the Weld were matched by the deeds of the other with his pen.

Washington himself appreciated Paine at his true worth. Franklin knew him for a great patriot and clear thinker. He was a friend and confidant of Jefferson, and the two must often have debated the academic and practical phases of liberty.

I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no successors who extended his principles. Although the present generation knows little of Paine's writings, and although he has almost no influence upon contemporary thought, Americans of the future will justly appraise his work. I am certain of it.

Truth is governed by natural laws and cannot be denied. Paine spoke truth with a peculiarly clear and forceful ring. Therefore time must balance the scales. The Declaration and the Constitution expressed in form Paine's theory of political rights. He worked in Philadelphia at the time that the first document was written, and occupied a position of intimate contact with the nation's leaders when they framed the Constitution.

Certainly we may believe that Washington had a considerable voice in the Constitution. We know that Jefferson had much to do with the document. Franklin also had a hand and probably was responsible in even larger measure for the Declaration. But all of these men had communed with Paine. Their views were intimately understood and closely correlated. There is no doubt whatever that the two great documents of American liberty reflect the philosophy of Paine.

...Then Paine wrote 'Common Sense,' an anonymous tract which immediately stirred the fires of liberty. It flashed from hand to hand throughout the Colonies. One copy reached the New York Assembly, in session at Albany, and a night meeting was voted to answer this unknown writer with his clarion call to liberty. The Assembly met, but could find no suitable answer. Tom Paine had inscribed a document which never has been answered adversely, and never can be, so long as man esteems his priceless possession.

In 'Common Sense' Paine flared forth with a document so powerful that the Revolution became inevitable. Washington recognized the difference, and in his calm way said that matters never could be the same again. It must be remembered that 'Common Sense' preceded the declaration and affirmed the very principles that went into the national doctrine of liberty. But that affirmation was made with more vigor, more of the fire of the patriot and was exactly suited to the hour... Certainly [the Revolution] could not be forestalled, once he had spoken.

{The Philosophy of Paine, June 7, 1925} ~ Thomas A Edison,
1298:Depression, unless one has a strong will, suggests, "This is not worth while, one may have to wait a lifetime." As for enthusiasm, it expects to see the vital transformed overnight: "I am not going to have any difficulty henceforth, I am going to advance rapidly on the path of yoga, I am going to gain the divine consciousness without any difficulty." There are some other difficulties.... One needs a little time, much perseverance. So the vital, after a few hours - perhaps a few days, perhaps a few months - says to itself: "We haven't gone very far with our enthusiasm, has anything been really done? Doesn't this movement leave us just where we were, perhaps worse than we were, a little troubled, a little disturbed? Things are no longer what they were, they are not yet what they ought to be. It is very tiresome, what I am doing." And then, if one pushes a little more, here's this gentleman saying, "Ah, no! I have had enough of it, leave me alone. I don't want to move, I shall stay in my corner, I won't trouble you, but don't bother me!" And so one has not gone very much farther than before.
   This is one of the big obstacles which must be carefully avoided. As soon as there is the least sign of discontentment, of annoyance, the vital must be spoken to in this way, "My friend, you are going to keep calm, you are going to do what you are asked to do, otherwise you will have to deal with me." And to the other, the enthusiast who says, "Everything must be done now, immediately", your reply is, "Calm yourself a little, your energy is excellent, but it must not be spent in five minutes. We shall need it for a long time, keep it carefully and, as it is wanted, I shall call upon your goodwill. You will show that you are full of goodwill, you will obey, you won't grumble, you will not protest, you will not revolt, you will say 'yes, yes', you will make a little sacrifice when asked, you will say 'yes' wholeheartedly."
   So we get started on the path. But the road is very long. Many things happen on the way. Suddenly one thinks one has overcome an obstacle; I say "thinks", because though one has overcome it, it is not totally overcome. I am going to take a very obvious instance, of a very simple observation. Someone has found that his vital is uncontrollable and uncontrolled, that it gets furious for nothing and about nothing. He starts working to teach it not to get carried away, not to flare up, to remain calm and bear the shocks of life without reacting violently. If one does this cheerfully, it goes quite quickly. (Note this well, it is very important: when you have to deal with your vital take care to remain cheerful, otherwise you will get into trouble.) One remains cheerful, that is, when one sees the fury rise, one begins to laugh. Instead of being depressed and saying, "Ah! In spite of all my effort it is beginning all over again", one begins to laugh and says, "Well, well! One hasn't yet seen the end of it. Look now, aren't you ridiculous, you know quite well that you are being ridiculous! Is it worthwhile getting angry?" One gives it this lesson cheerfully. And really, after a while it doesn't get angry again, it is quiet - and one relaxes one's attention. One thinks the difficulty has been overcome, one thinks a result has at last been reached: "My vital does not trouble me any longer, it does not get angry now, everything is going fine." And the next day, one loses one's temper. It is then one must be careful, it is then one must not say, "Here we are, it's no use, I shall never achieve anything, all my efforts are futile; all this is an illusion, it is impossible." On the contrary, one must say, "I wasn't vigilant enough." One must wait long, very long, before one can say, "Ah! It is done and finished." Sometimes one must wait for years, many years....
   I am not saying this to discourage you, but to give you patience and perseverance - for there is a moment when you do arrive. And note that the vital is a small part of your being - a very important part, we have said that it is the dynamism, the realising energy, it is very important; but it is only a small part. And the mind!... which goes wandering, which must be pulled back by all the strings to be kept quiet! You think this can be done overnight? And your body?... You have a weakness, a difficulty, sometimes a small chronic illness, nothing much, but still it is a nuisance, isn't it? You want to get rid of it. You make efforts, you concentrate; you work upon it, establish harmony, and you think it is finished, and then.... Take, for instance, people who have the habit of coughing; they can't control themselves or almost can't. It is not serious but it is bothersome, and there seems to be no reason why it should ever stop. Well, one tells oneself, "I am going to control this." One makes an effort - a yogic effort, not a material one - one brings down consciousness, force, and stops the cough. And one thinks, "The body has forgotten how to cough." And it is a great thing when the body has forgotten, truly one can say, "I am cured." But unfortunately it is not always true, for this goes down into the subconscient and, one day, when the balance of forces is not so well established, when the strength is not the same, it begins again. And one laments, "I believed that it was over! I had succeeded and told myself, 'It is true that spiritual power has an action upon the body, it is true that something can be done', and there! it is not true. And yet it was a small thing, and I who want to conquer immortality! How will I succeed?... For years I have been free from this small thing and here it is beginning anew!" It is then that you must be careful. You must arm yourself with an endless patience and endurance. You do a thing once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times if necessary, but you do it till it gets done. And not done only here and there, but everywhere and everywhere at the same time. This is the great problem one sets oneself. That is why, to those who come to tell me very light-heartedly, "I want to do yoga", I reply, "Think it over, one may do the yoga for a number of years without noticing the least result. But if you want to do it, you must persist and persist with such a will that you should be ready to do it for ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes if necessary, in order to succeed." I do not say it will be like that, but the attitude must be like that. Nothing must discourage you; for there are all the difficulties of ignorance of the different states of being, to which are added the endless malice and the unbounded cunning of the hostile forces in the world.... They are there, do you know why? They have been.... ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,
1299:
   Why do we forget our dreams?


Because you do not dream always at the same place. It is not always the same part of your being that dreams and it is not at the same place that you dream. If you were in conscious, direct, continuous communication with all the parts of your being, you would remember all your dreams. But very few parts of the being are in communication.

   For example, you have a dream in the subtle physical, that is to say, quite close to the physical. Generally, these dreams occur in the early hours of the morning, that is between four and five o'clock, at the end of the sleep. If you do not make a sudden movement when you wake up, if you remain very quiet, very still and a little attentive - quietly attentive - and concentrated, you will remember them, for the communication between the subtle physical and the physical is established - very rarely is there no communication.

   Now, dreams are mostly forgotten because you have a dream while in a certain state and then pass into another. For instance, when you sleep, your body is asleep, your vital is asleep, but your mind is still active. So your mind begins to have dreams, that is, its activity is more or less coordinated, the imagination is very active and you see all kinds of things, take part in extraordinary happenings.... After some time, all that calms down and the mind also begins to doze. The vital that was resting wakes up; it comes out of the body, walks about, goes here and there, does all kinds of things, reacts, sometimes fights, and finally eats. It does all kinds of things. The vital is very adventurous. It watches. When it is heroic it rushes to save people who are in prison or to destroy enemies or it makes wonderful discoveries. But this pushes back the whole mental dream very far behind. It is rubbed off, forgotten: naturally you cannot remember it because the vital dream takes its place. But if you wake up suddenly at that moment, you remember it. There are people who have made the experiment, who have got up at certain fixed hours of the night and when they wake up suddenly, they do remember. You must not move brusquely, but awake in the natural course, then you remember.

   After a time, the vital having taken a good stroll, needs to rest also, and so it goes into repose and quietness, quite tired at the end of all kinds of adventures. Then something else wakes up. Let us suppose that it is the subtle physical that goes for a walk. It starts moving and begins wandering, seeing the rooms and... why, this thing that was there, but it has come here and that other thing which was in that room is now in this one, and so on. If you wake up without stirring, you remembeR But this has pushed away far to the back of the consciousness all the stories of the vital. They are forgotten and so you cannot recollect your dreams. But if at the time of waking up you are not in a hurry, you are not obliged to leave your bed, on the contrary you can remain there as long as you wish, you need not even open your eyes; you keep your head exactly where it was and you make yourself like a tranquil mirror within and concentrate there. You catch just a tiny end of the tail of your dream. You catch it and start pulling gently, without stirring in the least. You begin pulling quite gently, and then first one part comes, a little later another. You go backward; the last comes up first. Everything goes backward, slowly, and suddenly the whole dream reappears: "Ah, there! it was like that." Above all, do not jump up, do not stir; you repeat the dream to yourself several times - once, twice - until it becomes clear in all its details. Once that dream is settled, you continue not to stir, you try to go further in, and suddenly you catch the tail of something else. It is more distant, more vague, but you can still seize it. And here also you hang on, get hold of it and pull, and you see that everything changes and you enter another world; all of a sudden you have an extraordinary adventure - it is another dream. You follow the same process. You repeat the dream to yourself once, twice, until you are sure of it. You remain very quiet all the time. Then you begin to penetrate still more deeply into yourself, as though you were going in very far, very far; and again suddenly you see a vague form, you have a feeling, a sensation... like a current of air, a slight breeze, a little breath; and you say, "Well, well...." It takes a form, it becomes clear - and the third category comes. You must have a lot of time, a lot of patience, you must be very quiet in your mind and body, very quiet, and you can tell the story of your whole night from the end right up to the beginning.

   Even without doing this exercise which is very long and difficult, in order to recollect a dream, whether it be the last one or the one in the middle that has made a violent impression on your being, you must do what I have said when you wake up: take particular care not even to move your head on the pillow, remain absolutely still and let the dream return.

   Some people do not have a passage between one state and another, there is a little gap and so they leap from one to the other; there is no highway passing through all the states of being with no break of the consciousness. A small dark hole, and you do not remember. It is like a precipice across which one has to extend the consciousness. To build a bridge takes a very long time; it takes much longer than building a physical bridge.... Very few people want to and know how to do it. They may have had magnificent activities, they do not remember them or sometimes only the last, the nearest, the most physical activity, with an uncoordinated movement - dreams having no sense.

   But there are as many different kinds of nights and sleep as there are different days and activities. There are not many days that are alike, each day is different. The days are not the same, the nights are not the same. You and your friends are doing apparently the same thing, but for each one it is very different. And each one must have his own procedure.

   Why are two dreams never alike?

Because all things are different. No two minutes are alike in the universe and it will be so till the end of the universe, no two minutes will ever be alike. And men obstinately want to make rules! One must do this and not that.... Well! we must let people please themselves.

   You could have put to me a very interesting question: "Why am I fourteen years old today?" Intelligent people will say: "It is because it is the fourteenth year since you were born." That is the answer of someone who believes himself to be very intelligent. But there is another reason. I shall tell this to you alone.... I have drowned you all sufficiently well! Now you must begin to learn swimming!

   ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, 36?,
1300:Plutonian Ode
What new element before us unborn in nature? Is there
a new thing under the Sun?
At last inquisitive Whitman a modern epic, detonative,
Scientific theme
First penned unmindful by Doctor Seaborg with poisonous hand, named for Death's planet through the
sea beyond Uranus
whose chthonic ore fathers this magma-teared Lord of
Hades, Sire of avenging Furies, billionaire HellKing worshipped once
with black sheep throats cut, priests's face averted from
underground mysteries in single temple at Eleusis,
Spring-green Persephone nuptialed to his inevitable
Shade, Demeter mother of asphodel weeping dew,
her daughter stored in salty caverns under white snow,
black hail, grey winter rain or Polar ice, immemorable seasons before
Fish flew in Heaven, before a Ram died by the starry
bush, before the Bull stamped sky and earth
or Twins inscribed their memories in clay or Crab'd
flood
washed memory from the skull, or Lion sniffed the
lilac breeze in Eden-Before the Great Year began turning its twelve signs,
ere constellations wheeled for twenty-four thousand
sunny years
slowly round their axis in Sagittarius, one hundred
sixty-seven thousand times returning to this night
Radioactive Nemesis were you there at the beginning
black dumb tongueless unsmelling blast of Disillusion?
I manifest your Baptismal Word after four billion years
I guess your birthday in Earthling Night, I salute your
dreadful presence last majestic as the Gods,
Sabaot, Jehova, Astapheus, Adonaeus, Elohim, Iao,
Ialdabaoth, Aeon from Aeon born ignorant in an
64
Abyss of Light,
Sophia's reflections glittering thoughtful galaxies, whirlpools of starspume silver-thin as hairs of Einstein!
Father Whitman I celebrate a matter that renders Self
oblivion!
Grand Subject that annihilates inky hands & pages'
prayers, old orators' inspired Immortalities,
I begin your chant, openmouthed exhaling into spacious
sky over silent mills at Hanford, Savannah River,
Rocky Flats, Pantex, Burlington, Albuquerque
I yell thru Washington, South Carolina, Colorado,
Texas, Iowa, New Mexico,
Where nuclear reactors creat a new Thing under the
Sun, where Rockwell war-plants fabricate this death
stuff trigger in nitrogen baths,
Hanger-Silas Mason assembles the terrified weapon
secret by ten thousands, & where Manzano Mountain boasts to store
its dreadful decay through two hundred forty millenia
while our Galaxy spirals around its nebulous core.
I enter your secret places with my mind, I speak with
your presence, I roar your Lion Roar with mortal
mouth.
One microgram inspired to one lung, ten pounds of
heavy metal dust adrift slow motion over grey
Alps
the breadth of the planet, how long before your radiance
speeds blight and death to sentient beings?
Enter my body or not I carol my spirit inside you,
Unnaproachable Weight,
O heavy heavy Element awakened I vocalize your consciousness to six worlds
I chant your absolute Vanity. Yeah monster of Anger
birthed in fear O most
Ignorant matter ever created unnatural to Earth! Delusion
of metal empires!
Destroyer of lying Scientists! Devourer of covetous
Generals, Incinerator of Armies & Melter of Wars!
Judgement of judgements, Divine Wind over vengeful
nations, Molester of Presidents, Death-Scandal of
Capital politics! Ah civilizations stupidly industrious!
65
Canker-Hex on multitudes learned or illiterate! Manufactured Spectre of human reason! O solidified
imago of practicioner in Black Arts
I dare your reality, I challenge your very being! I
publish your cause and effect!
I turn the wheel of Mind on your three hundred tons!
Your name enters mankind's ear! I embody your
ultimate powers!
My oratory advances on your vaunted Mystery! This
breath dispels your braggart fears! I sing your
form at last
behind your concrete & iron walls inside your fortress
of rubber & translucent silicon shields in filtered
cabinets and baths of lathe oil,
My voice resounds through robot glove boxes & ignot
cans and echoes in electric vaults inert of atmosphere,
I enter with spirit out loud into your fuel rod drums
underground on soundless thrones and beds of
lead
O density! This weightless anthem trumpets transcendent
through hidden chambers and breaks through
iron doors into the Infernal Room!
Over your dreadful vibration this measured harmony
floats audible, these jubilant tones are honey and
milk and wine-sweet water
Poured on the stone black floor, these syllables are
barley groats I scatter on the Reactor's core,
I call your name with hollow vowels, I psalm your Fate
close by, my breath near deathless ever at your
side
to Spell your destiny, I set this verse prophetic on your
mausoleum walls to seal you up Eternally with
Diamond Truth! O doomed Plutonium.
II
The Bar surveys Plutonian history from midnight
lit with Mercury Vapor streetlamps till in dawn's
early light
he contemplates a tranquil politic spaced out between
Nations' thought-forms proliferating bureaucratic
66
& horrific arm'd, Satanic industries projected sudden
with Five Hundred Billion Dollar Strength
around the world same time this text is set in Boulder,
Colorado before front range of Rocky Mountains
twelve miles north of Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility in
United States of North America, Western Hemisphere
of planet Earth six months and fourteen days around
our Solar System in a Spiral Galaxy
the local year after Dominion of the last God nineteen
hundred seventy eight
Completed as yellow hazed dawn clouds brighten East,
Denver city white below
Blue sky transparent rising empty deep & spacious to a
morning star high over the balcony
above some autos sat with wheels to curb downhill
from Flatiron's jagged pine ridge,
sunlit mountain meadows sloped to rust-red sandstone
cliffs above brick townhouse roofs
as sparrows waked whistling through Marine Street's
summer green leafed trees.
III
This ode to you O Poets and Orators to come, you
father Whitman as I join your side, you Congress
and American people,
you present meditators, spiritual friends & teachers,
you O Master of the Diamond Arts,
Take this wheel of syllables in hand, these vowels and
consonants to breath's end
take this inhalation of black poison to your heart, breath
out this blessing from your breast on our creation
forests cities oceans deserts rocky flats and mountains
in the Ten Directions pacify with exhalation,
enrich this Plutonian Ode to explode its empty thunder
through earthen thought-worlds
Magnetize this howl with heartless compassion, destroy
this mountain of Plutonium with ordinary mind
and body speech,
thus empower this Mind-guard spirit gone out, gone
out, gone beyond, gone beyond me, Wake space,
67
so Ah!
~ Allen Ginsberg,
1301:[The Gods and Their Worlds]

   [...] According to traditions and occult schools, all these zones of realities, these planes of realities have got different names; they have been classified in a different way, but there is an essential analogy, and if you go back far enough into the traditions, you see only the words changing according to the country and the language. Even now, the experiences of Western occultists and those of Eastern occultists offer great similarities. All who set out on the discovery of these invisible worlds and make a report of what they saw, give a very similar description, whether they be from here or there; they use different words, but the experience is very similar and the handling of forces is the same.

   This knowledge of the occult worlds is based on the existence of subtle bodies and of subtle worlds corresponding to those bodies. They are what the psychological method calls "states of consciousness", but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. The occult procedure consists then in being aware of these various inner states of being or subtle bodies and in becoming sufficiently a master of them so as to be able to go out of them successively, one after another. There is indeed a whole scale of subtleties, increasing or decreasing according to the direction in which you go, and the occult procedure consists in going out of a denser body into a subtler body and so on again, up to the most ethereal regions. You go, by successive exteriorisations, into bodies or worlds more and more subtle. It is somewhat as if every time you passed into another dimension. The fourth dimension of the physicists is nothing but the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge. To give another image, one can say that the physical body is at the centre - it is the most material, the densest and also the smallest - and the inner bodies, more subtle, overflow more and more the central physical body; they pass through it, extending themselves farther and farther, like water evaporating from a porous vase and forming a kind of steam all around. And the greater the subtlety, the more the extension tends to unite with that of the universe: one ends by universalising oneself. And it is altogether a concrete process which gives an objective experience of invisible worlds and even enables one to act in these worlds.

   There are, then, only a very small number of people in the West who know that these gods are not merely subjective and imaginary - more or less wildly imaginary - but that they correspond to a universal truth.

   All these regions, all these domains are filled with beings who exist, each in its own domain, and if you are awake and conscious on a particular plane - for instance, if on going out of a more material body you awake on some higher plane, you have the same relation with the things and people of that plane as you had with the things and people of the material world. That is to say, there exists an entirely objective relation that has nothing to do with the idea you may have of these things. Naturally, the resemblance is greater and greater as you approach the physical world, the material world, and there even comes a time when the one region has a direct action upon the other. In any case, in what Sri Aurobindo calls the overmental worlds, you will find a concrete reality absolutely independent of your personal experience; you go back there and again find the same things, with the differences that have occurred during your absence. And you have relations with those beings that are identical with the relations you have with physical beings, with this difference that the relation is more plastic, supple and direct - for example, there is the capacity to change the external form, the visible form, according to the inner state you are in. But you can make an appointment with someone and be at the appointed place and find the same being again, with certain differences that have come about during your absence; it is entirely concrete with results entirely concrete.

   One must have at least a little of this experience in order to understand these things. Otherwise, those who are convinced that all this is mere human imagination and mental formation, who believe that these gods have such and such a form because men have thought them to be like that, and that they have certain defects and certain qualities because men have thought them to be like that - all those who say that God is made in the image of man and that he exists only in human thought, all these will not understand; to them this will appear absolutely ridiculous, madness. One must have lived a little, touched the subject a little, to know how very concrete the thing is.

   Naturally, children know a good deal if they have not been spoilt. There are so many children who return every night to the same place and continue to live the life they have begun there. When these faculties are not spoilt with age, you can keep them with you. At a time when I was especially interested in dreams, I could return exactly to a place and continue a work that I had begun: supervise something, for example, set something in order, a work of organisation or of discovery, of exploration. You go until you reach a certain spot, as you would go in life, then you take a rest, then you return and begin again - you begin the work at the place where you left off and you continue it. And you perceive that there are things which are quite independent of you, in the sense that changes of which you are not at all the author, have taken place automatically during your absence.

   But for this, you must live these experiences yourself, you must see them yourself, live them with sufficient sincerity and spontaneity in order to see that they are independent of any mental formation. For you can do the opposite also, and deepen the study of the action of mental formation upon events. This is very interesting, but it is another domain. And this study makes you very careful, very prudent, because you become aware of how far you can delude yourself. So you must study both, the dream and the occult reality, in order to see what is the essential difference between the two. The one depends upon us; the other exists in itself; entirely independent of the thought that we have of it.

   When you have worked in that domain, you recognise in fact that once a subject has been studied and something has been learnt mentally, it gives a special colour to the experience; the experience may be quite spontaneous and sincere, but the simple fact that the subject was known and studied lends a particular quality. Whereas if you had learnt nothing about the question, if you knew nothing at all, the transcription would be completely spontaneous and sincere when the experience came; it would be more or less adequate, but it would not be the outcome of a previous mental formation.

   Naturally, this occult knowledge or this experience is not very frequent in the world, because in those who do not have a developed inner life, there are veritable gaps between the external consciousness and the inmost consciousness; the linking states of being are missing and they have to be constructed. So when people enter there for the first time, they are bewildered, they have the impression they have fallen into the night, into nothingness, into non-being!

   I had a Danish friend, a painter, who was like that. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of the body; he used to have interesting dreams and thought that it would be worth the trouble to go there consciously. So I made him "go out" - but it was a frightful thing! When he was dreaming, a part of his mind still remained conscious, active, and a kind of link existed between this active part and his external being; then he remembered some of his dreams, but it was a very partial phenomenon. And to go out of one's body means to pass gradually through all the states of being, if one does the thing systematically. Well, already in the subtle physical, one is almost de-individualised, and when one goes farther, there remains nothing, for nothing is formed or individualised.

   Thus, when people are asked to meditate or told to go within, to enter into themselves, they are in agony - naturally! They have the impression that they are vanishing. And with reason: there is nothing, no consciousness!

   These things that appear to us quite natural and evident, are, for people who know nothing, wild imagination. If, for example, you transplant these experiences or this knowledge to the West, well, unless you have been frequenting the circles of occultists, they stare at you with open eyes. And when you have turned your back, they hasten to say, "These people are cranks!" Now to come back to the gods and conclude. It must be said that all those beings who have never had an earthly existence - gods or demons, invisible beings and powers - do not possess what the Divine has put into man: the psychic being. And this psychic being gives to man true love, charity, compassion, a deep kindness, which compensate for all his external defects.

   In the gods there is no fault because they live according to their own nature, spontaneously and without constraint: as gods, it is their manner of being. But if you take a higher point of view, if you have a higher vision, a vision of the whole, you see that they lack certain qualities that are exclusively human. By his capacity of love and self-giving, man can have as much power as the gods and even more, when he is not egoistic, when he has surmounted his egoism.

   If he fulfils the required condition, man is nearer to the Supreme than the gods are. He can be nearer. He is not so automatically, but he has the power to be so, the potentiality.

   If human love manifested itself without mixture, it would be all-powerful. Unfortunately, in human love there is as much love of oneself as of the one loved; it is not a love that makes you forget yourself. - 4 November 1958

   ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother III, 355
,

IN CHAPTERS [300/354]



  160 Integral Yoga
   27 Yoga
   19 Christianity
   18 Philosophy
   14 Occultism
   10 Psychology
   9 Science
   6 Hinduism
   2 Integral Theory
   1 Theosophy
   1 Sufism
   1 Poetry
   1 Kabbalah
   1 Fiction
   1 Education
   1 Cybernetics
   1 Alchemy


  118 Sri Aurobindo
  104 The Mother
   53 Satprem
   17 Nolini Kanta Gupta
   11 Sri Ramakrishna
   11 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
   10 Swami Vivekananda
   8 Carl Jung
   7 Plato
   6 Plotinus
   4 Swami Krishnananda
   4 Sri Ramana Maharshi
   4 Paul Richard
   4 Patanjali
   4 Jordan Peterson
   4 Aleister Crowley
   3 Aldous Huxley
   3 A B Purani
   2 Peter J Carroll
   2 James George Frazer
   2 George Van Vrekhem
   2 Friedrich Nietzsche


   28 The Synthesis Of Yoga
   20 The Life Divine
   16 Record of Yoga
   11 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
   10 Prayers And Meditations
   10 Isha Upanishad
   10 Agenda Vol 09
   7 Talks
   7 Agenda Vol 01
   6 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
   6 Questions And Answers 1956
   6 Letters On Yoga II
   6 Agenda Vol 08
   6 Agenda Vol 07
   5 The Secret Of The Veda
   5 Some Answers From The Mother
   5 Raja-Yoga
   5 Questions And Answers 1955
   5 Questions And Answers 1954
   5 Questions And Answers 1953
   5 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
   5 Let Me Explain
   5 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
   4 Vedic and Philological Studies
   4 The Study and Practice of Yoga
   4 The Secret Doctrine
   4 The Future of Man
   4 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
   4 Maps of Meaning
   4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
   4 Agenda Vol 10
   4 Agenda Vol 03
   4 Agenda Vol 02
   3 The Perennial Philosophy
   3 The Lotus Sutra
   3 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
   3 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
   3 Magick Without Tears
   3 Letters On Yoga IV
   3 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
   3 Essays On The Gita
   3 Essays Divine And Human
   3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
   3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
   3 Agenda Vol 06
   3 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
   2 Words Of Long Ago
   2 Twilight of the Idols
   2 The Practice of Psycho therapy
   2 The Phenomenon of Man
   2 The Integral Yoga
   2 The Human Cycle
   2 The Golden Bough
   2 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
   2 Preparing for the Miraculous
   2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
   2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
   2 Liber Null
   2 Letters On Yoga I
   2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
   2 Aion
   2 Agenda Vol 13
   2 Agenda Vol 04


00.02 - Mystic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   And there is such a commensurability or parallelism between the various levels of consciousness, in and through all the differences that separate them from one another. Thus an object or a movement apprehended on the physical plane has a sort of line of re-echoing images extended in a series along the whole gradation of the inner planes; otherwise viewed, an object or movement in the innermost consciousness translates itself in varying modes from plane to plane down to the most material, where it appears in its grossest form as a concrete three-dimensional object or a mechanical movement. This parallelism or commensurability by virtue of which the different and divergent states of consciousness can portray or represent each other is the source of all symbolism.
   A symbol symbolizes something for this reason that both possess in common a certain identical, at least similar, quality or rhythm or vibration, the symbol possessing it in a grosser or more apparent or sensuous form than the thing symbolized does. Sometimes it may happen that it is more than a certain quality or rhythm or vibration that is common between the two: the symbol in its entirety is the thing symbolized but thrown down on another plane, it is the embodiment of the latter in a more concrete world. The light and the fire that Saint Paul and Moses saw appear to be of this kind.

0.01 - Letters from the Mother to Her Son, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  it is certainly not confined to the small states of central Europe.
  What you have described is pretty much the state of the whole

0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Do such psychological conceptions correspond to anything real and possible? All Yoga asserts them as its ultimate experience and supreme aim. They form the governing principles of our highest possible state of consciousness, our widest possible range of existence. There is, we say, a harmony of supreme faculties, corresponding roughly to the psychological faculties of revelation, inspiration and intuition, yet acting not in the intuitive reason or the divine mind, but on a still higher plane, which see Truth directly face to face, or rather live in the truth of things both universal and transcendent and are its formulation and luminous activity. And these faculties are the light of a conscious existence superseding the egoistic and itself both cosmic and transcendent, the nature of which is Bliss. These are obviously divine and, as man is at present apparently constituted, superhuman states of consciousness and activity. A trinity of transcendent existence, self-awareness and self-delight7 is, indeed, the metaphysical description of the supreme Atman, the self-formulation, to our awakened knowledge, of the Unknowable whether conceived as a pure Impersonality or as a cosmic Personality manifesting the universe. But in Yoga they are regarded also in their psychological aspects as states of subjective existence to which our waking consciousness is now alien, but which dwell in us in a superconscious plane and to which, therefore, we may always ascend.
  For, as is indicated by the name, causal body (karan.a), as opposed to the two others which are instruments (karan.a), this crowning manifestation is also the source and effective power of all that in the actual evolution has preceded it. Our mental activities are, indeed, a derivation, selection and, so long as they are divided from the truth that is secretly their source, a deformation of the divine knowledge. Our sensations and emotions have the same relation to the Bliss, our vital forces and actions to the aspect of Will or Force assumed by the divine consciousness, our physical being to the pure essence of that Bliss and

0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This is the first step only. Afterwards, the ordinary activities of the mind and sense must be entirely quieted in order that the soul may be free to ascend to higher states of consciousness and acquire the foundation for a perfect freedom and self-mastery.
  But Rajayoga does not forget that the disabilities of the ordinary mind proceed largely from its subjection to the reactions of the nervous system and the body. It adopts therefore from the Hathayogic system its devices of asana and pran.ayama, but reduces their multiple and elaborate forms in each case to one simplest and most directly effective process sufficient for its own immediate object. Thus it gets rid of the Hathayogic complexity and cumbrousness while it utilises the swift and powerful efficacy of its methods for the control of the body and the vital functions and for the awakening of that internal dynamism, full of a latent supernormal faculty, typified in Yogic terminology by the kun.d.alin, the coiled and sleeping serpent of Energy within. This done, the system proceeds to the perfect quieting of the restless mind and its elevation to a higher plane through concentration of mental force by the successive stages which lead to the utmost inner concentration or ingathered state of the consciousness which is called Samadhi.
  By Samadhi, in which the mind acquires the capacity of withdrawing from its limited waking activities into freer and higher states of consciousness, Rajayoga serves a double purpose. It compasses a pure mental action liberated from the confusions of the outer consciousness and passes thence to the higher supra-mental planes on which the individual soul enters into its true spiritual existence. But also it acquires the capacity of that free and concentrated energising of consciousness on
  The Systems of Yoga
  --
  But the weakness of the system lies in its excessive reliance on abnormal states of trance. This limitation leads first to a certain aloofness from the physical life which is our foundation and the sphere into which we have to bring our mental and spiritual gains. Especially is the spiritual life, in this system, too much associated with the state of Samadhi. Our object is to make the spiritual life and its experiences fully active and fully utilisable in the waking state and even in the normal use of the functions.
  But in Rajayoga it tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of descending and possessing our whole existence.

0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  carry in ourselves in all our states of being, mentally, vitally and
  physically, is that which constitutes our life objectified in what
  --
  The individual being is made up of states of being corresponding
  to cosmic zones or planes, and it is as these inner states of being
  are developed that one becomes conscious of those domains.

01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  I may say briefly that there are two states of consciousness in either of which one can live. One is a higher consciousness which stands above the play of life and governs it; this is variously called the Self, the Spirit or the Divine. The other is the normal consciousness in which men live; it is something quite superficial, an instrument of the Spirit for the play of life. Those who live and act in the normal consciousness are governed entirely by the common movements of the mind and are naturally subject to grief and joy and anxiety and desire or to everything else that makes up the ordinary stuff of life.
  Mental quiet and happiness they can get, but it can never be permanent or secure. But the spiritual consciousness is all light, peace, power and bliss. If one can live entirely in it, there is no question; these things become naturally and securely his.

01.04 - Motives for Seeking the Divine, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  That involves something which throws all your reasoning out of gear. For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states of his being, - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone self-existent, not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable, not existing by them, but they existing because of him. It follows that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any aspect. His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and ineffable, because he is himself magically, mysteriously, transcendently marvellous and ineffable. He can then be sought after for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of one aspect or another of him. The only thing needed for that is, first, to arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine in himself and, secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital and each thing else begins to feel too that that was what it was wanting and the surface hunt after Ananda or what else was only an excuse for drawing the nature towards that supreme magnet.
  Your argument that because we know the union with the

01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   When we say one is conscious, we usually mean that one is conscious with the mental consciousness, with the rational intelligence, with the light of the brain. But this need not be always so. For one can be conscious with other forms of consciousness or in other planes of consciousness. In the average or normal man the consciousness is linked to or identified with the brain function, the rational intelligence and so we conclude that without this wakeful brain activity there can be no consciousness. But the fact is otherwise. The experiences of the mystic prove the point. The mystic is conscious on a level which we describe as higher than the mind and reason, he has what may be called the overhead consciousness. (Apart from the normal consciousness, which is named jagrat, waking, the Upanishad speaks of three other increasingly subtler states of consciousness, swapna, sushupti and turiya.)And then one can be quite unconscious, as in samadhi that can be sushupti or turiyaorpartially consciousin swapna, for example, the external behaviour may be like that of a child or a lunatic or even a goblin. One can also remain normally conscious and still be in the superconscience. Not only so, the mystic the Yogican be conscious on infraconscious levels also; that is to say, he can enter into and identify with the consciousness involved in life and even in Matter; he can feel and realise his oneness with the animal world, the plant world and finally the world of dead earth, of "stocks and stones" too. For all these strands of existence have each its own type of consciousness and all different from the mode of mind which is normally known as consciousness. When St. Francis addresses himself to the brother Sun or the sister Moon, or when the Upanishad speaks of the tree silhouetted against the sky, as if stilled in trance, we feel there is something of this fusion and identification of consciousness with an infra-conscient existence.
   I said that the supreme artist is superconscious: his consciousness withdraws from the normal mental consciousness and becomes awake and alive in another order of consciousness. To that superior consciousness the artist's mentalityhis ideas and dispositions, his judgments and valuations and acquisitions, in other words, his normal psychological make-upserves as a channel, an instrument, a medium for transcription. Now, there are two stages, or rather two lines of activity in the processus, for they may be overlapping and practically simultaneous. First, there is the withdrawal and the in-gathering of consciousness and then its reappearance into expression. The consciousness retires into a secret or subtle worldWords-worth's "recollected in tranquillity"and comes back with the riches gathered or transmuted there. But the purity of the gold thus garnered and stalled in the artistry of words and sounds or lines and colours depends altogether upon the purity of the channel through which it has to pass. The mental vehicle receives and records and it can do so to perfection if it is perfectly in tune with what it has to receive and record; otherwise the transcription becomes mixed and blurred, a faint or confused echo, a poor show. The supreme creators are precisely those in whom the receptacle, the instrumental faculties offer the least resistance and record with absolute fidelity the experiences of the over or inner consciousness. In Shakespeare, in Homer, in Valmiki the inflatus of the secret consciousness, the inspiration, as it is usually termed, bears down, sweeps away all obscurity or contrariety in the recording mentality, suffuses it with its own glow and puissance, indeed resolves it into its own substance, as it were. And the difference between the two, the secret norm and the recording form, determines the scale of the artist's creative value. It happens often that the obstruction of a too critically observant and self-conscious brain-mind successfully blocks up the flow of something supremely beautiful that wanted to come down and waited for an opportunity.

0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The two states of consciousness should be simultaneous and
  complementary, not successive and contradictory, and this too is

0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  then the consciousness descends through all the states of being
  down to the most material, bringing the Divine Force with it so
  --
  Total means vertically in all the states of being, from the
  most material to the most subtle.

0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  element. It was around the ego that the different states of being
  were grouped; but now that the birth of superhumanity is being

0 1958-09-16 - OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   Just recently one day, the contact became entirely physical, the whole body was in great exaltation, and I noticed that other lines were spontaneously being added to this Dieu de bont et de misricorde, and I noted them down. It was a springing forth of states of consciousness not words.
   Seigneur, Dieu de bont et de misricorde
  --
   The words came afterwards, as if they had been superimposed upon the states of consciousness, grafted onto them. Some of the associations seem unexpected, but they were the exact expression of the states of consciousness in their order of unfolding. They came one after another, as if the contact was trying to become more complete. And the last was like a triumph. As soon as I finished writing (in writing, all this becomes rather flat), the impetus within was still alive and it gave me the sense of an all-conquering Truth. And the last mantra sprang forth:
   Seigneur, Dieu de la Vrit victorieuse!

0 1958-10-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   Certain relationships are entirely within me, entirely. It is not a relationship between individuals, but a relationship between states of beingwhich means that with the same individual there may be many different relationships. If it were a single whole but I am still not sure if there is a single person with whom the relationship is global.
   So there are parts which are entirely within me, entirely there is no difference; they are myself. There are other parts with which I am conscious of an exchangea very familiar, very intimate exchange. And there are parts outside of me with which I still have relationships, not exactly as with strangers but merely as acquaintances; it is still necessary to observe their reactions in order to do the correct thing. And the ratio between these different parts is naturally different depending upon the different individuals.

0 1958-10-25 - to go out of your body, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   Between the outer consciousness and the deepest consciousness there are truly holeswhich are missing links between states of being and which have to be built, but they dont know how to do it. So their first reaction when they go within is panic! They feel they are falling into night, into nothingness, into non-being!
   I had a Danish friend, an artist, to whom this happened. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of his body. He had interesting dreams so he thought it might be worthwhile to go there consciously. I helped him to go out but it was frightful! When he dreamed, a part of his mind indeed remained conscious, active, and a kind of link remained between this active part and his outer being, so he remembered some of his dreams, but it was only a very partial phenomenon. To go out of your body means that you must gradually pass through ALL the states of being, if you are to do it systematically. But already in the subtle physical it was almost non-individualized, and as soon as he went a bit further, there was no longer anything! It was unformed, nonexistent.
   So they sit down (they are told to interiorize, to go within themselves), and they panic!Naturally they feel that they that they are disappearing: there is nothing! There is no consciousness!

0 1958-11-04 - Myths are True and Gods exist - mental formation and occult faculties - exteriorization - work in dreams, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   There are subtle bodies and subtle worlds that correspond to these bodies; it is what the psychological method calls states of consciousness, but these states of consciousness really correspond to worlds. The occult process consists in becoming aware of these various inner states of being, or subtle bodies, and of mastering them sufficiently to be able to make one come out of the other, successively. For there is a whole hierarchy of increasing subtletiesor decreasing, depending upon the direction and the occult process consists in making a more subtle body come out from a denser body, and so forth, right to the most ethereal regions. You go out through successive exteriorizations into more and more subtle bodies or worlds. Each time it is rather like passing into another dimension. In fact, the fourth dimension of the physicists is only the scientific transcription of an occult knowledge.
   To give another comparison, it could be said that the physical body is at the centerit is the most material and the most condensed, as well as the smallestand the more subtle inner bodies increasingly overlap the limits of this central physical body; they pass through it and extend further and further out, like water evaporating from a porous vase which creates a kind of steam all around it. And the more subtle it is, the more its extension tends to fuse with that of the universe: you finally become universal. It is an entirely concrete process that makes the invisible worlds an objective experience and even allows you to act in those worlds.

0 1958-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   The quality or the kind of relationship I had with the Supreme at that moment was entirely different from the one we have hereeven the identification had a different quality. One can very well understand that all the lower movements are different but this identification by which the Supreme governs and lives in us was the summit of our experience herewell, the way He governs and lives is different depending on whether we are in this hemisphere here or in the supramental life. And at that moment (the experience of November 13), what made the experience so intense was that I came to perceive vaguely both these states of consciousness at once. It was almost as if the Supreme Himself were different, or our experience of Him. And yet, in both cases, it was a contact with the Supreme. It is probably how we perceive Him or the way in which we translate it that differs, but the fact is that the quality of the experience is different.
   In the other hemisphere, there is an intensity and a plenitude which are translated by a power different from the one here. How can I formulate it?I cannot.

0 1960-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   And I wondered why people are so rigid and severe, why they condemn others (but one day Ill understand this as well). I say this because very often I run into these two states of mind in my activities (the grave and serious mind which sees hypocrisy and vice, and the religious and yogic mind which sees the illusion that prevents you from nearing the Divine)and without being openly criticized, Im criticized Ill tell you about this one day
   Youre criticized?

0 1960-12-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
   But you cannot get out as long as it all seems quite natural to you. Whats most unfortunate is when you resign yourself to it. You realize this when you go back to earlier states of consciousness; you see that it all seemed, if not quite natural, at least almost inevitable thats how things are, you must take them as they are. And you dont even think about it; you take things as they are, you EXPECT them to be what they are; its the stuff of our daily lives, and it keeps repeating itself endlessly. And the only thing you learn is to hold on, hold on, not let yourself be shaken, to go right through it alland it feels endless, interminable, almost eternal. (However, once you understand what eternal is, you see that this CANNOT be eternal, for otherwise )
   But this particular state of endurancethis endurance that nothing can upsetis very dangerous. And yet its indispensable; for you must first accept everything before having the power to transform anything.

0 1961-01-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Of course, people who dont think deeply enough will say, Oh, but if we see that things are exactly as they should be, then nothing will budge. But no! There isnt a fraction of a second when things arent moving: theres a continuous and total transformation, a movement that never stops. Only because its difficult for us to feel that way can we imagine that by our entering certain states of consciousness things would not change. Even if we entered into an apparently total inertia, things would continue to change and we along with them!
   Ultimately, disgust, rebellion and anger, all movements of violence, are necessarily movements of ignorance and of limitation with all the weakness that limitation implies. Rebellion is a weakness, for its the feeling of an impotent will. When you feel, when you see that things are not as they should be, then you rebel against whatever is out of keeping with your vision. But if you were all-powerful, if your will and your vision were all-powerful, there would be no opportunity to rebel! You would always see that all things are as they should be! That is omnipotence.1 Then all these movements of violence become not only useless but profoundly ridiculous.

0 1961-06-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I will give you a concrete example, then youll understand. When I.B. was killed, I had to gather up all his states of being and activities, which had been dispersed by the violence of the accident2it was terrible, he was in a dreadful state of dispersion. For two or two and a half days the doctors fought in the hope of reviving him, but it was impossible. During those two days I gathered up all his consciousness, all of it; I collected it over his body, to the point where, when it had come and formed itself there, such vitality, such life was coming back into his body that after some hours the doctors believed he would be saved. But it couldnt last (it wasnt possiblea part of the brain had come out). Well, when not only his soul but his mental being, his vital being, and all the rest had been properly collected and organized over his body and had realized that the body had become quite unusable, it was overthey gave up the body and it was over.
   I was keeping I.B. near me because I already had the idea of putting him immediately back into another bodyhis soul was not satisfied, it had not finished its experience (there was a whole combination of circumstances) and it wanted to continue to live on earth. Then, that night, his inner being went to find V., lamenting, saying he was dead and hadnt wanted to die, that he had lost his body and wanted to continue to live. V. was very perplexed. He let me know about it in the morning: Heres what has happened. I sent word to him of what I was doing, that I was keeping I.B. in my atmosphere and that he should stay very calm and not get excited, for I was going to put him back into a body as soon as possible I already had something in view. The same evening I.B. again went to find V., with the same complaint. V. told him very clearly, Here is what Mother says, here is what she is going to do; come now, be calm and dont torment yourself. And he saw in I.B.s face that he had understood (the inner being was taking on I.B.s physical appearance, naturally); his face relaxed, he became content.

0 1961-07-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   This japa, you know, didnt at all come from here (Mother points to her head). Its something I received fully formed, and to such an extent that I couldnt even change the place of a single thinga will seemed to oppose any change. Its a long series unfolding according to a law that probably corresponds to what is needed to develop this consciousness and the work it has to do (I suppose I dont really know and I havent tried to know). But a sort of law makes it impossible to change the position of even a single word, because these are not wordsthey are fully formed states of consciousness. And the whole series culminates with:
   Manifest Your Love.

0 1961-07-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   It makes you sense so clearly that things in themselves dont count. What we call things in themselves are of no true importance! What really counts is the relationship of consciousness to these things. And theres a formidable power in this, since in one instance you touch something and drop or mishandle it, while in the other its so lovely, it works so smoothly. Even the most difficult movements are made without difficulty. Its an unheard-of power! We dont give it importance because it has no grandiose effects, its not spectacular. Yes, there are indeed states of grace when one is in the presence of a great difficulty and suddenly has all the power needed to face ityes, but thats something else. I am speaking of a power active in ordinary life.
   There was an instance of this the other day: someone in a completely detestable mood wrote me a letter; it was impossible, I couldnt reply I didnt know what to say. I simply applied the Force and remained like this (gesture of an offering to the Light). I said, We shall see. Several hours later (I knew I was going to see this person) I didnt even know if I was going to say I had read the letteror rather if what I was going to say would result from having read it. I had come to that pointnothing. But that very morning a little circumstance occurred that changed everything! And when I met the person I knew immediately what had to be said, what had to be done, and everything worked out.

0 1962-06-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   What was standing there was a manifestation of one of my states of being, a part of my vital being, or rather one of my innumerable vital beingsbecause I have quite a few! And this one is particularly interested in things on earth.
   A projection of yoursan emanation?

0 1962-06-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Four at once. And, in general, they were the different states of being of the Mother the four aspects. Generally one aspect in each embodiment (when there were four). Or else this or that aspect might have been less present in one embodiment and more present in another. Sometimes there was a fairly central presence and then at the same time less central, less important emanations. But that has happened several timesseveral times. On two occasions it was particularly clear.
   But I have often sensed that there wasnt merely ONE embodiment, that the course of history may have crystallized around this or that person, but there were other embodiments less (how to put it?) less conspicuous, somewhere else.

0 1962-07-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   For several hours afterwards I had a vision of this state of mind and found absolutely no need to make hypotheses (you see, Pavitra was speaking of hypothesizing the existence of different states of being). Its just as I told you: I have passed that stage; I dont need inner dimensions any more.1 And observing this materialistic state of mind, it occurred to me that, on the basis of their own experiments, they are bound to admit onenessat least the oneness of matter; and to admit oneness is enough to obtain the key to the whole problem!
   Once again it made me realize that this last experience [of April 13] may in reality have come to free me from ALL past knowledge, and that to live the Truth none of it is needed. I need neither all this terminology nor Sri Aurobindos terminology nor, of course, anyone elses; I dont need all these classifications, I dont need all sorts of experiences I need ONE experience, the one I have. And I have it in all things and in all circumstances: the experience of eternal, infinite, absolute Oneness manifesting in the finite, the relative and the temporal. And the process of change I am pursuing seems less and less of a problem; after looking like the ultimate problem, it doesnt seem to be one any more, because but that that cant be utteredit pleases Him to be that way, so He is that way.

0 1962-08-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   For all the states of being, the mental, the vital, and even the subtle physical, that sense of separation has long been gone. But now I am speaking of the body. I say I, of course but what says I is its something as vast as the universe. And it CANNOT be otherwise. Its not that I want it this way, or because I insist on it, its not the result of a tapasya or not at all: it CANNOT BE OTHERWISE, thats how it is. Its my spontaneous way of being. The experience has become completely (how to put it?) externalized.
   And thats what makes the ESSENTIAL difference for this body. Thats why it feels different from other bodies. Its (Mother shakes her head) no, its not the same thing, it distinctly feels its not the samebecause its reactions are different!

0 1963-05-18, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Then again something else comes and says, Oh, you always have very favorable explanations to comfort yourself! You see, I am like a spectator (Mother does the same gesture of great cosmic waves assailing her) at a sort of contest of all the different reactions. (I put it into words to make myself understood, but there are no wordsonly SENSATIONS; the verbal translation is just for explaining, but they are like sensations, or rather states of consciousness. They are all states of consciousness.) And they all run into each other (gesture of waves).
   Ah, none of this is for the Bulletin!

0 1963-07-31, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The work consists, I could say, in either removing or transforming (I am not sure which of the two) all the bodys cells that are or have been under the influence of Falsehood (not lie but falsehood), of the state contrary to the Divine. But since probably a radical purge or transformation would have resulted in nothing but the bodys dissolution, the work goes on in stages, progressively (I am going very far back in time, to my first attacks). So the sequence is the following: first, a series of activities or visions (but those visions are always activities at the same time: both activities and visions) in the subconscious domain, showing in a very living and objective way the Falsehood that has to be removed (transformed or removed). At first, I took them as adverse attacks, but now I see they are states of falsehood to which certain elements in the physical being are linked (at the time, I thought, I am brought into contact with that because of the correspondence in me, and I worked on that level but its another way of seeing the same thing). And it produces certainly there is a dissolution there is a transformation, but a dissolution tooand that dissolution naturally brings about an extreme fatigue or a sort of exhaustion in the body; so between two of those stages of transformation, the body is given time to recover strength and energy.1 And I had noticed that those attacks always come after the observation (an observation I made these last few days) of a great increase in power, energy and force; when the body grows more and more solid, there always follows the next day or the day after, first, a series of nights I could call unpleasant (they are not, for theyre instructive), and then a terrible battle in the body. This time I was consciousnaturally, I am conscious every time, but (smiling) more so every time.
   I had observed lately that the body was getting much stronger, much more solid, that it was even putting on weight (!), which is almost abnormal. Then, I had a first vision (not vision: an activity, but very clear), then another, and then a third. Last night, I was fed a subtle food, as if to tell me that I would need it because I wouldnt take any physical food2 (not that I thought about it, I simply noticed I had been fed, given certain foods). And with the visions I had the two preceding nights, I knew that at issue were certain elements forming part of the bodys construction (psychological construction), and that they had to be eliminated. So I worked hard for their elimination. And today, the battle was waged.

0 1964-11-04, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   But at that moment, I felt something like the representation of certain states of mind, certain intellectual conditions, a whole series of things that represented doubts, negations, ignorant attitudes, revolts and all at once, this came.
   And I still see the form I saw: like that, as if he were launching into battle but only what you can see in a flash.

0 1965-02-19, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Perfect surrender in all the states of being. That comes progressively, it comes through years of repetition, but thats what the word must represent when it is said: total self-giving to this Supreme, who naturally is beyond all conception. Perfect surrender, that is, spontaneous surrender, which requires neither effort nor anythinga surrender that must be perfectly spontaneous. This, too, is something that is attained little by little; thats why I said that the mantra is progressive, in the sense that it grows more and more perfect.
   The third word represents:

0 1965-07-21, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The other states of being
   If you knew with what sort of disdain it spoke, such a superior air!
   The other states of being, the vital, the mind, may enjoy the intermediate contacts
   In other words, all the intermediate states of being, also the gods, the entities and all those things. And it spoke with a power and a sort of dignityyes, it was dignity, almost pride, but not an arrogant pride, nothing of the sort. It was the sense of a nobility.
   The supreme Lord alone can satisfy me.

0 1965-08-21, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The cells, the whole material consciousness, used to obey the inner individual consciousness the psychic consciousness most of the time, or the mental (but the mind had been silent for a long time). But now this material mind is organizing itself like the other one, or the other ones, rather, like the mind of all the states of beingdo you know, it is educating itself. It is learning things and organizing the ordinary science of the material world. When I write, for instance, I have noticed that it takes great care not to make spelling errors; and it doesnt know, so it inquires, it learns, it looks up in the dictionary or it asks. Thats very interesting. It wants to know. You see, all the memory that came from mental knowledge went away a long, long time ago, and I used to receive indications only like this (gesture from above). But now its a sort of memory being built from below, and with the care of a little child who educates himself but who wants to know, who doesnt want to make errorswho is perfectly conscious of his ignorance, and who wants to know. And the truly interesting thing is that it knows this knowledge to be quite more than relative, simply conventional, but it is like an instrument that would like to be free of defects, like a machine that would like to be perfect.
   It is a rather recent awakening. There has been a sort of reversal of consciousness.

0 1966-05-18, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   We could say that man is the all-powerful master of all the states of being of his nature, but that he has forgotten to be so.
   His natural state is to be all-powerfulhe has forgotten to be so.

0 1966-08-03, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   There only remains the phenomenon of contagion (contagion of viruses or germs), but there, experience shows that phenomena of psychological disorderall psychological disordersappear to be, according to experience, of the same nature as the contagion of a contagious disease and of all viruses and germs (such as the plague, cholera and so on). There are psychological contagions of psychological states: states of revolt or violence, of anger AND DEPRESSION, are contagious in the same manner, its a similar phenomenon. Therefore, since its a similar phenomenon, it can be mastered. Its simply a question of words: we call them illnesses (but these [psychological contagions] can also be called illnesses) or we can call them any name we like, its a question of words, thats all. But its similar, its the same thing: its an opening to disorder or an opening to revolt. We can call it what we like. Only, its in a different field of vibrations. But the character is identical.
   And then, what discoveries I make! Extraordinary discoveries: how every experience always has an obverse and a reverse. For instance, the calm of a vision thats vast enough not to be disturbed by tiny infinitesimal points and is (I was about to say seems to be, but it doesnt seem to be: it IS) the result of a growth of consciousness and of an identification with the higher regions, and at the same time that apparent insensitiveness that looks like the negation of divine compassion; there comes a point when you see both as having become true and being able to exist not simultaneously but as ONE thing. As recently as the day before yesterday, I had the perfectly concrete experience of an extremely intense wave of divine Compassion [in the face of one of those psychological contagions], and I had the opportunity to observe how, if this Compassion is allowed to manifest on a certain plane, it becomes an emotion that may disturb or trouble the imperturbable calm; but if it manifests (they arent the same planes: there are imperceptible nuances), if it manifests in its essential truth, it retains all its power of action, of effective help, and it in no way changes the imperturbable calm of the eternal vision.

0 1966-10-12, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   No one had told me anything. Its only when I went to Tlemcen that Madame Thon told me what it was. She knew how to go through all the states of being, from one to the next, and on to the next leaving the body corresponding to each state of being in its region and moving beyond. So then, quite spontaneously and naturally, I learned to do it. And I did it there, thats how I saw this prototype, all the way up, all the way up.
   Thons teaching wasnt at all metaphysical and intellectual: everything was expressed in a sort of pictorial objectification; and as I said the other day about that vision [of the birds], its a richer expression, less limited than the purely intellectual and metaphysical expression. Its more alive.

0 1966-10-26, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   They are particular states of consciousness that grew precise and were expressed particularly well in certain individuals at certain momentsits not during the whole life of a whole individual, its not that: its states of consciousness that reached the height of their formation and intensity at certain moments. And then, it all comes back like a big merry-go-round (Mother draws a circular dance above her head and around her), all the time, through all times and all countries. The photo catches it, and when it comes to me, when I see it, I seem to be looking not at all at this person [Mother], but at someone I have known quite a lot, someone I have known quite well: But of course, its you, no doubt! But I cant put a name.
   Yes, its like a merry-go-round of all the moments when the Consciousness manifested in people. Its very interesting. The body is now growing very impersonal.
  --
   Its a phenomenon thats growing concrete. There are all sorts of they arent people: they are states of consciousness that expressed themselves or maybe even took a precise shape in the lives of all kinds of people; some of them are quite known to me: I have seen them often, they come back often and I know them very well I can put names to them. But these states of consciousness werent exclusively in this or that person: they were in many people and in many ages.
   And its more and more often like that. I think its to make the [cellular] aggregate more supple, to give it suppleness.
  --
   Because its an experience Ive had several times, and with all this work I am doing now, I understand better. You see, what seems to be perpetuated or preserved isnt individuals: its states of consciousness states of consciousness. Those states of consciousness manifest through many individuals and many different lives, and those states of consciousness are what progress towards a more and more luminous perfection. There are now, at present, all kinds of categories of states of consciousness that come one upon another in order to be put in contact with the Truth, the Light, the perfect Consciousness, and at the same time they have retained a sort of imprint (like a memory) of the moments when they manifested.
   There is a big work of transformation of the material states of consciousness going on: the states of consciousness nearest to the Inconscient, the most material states of consciousness. They come like that [to present themselves to Mother], with one or two examples of their previous manifestation (perhaps even their first emergence from the Inconscient), and then I see the transition (along with what has transformed them, changed them or even simply altered them through successive manifestations), the transition up to the point when they are now presented before the supreme Consciousness for the final transformation. This is a perpetual work, so to speak, because, interestingly, its a work I can go on doing while seeing people. Generally my work was interrupted when I saw people, because I was busy with them and that diminished and limited the work: they represented a small aggregate of difficulties that enormously shrank the Action [of Mother]. But now its no longer like that. And the interesting point is that it places people in this or that curve of transformation of the consciousness. For some time I have been seeing a considerable number of people I had never seen before (with all the old or familiar people there was no difficulty, but with the new ones it generally caused a shrinking of the work), and now with this study of states of consciousness, people are placed: here, there, here (Mother draws different levels in space). And if they are receptive, they must go away [after seeing Mother] with a new impulse to transform themselves. Those who arent receptive just miss it; but they are no longer a disturbance: they come in and go out. And from that I know what state they are in I can even do it with photos, but when I see people its much more complete. Photos are no more than one moment of their being, while here, even what isnt being manifested is there, hidden behind, and can be seen, so I see the person more completely. Its very interesting. It transforms this whole burden of visitors into something interesting.
   On October 21.

0 1966-10-29, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   To tell the truth, I dont like mental activity I have never liked it. I worked a lot in the mind for a time: it was a phase, the phase of mental development when I did philosophyall philosophies, comparative philosophiesin order to make the intellect more supple. But to tell the truth, it doesnt interest me. While states of consciousness movements of consciousness, states of consciousness thats tremendously interesting! And going on at the moment there is a very keen, that is, very painstaking study of the relationship between states of consciousness and the phenomenon of death.
   Ultimately, all beliefs people have about what happens after death Human beings have long tried to know, of course, and some religions thought they had found an explanation. Ive had personal experiences. And now the problem is put in a new way, as if (I say as if because I havent come to the end and I dont know), as if what is perpetuated from life to life werent personalities but states of CONSCIOUSNESS, which are immortal and in constant transformation at the same time, and whats transformed through ones lives is the state of consciousness. Some have only one state of consciousness, others have many (there are even certain people who have two nearly opposite states of consciousness, which results in that double personality and those contradictions in life). Some are very simple and have only one, and that results in almost primitive individuals; but they sometimes have a wonderful development in their state of consciousness. That explains many contradictions. Thats what I am clearly shown at the moment: states of consciousness passing through numerous aggregates. And then, there is, there too, a secret to be found for the prolongation of an aggregate, that is, what gives the character not of immortality (which is something very different), but of the indefinite duration of lifeof the FORM, rather (life never stops), of the form. So then, once this study has been done in depth, another secret will have been found.
   Its very interesting.

0 1966-11-03, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   It fits with what I told you last time: the states of CONSCIOUSNESS are what reincarnate, evolving, developing, growing more perfect. Thats rather how it was, thats how that memory came. Its like that with many memories. And I know that to say states of consciousness are what reincarnate, to adopt that as the sole explanation would be incorrectits absolutely incorrect but its one way of looking at the question beyond the sense of the little personality. It broadens the consciousness: one has in oneself things far more universal and far less limited than personal experiences. Just as in life some people have an exceptional life, in the same way they also have exceptional moments in their life, when they no longer are one single little person: they are a force in action. Thats how it is.
   Ultimately, this question (I read the question, it has been published somewhere and it was read to me) is a question asked by ignorant people. They ask you something, but they are ignorant. They should begin by studying the subject in the first place and learn something about it, then they would be able to understand the proof we can give them. Otherwise they wont understand it.
  --
   Mother does not refer to a category of so-called higher "beings," but to higher levels of being or states of being.
   If it is the battle of Magenta, it is not Murat but MacMahon. It seems more likely to be Murat and another battle.

0 1967-01-14, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Before going to sleep I was in that frame of mind, and during the night there was a series of experiences to show all the different states of consciousness of the different states of being. When I got up in the morning, there was a very keen observation of the difference contri buted by the physical. I saw how that difference could persist in the new physical state once it had shed its false side. And then, for I dont know, certainly two hours, there was a concrete Presence of what I call the Supreme Lord (but we can call it by any name, it doesnt matter: Truth, Consciousness, whatever we like the words dont matter, its something beyond all that). A concrete presence, there, like this (Mother clenches her two fists as if to evoke a palpable solidity), in all the cells, in the whole being. I went on doing all the absolutely trivial and tiny little thingslike bathing, the usual things, eating too, speaking and it stayed there. And it was as if telling me, This is how it will be. A joy, a power, a blossomingextraordinary, to such a point that I wondered how it was that this (body) didnt change. Its because THE STATE DIDNT LAST LONG ENOUGH. It lasted for only about two hours (give or take a little); afterwards, back came the everyday routine, everyone with their problems, etc. (Mother makes the familiar gesture of the truckload being dumped). But I am not accusing anything of having made the state go away: it went away because this (body) isnt yet capable of holding it, thats all. That is to say, at that moment, while it was there, there was an intimation that I had to write a note. Thats what I wanted to tell you. I had to write a note. (Mother breaks off abruptly, then speaks as if words were being dictated to her:)
   Because of the necessities of the transformation, this body may enter a state of trance that will appear cataleptic.

0 1967-05-03, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   So I thought there may be You know, sometimes theres a very small gap (we have many layers of consciousness that interpenetrate like that), if there is just a gap, a lacuna, a void between the two, it is enough to not know. Thats what Thon explained to me: All your states of being are there in the fourth dimension, one inside the other; what you lack is a very small level. Its nothing, you know, in your consciousness you dont notice it, but in its construction something is undeveloped, and so whats on the other side cant come through; its lost between this and that. Its lost. So I asked him, What can be done? He told me, You must develop it. And I did the experiment (he told me and I did it). And indeed I had a nervous subdegree (he used to call the vital the nervous), a nervous subdegree that wasnt developed, not sufficiently conscious. And for a year, day after day after day, a concentration to develop it, applying the consciousness, applying the consciousness absolutely no result. For at leastat leastsix months continuously, a concentration every day; I kept an hour for thatabsolutely no result.
   Only, I didnt doubt. I simply thought, How very stupid of me, I dont know how to do it I was living in Paris; come summer, I left on holidays. I went to some friends who had a property by the sea. There was a small wood, large meadows, it was pretty. And after lunch, I go and lie down on the grass and all of a sudden, everythingfrom the air, the earth, the water, from everywhereeverything came. Everything, but everything I wanted to have came like that. Suddenly. Like that, effortlessly. The result of six months of work.

0 1967-07-15, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I had many in Italy. I travelled in Italy with my mother when I was fifteen, and I had lived a past life in Italy which was very conscious. Upon seeing the places, that (the psychic vibration of emotion) would spring up suddenly. And it would come along with the image. Whats in the foreground is the psychic movement (the word emotion isnt good, but anyway), its the psychic movement which is in front and is important thats what comes; the rest is like a background reflection: that is, forms, situations, circumstances. I noted some down. Did you ever see something I wrote about a life in Italy? An old, old thing that I had written. At fifteen I had that experience when I was fifteen. I dont even know where I put it away, I dont think that paper is with me, I dont know where it is. I narrated it a little later. When I met Thon, I understood my experience because it was explained to me (I didnt say the thing, but I understood afterwards, once I knew the states of being, their working and all that), so I understood that was what a psychic memory was.
   Before I knew anything mentally, I had had a considerable number of memories from past lives, but in that way: real psychic memories, not mental fabrications. And what comes first is emotion (emotion: the psychic feeling), its vivid, strong, you know, very strong; then, as a sort of background setting, there are the forms, appearances, circumstances, with something like the quality of a nebulous memory, and they come along with the psychic feeling.
  --
   There was another experience I had a little later (a little later, around eighteen or nineteen), in which I suddenly found myself riding a horse, dressed as a man, leading armies to a fantastic victory; and it was the glory of the sense of the presence of the Force of Victory that made me lead the entire army to victory. Afterwards, I remembered the costume I was wearing, the peoples costumes, everything, and I saw it was Murats famous victory.3 I was (how can I put it?) the victorious spirit in Murat. And ONLY THAT. So when people tell you, I was this person, that person, its all tales: they are forces, states of consciousness that manifested in certain individuals at certain moments in their lives and which, at such moments, touched Matter concretely. And all that is gathered, collected together little by little, gradually, until it produces a conscious being.
   Now, this (Mothers being) is a rather special conscious being. The psychic of this life (laughing) was rather collective! Memories of Catherine the Great, memories of Elizabeth, memories of two lives at the same time (!) at the time of Francis I,4 memories innumerable memories, and quite diverse. Each one Its not that you were in such or such person for a whole life: you were the important psychic MOMENT in those existences.

0 1967-11-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I remember, for instance, all that the doctors do: they give you vitamins, this and that. All right. So as soon as I had taken those vitamins, I saw that sort of physical mind start stirring and stirring and stirring: Vitamins, I said, I dont want them, they excite the brain. Then they changed and gave me something at another time, and that was good. And all that, all of it was simply THE BODY: all that it knew, all the experiences it had had, all the mastery from what was in all the states of being, from the vital to the mind and above, all of that was gone! And this poor body was left to itself. Then, naturally, little by little something was rebuilt. For a long time I remained unable unable to do hardly anything (a little bit, but hardly anything), but gradually it was all rebuilt, rebuilt, rebuilt: a conscious, purely conscious beingwhich is now chattering away! (It was unable to express itself.)
   Yes, I understand. I understand. Well, perhaps that is what Sri Aurobindo meant when he said to me, Your body is at present the only one on earth that can do this work. I thought it was a kindness on his part. But its true that it was cut off, I knew it I saw itcut off, the states of being were sent away: Go away, you are not wanted anymore. Then the body had to rebuild a life for itself. And instead of having to go through all those states of being as it did before, through successive awakenings (gesture of ascent from degree to degree, in the way of the yogis of old), right to the top, the topmost beyond the form, now its no longer that at all, the body no longer needs anything of all that, it simply has (gesture of a rising aspiration opening out like a flower). Something within opened and developed, which caused that idiotic mind to become organized and capable of falling silent in an aspiration. And then then there was the direct Contact, without intermediaries the direct contact. That it now has constantly. Constantly, constantly, constantly, the direct contact. And its THE BODY: it doesnt go through all kinds of things and states of being, not at all, its direct.
   But once that has been done (this is something Sri Aurobindo had said), once ONE body has done it, it has the capacity of passing it on to others; and I tell you, there is now (I am not saying in its totality and in detail, probably not), but here and there (scattered gesture to show various points on earth) people suddenly get one experience or another. Some of them (the majority) get frightened, so naturally it goes away that is because they werent prepared enough within (if its not the little routine of every minute, always the same, they get frightened), and once they get frightened its over, it means they will need years of preparation for the experience to recur. But still, some arent; frightened; suddenly, an experience: Ah! something wholly new, wholly unexpected, which they had never thought of.

0 1967-11-Prayers of the Consciousness of the Cells, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   The other states of being, the vital, the mind, may enjoy the intermediary contacts.
   The supreme Lord alone can satisfy me.

0 1967-12-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Total means VERTICALLY in all the states of being from the most material to the most subtle. Integral means HORIZONTALLY in all the various and often contradictory parts that make up the outer being (physical, vital and mental).
   ***

0 1968-04-17, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Its the same phenomenon that took place for the various inner states of being (but thats relatively easy), but now, its physical. And also its not mentalized, so its hard to express.
   ***

0 1968-06-15, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   What I dont know yet, whats not very clear, is what will be the fate of this residue? To peoples ordinary thought, its what they call death, that is to say, the rejection of the cells that werent able to enter this plastic state of consciousness. But the way the work is being done, there is no categorical division [into groups of conscious or unconscious cells in Mothers body]: there are imperceptible (almost) states of variations between the different parts of the being. So you wonder, Where? What? When? How? Whats going to happen? Its increasingly becoming a problem.
   The whole inner functioning is becoming more and more the result of that conscious action and conscious will; with, even, in part (at least in part) clearly the true functioning already. You understand, the impression is of a remnant, but the remnant isnt something thats rejected: its something which hesitates, lags behind, has difficulty and triesit would be only too pleased: if, for instance, there is in one spot a perceptible disorder, a pain, the body no longer starts fidgeting, worrying, wanting medicine or doctors or interventions, no, not at all; it asks it goes, O Lord, like that. Thats all. And it waits. And generally, in the space of a few seconds, the pain goes away.

0 1968-06-26, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Its not mentalizedhardly mentalized at alland almost impossible to formulate. But its very clear. Very clear what is it? Its not in the sensationits in the state of consciousness. Its very clear states of consciousness. But hard to express. Continuous states, continuous, continuous: night and day, ceaselessly, continuously. The planes change, the activities change, but its continuous. The mode of being or way of being may cease and give place to another, but that state of consciousness is perpetual, uninterrupted, universal, eternaloutside timeoutside time, outside space. Its the state of the consciousness.
   (a gust of wind sweeps away the letters on Mothers table)

0 1968-07-20, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I dont know if its because of this cold, I am not sure (I dont think so I know very well where it comes from), the whole morning (during the night and the morning), there has been a sort of perception of all kinds of states of consciousness this body has been through, groups of circumstances, and then a perception so concrete, you know, so absolute: Where is the person? Where, where is the individual? Where is the person? Where And with such a clear vision of the supreme Consciousness, which, on the other hand, is the ONLY permanent consciousness the supreme Consciousness at play in all that, all those movements, all those actions, all those But it was felt and lived in such a concrete way that I saw, for instance, that this body, which people think is the same body as the one born more than ninety years ago, isnt at all the same! Everything has changed: the cells have changed, everything! Everything: the state of consciousness is absolutely different. So then, where is the person? Where? Suddenly there was, Where, where is that personality? Where is it? There was only That (gesture above): Consciousness. And then, the vision of the whole, of things taking form and (wavy gesture of a Whole diversifying into innumerable forms).
   In other words, that experience one generally has in the higher mind, in the psychic, is now the bodysits the body in its cellular constitution that has it. It had that experience this morning: That alone was permanent, That which, through innumerable changes, remains (immutable, unshakeable gesture with the edge of the hand).

0 1968-08-28, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   For a long time too, visions inside immense temples, with living godheads. Each thing with a precise reason and purpose, to express nonmentalized states of consciousness.
   Constant visions.
  --
   The whole thing immense and very diverse, covering the entire visual field and expressing states of consciousness of the body.
   Many, a great many constructions, immense cities being built.
  --
   A body without mind and without vital. It was in that state. There were only those perceptions [cities, constructions, temples], it was living in soul states: there were others soul states, the soul states of the earth, the soul states Those soul states were expressed in pictures. It was interesting. I cant say it wasnt interestingit was but there was no contact with material life, very little: I could hardly eat and couldnt walk. Anyway it had become something others had to look after.
   And through the contact with A., the body began to be interested in all that, asking questions quite spontaneously, without knowing why. It asked and asked, Oh, so this is how were made. And it began to be amused.
  --
   I know, its like that: the mind and vital have been instruments to knead Matterknead and knead and knead in every possible way: the vital through sensations, the mind through thoughtsknead and knead. But they strike me as transitory instruments which will be replaced by other states of consciousness.
   You understand, they are a phase in the universal development, and they will be they will fall off as instruments that have outlived their usefulness.
  --
   But the perception of the Presence is constant and associated with all the states of consciousness, whatever they may be
   Ah! I noticed that the cells, everywhere, you know, constantly, all the time, were repeating, OM NAMO BHAGAVATE, OM NAMO BHAGAVATE constantly, all the time.

0 1968-09-07, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I have told you many times, and couldnt repeat it too often, that we are not made of a piece. Within ourselves we have lots of states of being, and each state of being has its own life. All that is gathered together in a single body, as long as you have one, and acts through a single body; thats what gives you the sense of a single person, a single being. But there are many of them, and there are in particular concentrations on different planes: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, a mental being, a psychic being, and many others with all possible intermediaries. So when you leave your body, all those beings will scatter. Its only if you are a very advanced yogi and have been capable of unifying your being around the divine center that those beings remain linked together. If you havent been able to unify yourself, then at the time of death, all that will scatter: every being will go back to its own region. With the vital being, for example, your various desires will separate and each of them will go and chase its realization quite independently, because there will no longer be a physical being to hold them together. While if you have united your consciousness to the psychic consciousness, when you die you will remain conscious of your psychic being, and the psychic being will return to the psychic world which is a world of bliss, joy, peace, tranquillity, and growing knowledge. But if you have lived in your vital and all its impulses, each impulse will try to realize itself here and there. For instance, for the miser who was concentrated on his money, when he dies the part of his vital that was concerned with his money will hook on there and will keep watching over the money so no one takes it. People wont see him, but he is there nonetheless, and very unhappy if something happens to his dear money. Now, if you live exclusively in your physical consciousness (which is difficult, because, after all, you have thoughts and feelings), if you live exclusively in your physical, when the physical being disappears, you disappear along with it, its over. There is a spirit of the form: your form has a spirit that lives on for seven days after your death. The doctors have declared you dead, but the spirit of your form is alive, and not only alive but conscious in most cases. It lasts for seven to eight days, and after that, it too dissolves I am not talking about yogis, I am talking about ordinary people. Yogis have no laws, its quite different; for them the world is different. I am talking about ordinary people living an ordinary life; for them its like that. So the conclusion is that if you want to preserve your consciousness, it would be better to center it on a part of your being which is immortal; otherwise it will evaporate like a flame into thin air. And happily so, because if it were otherwise, there might be gods or kinds of superior men who would create hells and heavens as they do in their material imagination, inside which they would shut you up. (Question:) It is said that there is a god of death. Is it true? Yes. As for me, I call him a genius of death. I know him very well. And its an extraordinary organization. You cant imagine how organized it is! I think there are many of those genii of death, hundreds of them. I met at least two of them. One I met in France, the other in Japan, and they were very different. Which leads me to believe that depending on the mental culture, the education, the countries and beliefs, there must be different genii. But there are genii for all manifestations of Nature: there are genii of fire, genii of air, water, rain, wind; and there are genii of death. Any one genius of death is entitled to a certain number of dead every day. Its truly a fantastic organization. Its a sort of alliance between the vital forces and the forces of Nature. If, for example, he decided, Here is the number of people I am entitled to, say four or five, or six, or one or two (it varies from day to day), if he decided so many people would die, hell go straight and set himself up near the person whos going to die. But if you (not the person) happen to be conscious, if you see the genius going to the person but do not want him or her to die, then, if you have a certain occult power, you can tell him, No, I forbid you to take this person. Thats something which happened, not once but several times, in Japan and here. It wasnt the same genius. Which makes me say there must be many of them. If you can tell him, I forbid you to take this person and have the power to send him away, theres nothing he can do but go away; but he wont give up his due and will go elsewhere there will be a death elsewhere. (Question:) Some people, when they are about to die, are aware of it. Why dont they tell the genius to go away? Two things are needed. First, nothing in your being, no part of your being, should wish to die. That doesnt often happen. You always have, somewhere in you, a defeatist: something tired or disgusted, which has had enough, something lazy or which doesnt want to fight and says, Ah, well, let it be over, so much the better. Thats enoughyoure dead. But its a fact: if nothing, absolutely nothing in you consents to die, you will not die. For someone to die, there is always a second, if a hundredth part of a second, when he consents. If there isnt that second of consent, he will not die. But who is certain he doesnt have within himself, somewhere, a tiny bit of a defeatist which just yields and says, Oh well? Hence the need to unify oneself. Whatever the path we may follow, the subject we may study, we always reach the same result. The most important thing for an individual is to unify himself around his divine center; that way he becomes a real individual, master of himself and of his destiny. Otherwise, he is a plaything of the forces, which toss him about like a cork in a stream. He goes where he doesnt want to, is made to do what he doesnt want to, and finally he gets lost in a hole without any way to stop himself doing so. But if you are consciously organized, unified around the divine center, governed and led by it, you are the master of your destiny. Its worth trying. At any rate, I find its better to be the master rather than the slave. The feeling of being pulled by strings and being made to do things you may or may not want to do is a rather unpleasant sensation. Its quite irksome. Well, I dont know, I, for one, found it quite irksome even when I was a small child. When I was five, I began finding it wholly intolerable, and I sought a way for it to be otherwisewithout anyone being able to tell me anything. Because I knew no one capable of helping me, and I didnt have the luck you havesomeone who can tell you, Here is what you must do. There was no one to tell me. I had to find it all by myself. I found it. I began at the age of five. And you, its a long time since you were five?
   Well cut out the end.

0 1968-10-19, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   I remain, I can remain for hours, hours and hours like that, watching the developmenta development at once universal and personal; but personal, there is so to speak no person, its something curious. Theres a series of states of consciousness being organized.
   (silence)

0 1968-10-26, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   So one may conceive of an improvement, even a considerable improvement, a state far more harmonious than the existing one. The existing state its hell, really; its only thanks to this Possibility that its not hell. Its because behind that hell, there is this Possibilitywhich is living, real, existing, tangible, livableo therwise its infernal. You understand, one gets the impression that all the states of being have been whipped together (you know, like when you make mayonnaise!), all the states of being well mixed together like that, in a great confusion, so naturally the horrible thing is bearable because of all the rest in there. But if you start separating Oh! (gesture of horror)
   What do YOU have to say?

0 1968-11-23, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   But this notion of the descending Supermind, of a permeating Consciousness, is OUR translation. The experience came as the experience of an eternal fact: not at all something just now taking place. That its all the result of states of consciousness is certain (whether there is something beyond, I do not know, but at any rate I have the positive experience of that). Its movements of consciousness. Why, how? I dont know. But looking at it from the other side, the fact that something belonging to this terrestrial region as it is has become conscious, is what gives the impression that something has taken place. I dont know if I can make myself understood. I mean that this body is just the same as all the rest of the earth, but for some reason or other, it happens to have become conscious in the other way; well, that normally should be expressed in the earth consciousness as a coming, a descent, a beginning. But is it a beginning? What has come? You understand, theres NOTHING but the Lord (I call it the Lord for the convenience of language, because otherwise), theres nothing but the Lord, not anything elsenothing else exists. Everything takes place within Him, consciously. And we are like grains of sand in this Infinity; only, we are the Lord with the capacity of being conscious of the Lords consciousness. Thats exactly it.
   (silence)

0 1968-11-27, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Its going on. The body has the impression that its beginning to understand. For it, naturally, there are no thoughts at allnone at all; but its states of consciousness. states of consciousness complementing one another, replacing one another. To such a point that the body wonders how one can know with thought; for it, the only way of knowing, the only way of experiencing, is consciousness. Its growing increasingly clear from a general point of view. And its applying it; its applying it to itself, that is to say, a work is going on to make all the parts of the body conscious not only of the forces they receive, the forces going through the body, but of the action of its inner working.
   Thats growing increasingly precise.

0 1969-01-18, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   For me, THE Consciousness limits itself to special activities, in special cases, but its always THE Consciousness; just as its almost completely limited in the human consciousness, so too in certain states of being, certain activities, it limits itself to a certain way of being so as to accomplish His action. And thats something I had asked for a lot: May I be guided every minute, because it saves a huge amount of time, of course, instead of having to study, to observe, toone knows. Well, now I realize it has happened like that.
   (silence)

0 1969-04-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Those experiences last for several hours every day, and they make you feel the two sides like that, with a clear distinction, very clear, in what people do, in what they say, in the relationship with events, and also the different states of consciousness (everything takes place in the consciousness, of course, its not at all a thought, its not formulated, I dont know how to explain). And this Consciousness also teaches action in silenceat a distance as well as in the presence. All kinds of things, its constantly, constantly teaching one thing or another. And not formulated: there are no formulas, its not thoughts, but states of consciousness. And the relationship between the various states of consciousness: how they dovetail with one another, how they mix with one another, how they can be separated, how It cant be explained: it can be lived (the body is being taught how to live), but it cant be explained. For everythingeverything, all activities.
   As soon as you try to formulate it, there comes in that mental element. Its no longer that.

0 1969-05-17, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Separation is really I dont know what happened. And thats what made all the mischiefall the misfortune, all the misery. For the last few days, this body has gone through a series of experiences (it would be much too long to tell), through all the states of consciousness one can go through, from the sense of the single reality of this (Mother pinches the skin of her hands), of the substance, with all the misery, all the suffering which is the consequence of seeing matter as the single realityfrom that to liberation. Hour after hour, it has been a whole work. And this incident of Pavitras departure has come as an example, as a demonstration.
   But even before that, the consciousness of the cells had realized the oneness the true, essential onenesswhich CAN become total if this sort of illusion disappears. You understand, the illusion which has created all this misery was lived so intensely that it became almost unbearable, with all the horrors and all the terrors it has created in the human consciousness and on the earth. There have been dreadful things. And just after that, just after: liberation.

0 1969-10-18, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Thats what now makes me understand why the creation began with inertia. So then, we had to recover that state (Mother draws an immense curve) after going through all the states of consciousness. And thats what has given us (laughing) for us, its a fine mess! But when its done deliberately, its not a mess any longer.
   For me, the difficulty I very often come up against, is a need of activity in the aspiration, too.

0 1970-03-28, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   If Sri Aurobindo refers to moral pain, whatever it may be, I can say from experience that the four stages he speaks of correspond to four states of consciousness that stem from the inner development and the degree of union with the divine consciousness obtained by the individual consciousness. When the union is perfect, there only remains the fiercer form of delight.
   If he refers to physical pain endured by the body, the experience does not follow so clearly defined an order, all the more so as union with the Divine most often causes the pain to disappear.

0 1971-12-18, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   So, the things in the offing are a federation of all the states of India, and another one in the offing is the conversion of the United States. A federation of the states of India along the lines of The Ideal of Human Unity, as conceived and explained by Sri Aurobindo. And the conversion of the United States is in the same idea, just according to Sri Aurobindos revelation. But that will take time.
   It came in an imperative way.

0 1972-01-15, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   When the body became conscious of what was happening, its prayer, the prayer of the body was: Let me know when the time for dissolution comes, if dissolution is necessary, so that everything in me will accept the dissolution, but only in that case. Well. Oh, its so strange, the states of consciousness are strong, limpid, precise, but they cant express themselves. There are no words.
   One day its one thing, another day another thing.

0 1972-02-08, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   In the beginnings of humanity, the ego was the unifying element. It is around the ego that the various states of being were formed. But now that a superhumanity is about to be born, the ego must disappear and leave place for the psychic being which has slowly developed through divine agency to manifest the Divine in man.
   The Divine manifests in man under the psychic influence, and that is how the coming of superhumanity is prepared.

02.07 - India One and Indivisable, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   It will do no good to anyone to try to Balkanise India. The Balkan malady is no longer tolerated even in its homeland; it cannot be transported to India in this century and after this Great War. To be and remain free and strong and invincible, India must be and remain indivisible. The strength of the United states of America, of the United Soviets of the Russias, of the British Commonwealth (pace Churchill) lies precisely in each one of them being a large unified aggregate, all members pooling their resources together. India cannot maintain her freedom, nor utilise her freedom to its utmost effectivity unless she is one and indivisible. The days of small peoples, of isolated independence are gonegone for ever even like Thebes and Nineveh, like Kosala of Dasarathi and Mathura of Yadupati.
   India can be and is to be a federation of autonomous units. But then we must very carefully choose or find out the units, those that are real units and not fractions (especially irrational fractions) and at the same time lay as much stress on federation as on autonomy. To choose or create units on the basis of religion or race or caste or creed, that is exactly what we mean by irrationalism, in other words, mediaevalism. The Units must be, on one side, geographical wholes, and, on the other, cultural (or spiritualnot religious) wholes.

04.04 - Evolution of the Spiritual Consciousness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   A progressive revelation of higher and higher and more integral states of the spiritual consciousness in and through the realisations of mystics and sages and seersdivine men of all ages, such is the process of evolution that marks the life of man upon earth. This spiritual evolution, however, may not be obviously visible in the external life and character of man: it has been a phenomenon more in his inner being and consciousness, an occult phenomenon. Hence there has intervened a veil, wall of separation between the two. The veil has not been rent precisely because the very highest spiritual potential has not been reached and brought into play. The call of the present age is just to do away with this veil, make of human nature a unified, a streamlined entity, a complete incarnation of the spiritual consciousness in the fullness of its own nature at its source and origin.
   ***

04.06 - Evolution of the Spiritual Consciousness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   A progressive revelation of higher and higher and more integral states of the spiritual consciousness in and through the realisations of mystics and sages and seersdivine menof all ages, such is the process of evolution that marks the life of man upon earth. This spiritual evolution, however, may not be obviously visible in the external life and character of man: it has been a phenomenon more in his inner being and consciousness, an occult phenomenon. Hence there has intervened a veil, a wall of separation between the two. The veil has not been rent precisely because the very highest spiritual potential has not been reached and brought into play. The call of the present age is just to do away with this veil, make of human nature a unified, a streamlined entity, a complete incarnation of the spiritual consciousness in the fullness of its own nature at its source and origin.
   ***

05.06 - Physics or philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The constancy of the velocity of light, it must be noted, is not altogether an objective fact: it is a supposition by which Einstein tried to explain certain anomalies in previous theories. It is really, as some have pointed out (e.g. Hans ReichenbachAtom and Cosmosp 136), a mental formula, part of a built-in structure, arbitrary to a certain extent which is so arranged that the speed becomes constant and equal for systems in different states of motion.
   Physics and Philosophy, by Sir James Jeans.

07.17 - Why Do We Forget Things?, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   There is another thing. Apart from the fact that memory by itself in its very nature is a defective organ, there is the other fact that I there are different states of consciousness one following another. Each state faithfully records the phenomena of that moment, whatever they may be. Now, if your mind is calm and clear, wide and strong, you can by concentrating your consciousness on that moment bring out of it and recall in your present active state what is recorded there of your movements then; you can, that is to say, go back to the particular state of consciousness at a given moment and live it again. What is registered in your consciousness is never obliterated and hence not really forgotten. You can live a thousand years and you will not have forgotten that. Therefore, if you do not want to forget a thing, you must retain it through your consciousness, and not through your mental memory. As I have said, the mental memory fades away, new things, things of today replace old things, things of yesterday. But that of which you are conscious in your conscious-ness, you can never forget. It lies somewhere in the background, returns to you at your bidding. You have only to withdraw to that state of the consciousness where it lies imbedded. In this way you can recall things that you knew perhaps centuries ago. It is how you remember your past lives. For, a movement of consciousness never dies out, it is only the impressions on the surface brain-mind that are fugitive. What you have learnt with this superficial instrument laboriouslyonly read, heard, noted, underlinedleaves no lasting mark, but what is imbibed, breathed in into the stuff of consciousness remains. The brain is being constantly renewed and reformed. Old cells, cells that have become weak and atrophied are replaced by younger and stronger ones or the old cells combine differently or enter into other organisations. Thus the old impressions or memories they carried are obliterated.
   It is, as I say, by entering into a previous state of consciousness where you experienced a thing that you can always call back the thing. Only you must know how to get at the point, submerged somewhere in the depths. The body, after death, dissolves, the greater part of the vital and the mind dissolves alsoonly a small portion that has been well organised, given a compact cohesive form endures. Such an achievement is a rare phenomenon. But it is otherwise with the consciousness. Consciousness is eternal. If you contact the consciousness you discover the whole mystery of the earth and creation. It is consciousness that can create.

07.20 - Why are Dreams Forgotten?, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   To become conscious of all the various movements of your nights, to recover them in your memory, some sort of training is necessary. The different states of the being in which you roam at night are, as you have seen, usually separate from each other. There is a gap in between two states; you jump from one to the other. There is no highway passing through all the domains of your consciousness connecting them without break or interruption. That means forgetfulness. When you leap from one into the other, you push back, that is forget, the one you leave behind. So you have to construct a bridge and very few people know how to do it; it requires more engineering skill than to build a material bridge. You may have very wonderful experiences in sleep, but you forget them all; perhaps you remember, as I have said, the last one, the one nearest to the physical mind. The best way then to remember and become conscious of the whole night is to begin at the end and go backward. Catch hold of the last image that still persists in your memory, like the loose end of a thread and then pull, pull slowly, till image after image comes back: it is something like the unrolling of a cinema film in the reverse direction. When you lose trace, stop and concentrate a little; try to call back whatever stray bit or faint impression still persists or can be more easily revived and then again pull slowly, gently, pick up whatever shows itself, try to join the bits. In this way, after some trial and training you will be able to recover a good part of the lost underworld.
   There are, however, many ways of setting about the thing. For you must know that your nights are not all the same. Each one is different and brings its own kind of sleep and dream. As each day is different having its own particular kind of activity, each night too likewise comes with its peculiar experiences. You may think that one day is more or less exactly like the previous day, that you are doing the same thing from day to day; but it is not so. Outwardly the activities may appear to be the same, but really their nature and significance vary from one day to another. No two moments are alike in the universe. Your night too is an universe of its own kind. Each night brings its own problem and needs its own solution.

10.01 - A Dream, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  So far Harimohon had been listening silently to Sri Krishnas words. Now he spoke out, Keshta, your words are undoubtedly sweet, but I dont trust them. Happiness and misery may be states of mind, but outer circumstances are their cause. Tell me, when the mind is restless because of starvation, can anyone be happy? Or when the body is suffering from a disease or enduring pain, can any one think of you? Come, Harimohon, that too I shall show you, replied the boy.
  Again he placed his palm on Harimohons head. As soon as he felt the touch, Harimohon saw no longer the dwelling of Tinkari Sheel. On the beautiful, solitary and breezy summit of a hill an ascetic was seated, absorbed in meditation, with a huge tiger lying prone at his feet like a sentinel. Seeing the tiger Harimohons own feet would not proceed any further. But the boy forcibly dragged him near to the ascetic. Incapable of resisting the boys pull Harimohon had to go. The boy said, Look, Harimohon. Harimohon saw, stretched out in front of his eyes, the ascetics mind like a diary on every page of which the name of Sri Krishna was inscribed a thousand times. Beyond the gates of the Formless Samadhi the ascetic was playing with Sri Krishna in the sunlight.

1.00a - DIVISION A - THE INTERNAL FIRES OF THE SHEATHS., #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
  The Lord of Cosmic Love now seeks union with His Brother, and, in point of time, embodies all the Present. He is the sumtotal of all that is embodied; He is conscious Existence. He is the Son divine and His life and nature evolve through every existent form. The Lord of Cosmic Will holds hid the future within His plans and consciousness. They are all three the Sons of one Father, all three the aspects of the One God, all three are Spirit, all three are Soul, and all three are Rays emanating from one cosmic centre. All three are substance, but in the past one Lord was the elder Son, in the present another Lord comes to the fore, and in the future still another. But this is so only in Time. From the standpoint of the Eternal Now, none is greater nor less than another, for the last shall be first, and the first last. Out of manifestation time is not, and freed from objectivity states of consciousness are not.
  The fire of Spirit is the essential fire of the first Lord of Will plus the fire of the second Logos of Love. These two cosmic Entities blend, merge, and demonstrate as Soul, utilising for purposes of manifestation the aid of the third Logos. The three fires blend and merge. In this fourth round and on this fourth globe of our planetary scheme, the fires of the third Logos of intelligent matter are fusing somewhat with the fires of cosmic [64] mind, showing as will or power, and animating the Thinker on all planes. The object of Their co-operation is the perfected manifestation of the cosmic Lord of Love. This should be pondered upon for it reveals a mystery.

1.00c - INTRODUCTION, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  are only two states of existence, one of the stone, and the other
  of thought. What right have they to limit existence to these
  --
  There are much higher states of existence beyond reasoning.
  It is really beyond the intellect that the first stage of religious

1.012 - Sublimation - A Way to Reshuffle Thought, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  Yoga is a process of education. The principles of dharma, artha and kama are preparatory processes for the readiness of the soul to catch the spirit of salvation. How can we get salvation from bondage if bondage is really there? A real bondage cannot be escaped; if bondage is real, we have to remain in it forever. We already take for granted that bondage is real, which is why we want to run away from it; but running away from real bondage is impossible. There is no escapism in yoga that is impossible. There is always a conditioning of the mind to the states of understanding. Again it must be emphasised that where we have not understood a principle, we will not be able to master it.
  The principles of dharma, artha and kama are temporal values. They may not be eternal values, but many religions of the world commit the blunder of imagining that the eternal is different from the temporal. All religions, we may say, have an idea that God is outside the world and, therefore, temporal values have no connection with religious values. This misinterpretation of religion, and wrong emphasis laid on the so-called spiritual values of an otherworldly character, have led to a conflict between the social values of life and the religious and spiritual values of life.

1.01 - Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  content. Occasionally she causes states of fascination that rival
  the best bewitchment, or unleashes terrors in us not to be out-

1.01f - Introduction, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
  Of the six transmigratory states of existence,
  And the good and bad deeds,

1.01 - Isha Upanishad, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  "waters". If this accentuation is disregarded, we may take it as the singular apas, work, action. Shankara, however, renders it by the plural, works. The difficulty only arises because the true Vedic sense of the word had been forgotten and it came to be taken as referring to the fourth of the five elemental states of Matter, the liquid. Such a reference would be entirely irrelevant to the context. But the Waters, otherwise called the seven streams or the seven fostering Cows, are the Vedic symbol for the seven cosmic principles and their activities, three inferior, the physical, vital and mental, four superior, the divine
  Truth, the divine Bliss, the divine Will and Consciousness, and the divine Being. On this conception also is founded the ancient idea of the seven worlds in each of which the seven principles are separately active by their various harmonies. This is, obviously, the right significance of the word in the Upanishad.

1.01 - On knowledge of the soul, and how knowledge of the soul is the key to the knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
  Man cannot comprehend states of being which transcend his own nature. Hence none but the great God himself can comprehend God, as we have shown in our Commentary upon the "Names of God." So also the prophets cannot be comprehended by any but the prophets themselves. No person, in short, can understand any individual who belongs to a scale of rank above him. It is possible that there is a peculiarity in prophets, of which no pattern or model is found in other persons, and therefore, we are incapable of understanding them. If we knew not what a vision is, and an individual should say to us, that a man, at a moment when he can neither move, see or hear, can perceive events which are to occur at a future period, and yet might not be able to perceive the same while walking, listening or looking, we should not in any wise be able to persuade ourselves of the truth of it, as God says in his Holy word: "They treat as a lie that which they cannot comprehend with their knowledge."1 And you, do you not see that he who comes blind into the world, does not understand the pleasure which is derived from seeing? Let us not regard, therefore, as impossible all those states ascribed to the prophets which we cannot understand: for they are the accepted and praiseworthy servants of God.
  From all which has been said, seeker after the divine mysteries, thou hast learned something of the dignity of the nature of man, and that the way of the mystics is holy and honorable. But I have heard that the mystics say that external knowledge is a veil upon the way to God, and [31] a hindrance in the journey to the truth. Take care and do not deny that they are correct in what they say. For, external knowledge is derived from the sensuous world, and all objects of sense are a hindrance to him who is occupied with spiritual truth; for whoever is attending to sensual objects, indicates that his mind is preoccupied with external properties. And it is impossible that he who would walk in the way of truth, should be for a moment unemployed in meditation, upon obtaining spiritual union and the vision of beauty.

1.01 - SAMADHI PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  various states of meditation, and how the first will be the
  gross, and the second the fine objects, and from them the

1.01 - THE STUFF OF THE UNIVERSE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  a rhythmic series of states of equilibrium, sets of pigeon-holes, as
  it were, into which nuclei and electrons fall in rough assemblages ?

1.02.1 - The Inhabiting Godhead - Life and Action, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  of its becoming in the Movement, one enters into states of blind
  darkness, not into the worlds of light and of liberated and blissful

1.02.2.2 - Self-Realisation, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  all forms, can live in any of these states of the Self in the world
  and partake of its experiences. He can be anything he wills from
  --
  "sunlit" worlds and states of felicity, and returns upon material
  existence to complete its evolution in the body.

1.02.3.1 - The Lord, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  comprehensively, as separate states of consciousness. Humanity
  is that which returns in experience to Sachchidananda, and it

1.02.3.3 - Birth and Non-Birth, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  possible states of conscious existence directly opposed to each
  other of which the human soul is capable, the state of Birth, the
  --
  and both of these are states of blind darkness. For the Nihil
  is an attempt not to transcend the state of existence in birth,

1.02.4.1 - The Worlds - Surya, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  The Upanishad admits three states of the soul in relation to the
  manifested universe, - terrestrial life by birth in the body, the
  --
  The enjoyment of beatitude in a heaven beyond is also not the supreme consummation. But Vedantic thought did not envisage rebirth as an immediate entry after death into a new body; the mental being in man is not so rigidly bound to the vital and physical, - on the contrary, the latter are ordinarily dissolved together after death, and there must therefore be, before the soul is attracted back towards terrestrial existence, an interval in which it assimilates its terrestrial experiences in order to be able to constitute a new vital and physical being upon earth. During this interval it must dwell in states or worlds beyond and these may be favourable or unfavourable to its future development. They are favourable in proportion as the light of the Supreme Truth of which Surya is a symbol enters into them, but states of intermediate ignorance or darkness are harmful to the soul in its progress. Those enter into them, as has been affirmed in the third verse, who do hurt to themselves by shutting themselves to the light or distorting the natural course of their development. The Vedantic heavens are states of light and the soul's expansion; darkness, self-obscuration and self-distortion are the nature of the Hells which it has to shun.
  In relation to the soul's individual development, therefore, the life in worlds beyond, like the life upon earth, is a means and not an object in itself. After liberation the soul may possess these worlds as it possesses the material birth, accepting in them a means towards the divine manifestation in which they form a condition of its fullness, each being one of the parts in a series of organised states of conscious being which is linked with and supports all the rest.
  TRANSCENDENCE
  --
  All these are states of consciousness in which unity and
  multiplicity have not yet been separated from each other. All is

1.02 - Isha Analysis, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  Finally, the result of an ignorant interference with the right manifestation of the One in the multiplicity is declared to be an involution in states of blind obscurity after death. (Verse 3)
  SECOND MOVEMENT

1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  conceived of as involuntary states of deprivation (of food, or water, or optimal temperature,62 of social
  contact63); as disappointments64 or frustrations65 (which are absences of expected rewards66), and as
  --
  personal states of emotion and motivation, as we pursue our individual goals, inevitably, in a social context.
  The goal, writ large, towards which our higher systems work must therefore be construction of a state
  --
  heightened comparative activation of the left frontal cortex. Negative states of affect (like those occuring in
  chronic depression), by contrast, are accompanied by heightened activation of the right frontal
  --
  with fictional narratives: pretended descriptions of the current and desired future states of the world, with
  plans of action appended, designed to change the former into the latter. To play means to set or to

1.02 - Prana, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  Think of the universe as an ocean of ether, consisting of layer after layer of varying degrees of vibration under the action of Prana; away from the centre the vibrations are less, nearer to it they become quicker and quicker; one order of vibration makes one plane. Then suppose these ranges of vibrations are cut into planes, so many millions of miles one set of vibration, and then so many millions of miles another still higher set of vibration, and so on. It is, therefore, probable, that those who live on the plane of a certain state of vibration will have the power of recognising one another, but will not recognise those above them. Yet, just as by the telescope and the microscope we can increase the scope of our vision, similarly we can by Yoga bring ourselves to the state of vibration of another plane, and thus enable ourselves to see what is going on there. Suppose this room is full of beings whom we do not see. They represent Prana in a certain state of vibration while we represent another. Suppose they represent a quick one, and we the opposite. Prana is the material of which they are composed, as well as we. All are parts of the same ocean of Prana, they differ only in their rate of vibration. If I can bring myself to the quick vibration, this plane will immediately change for me: I shall not see you any more; you vanish and they appear. Some of you, perhaps, know this to be true. All this bringing of the mind into a higher state of vibration is included in one word in Yoga Samadhi. All these states of higher vibration, superconscious vibrations of the mind, are grouped in that one word, Samadhi, and the lower states of Samadhi give us visions of these beings. The highest grade of Samadhi is when we see the real thing, when we see the material out of which the whole of these grades of beings are composed, and that one lump of clay being known, we know all the clay in the universe.
  Thus we see that Pranayama includes all that is true of spiritualism even. Similarly, you will find that wherever any sect or body of people is trying to search out anything occult and mystical, or hidden, what they are doing is really this Yoga, this attempt to control the Prana. You will find that wherever there is any extraordinary display of power, it is the manifestation of this Prana. Even the physical sciences can be included in Pranayama. What moves the steam engine? Prana, acting through the steam. What are all these phenomena of electricity and so forth but Prana? What is physical science? The science of Pranayama, by external means. Prana, manifesting itself as mental power, can only be controlled by mental means. That part of Pranayama which attempts to control the physical manifestations of the Prana by physical means is called physical science, and that part which tries to control the manifestations of the Prana as mental force by mental means is called Raja-Yoga.

1.02 - SADHANA PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  With the vast majority of mankind the fine states of these
  passions are not even known, the state when they are slowly
  --
  The states of the qualities are the defined, the
  undefined, the indicated only, and the signless.
  --
  same thing, only as finer or grosser states of existence. The
  Buddhi is the finest state of existence of the materials, and
  --
  Aphorism, that the states of the qualities are defined,
  undefined, and signless. By the defined is meant the gross
  --
  These organs are separate states of the mind-stuff. I see a
  book; the form is not in the book, it is in the mind. Something

1.02 - Skillful Means, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
  And have fallen into the three troubled states of being
  Because of these desires.
  --
  I see beings wandering in the six states of existence
  Who are poor, deprived of merit and wisdom,
  --
  They will fall into the three troubled states of being.
  I would rather not teach the Dharma
  --
  And fall into the troubled states of being.
  To those who are modest and pure,

1.02 - THE NATURE OF THE GROUND, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  As an example of the third way in which our minds affect matter, we may cite the all-too-familiar phenomenon of nervous indigestion. In certain persons symptoms of dyspepsia make their appearance when the conscious mind is troubled by such negative emotions as fear, envy, anger or hatred. These emotions are directed towards events or persons in the outer environment; but in some way or other they adversely affect the physiological intelligence and this derangement results, among other things, in nervous indigestion. From tuberculosis and gastric ulcer to heart disease and even dental caries, numerous physical ailments have been found to be closely correlated with certain undesirable states of the conscious mind. Conversely, every physician knows that a calm and cheerful patient is much more likely to recover than one who is agitated and depressed.
  Finally we come to such occurrences as faith healing and levitationoccurrences supernormally strange, but nevertheless attested by masses of evidence which it is hard to discount completely. Precisely how faith cures diseases (whether at Lourdes or in the hypnotists consulting room), or how St. Joseph of Cupertino was able to ignore the laws of gravitation, we do not know. (But let us remember that we are no less ignorant of the way in which minds and bodies are related in the most ordinary of everyday activities.) In the same way we are unable to form any idea of the modus operandi of what Professor Rhine has called the PK effect. Nevertheless the fact that the fall of dice can be influenced by the mental states of certain individuals seems now to have been established beyond the possibility of doubt. And if the PK effect can be demonstrated in the laboratory and measured by statistical methods, then, obviously, the intrinsic credibility of the scattered anecdotal evidence for the direct influence of mind upon matter, not merely within the body, but outside in the external world, is thereby notably increased. The same is true of extra-sensory perception. Apparent examples of it are constantly turning up in ordinary life. But science is almost impotent to cope with the particular case, the isolated instance. Promoting their methodological ineptitude to the rank of a criterion of truth, dogmatic scientists have often branded everything beyond the pale of their limited competence as unreal and even impossible. But when tests for ESP can be repeated under standardized conditions, the subject comes under the jurisdiction of the law of probabilities and achieves (in the teeth of what passionate opposition!) a measure of scientific respectability.
  Such, very baldly and briefly, are the most important things we know about mind in regard to its capacity to influence matter. From this modest knowledge about ourselves, what are we entitled to conclude in regard to the divine object of our nearly total ignorance?
  --
  The bodies of human beings are affected by the good or bad states of their minds. Analogously, the existence at the heart of things of a divine serenity and good will may be regarded as one of the reasons why the worlds sickness, though chronic, has not proved fatal. And if, in the psychic universe, there should be other and more than human consciousnesses obsessed by thoughts of evil and egotism and rebellion, this would account, perhaps, for some of the quite extravagant and improbable wickedness of human behaviour.
  The acts willed by our minds are accomplished either through the instrumentality of the physiological intelligence and the body, or, very exceptionally, and to a limited extent, by direct supernormal means of the PK variety. Analogously the physical situations willed by a divine Providence may be arranged by the perpetually creating Mind that sustains the universein which case Providence will appear to do its work by wholly natural means; or else, very exceptionally, the divine Mind may act directly on the universe from the outside, as it werein which case the workings of Providence and the gifts of grace will appear to be miraculous. Similarly, the divine Mind may choose to communicate with finite minds either by manipulating the world of men and things in ways, which the particular mind to be reached at that moment will find meaningful; or else there may be direct communication by something resembling thought transference.

1.02 - The Vision of the Past, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  successive states of infancy, adolescence, maturity and seni-
  lity in our own lives.

1.032 - Our Concept of God, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  Now, the yearning or the love, when it is directed to an object outside, becomes a psychological condition, and if love of God is also to become a psychological condition, then it may change according to the conditions of the mind. No condition of the mind can be perpetual, because it is related to the structure of the body also. In different incarnations, different types of births that we take, the states of mind may change, and so the attitudes which the mind has towards things also may vary in different incarnations. So the love of God may become conditioned if He is to be treated as an extra-cosmic something which has to be reached by a temporal affection in the form of a mental emotion, as we have in respect of ordinary objects in this world.
  Secondly, the extra-cosmic concept of God makes Him an individual like other individuals, though He may be a vaster individual than others. Anything that is 'somewhere' is finite in its nature. If God is outside the world and the world is outside God, naturally the world would be finite, and God also would be finite in the same manner, because one would limit the other. The existence of the world would limit God, and the existence of God would limit the world, so both would become finite. Anything that is finite is subject to destruction, because every finite thing is seen to have a tendency to move towards something else in order that it may overcome its finitude. So God would be an imperfect being wishing to become more perfect, as any other individual would do, if He is regarded as extra-cosmic, conditioned, limited and finite. Also, there would be no means of approach to God, because an extraordinary perception, which would be necessary to come in contact with God, would be denied its need if the placement of God is extra-cosmic.

10.32 - The Mystery of the Five Elements, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The five elements are thus the five orders of material existence viewed as correlates to the five senses of man. But they are also realities in their own right. They represent the fundamental principles underlying or characterising the nature of matter. Science speaks of the three states of mattersolid, liquid and gaseous. The five elements enumerate five states instead. Thus earth = solid, water = liquid, fire = gaseous or radiant, air = fluid, ether or space = etheric. A distinction is made between gaseous and fluid, fluid being still more dispersive and tenuous. We might take air as representing the ether spoken of in science and what we have been equating with ether may be termed the field the gravitational field, for example, of our days.
   The last two may, however, be represented somewhat differently. The Maruts may symbolise the region of the subtler or supra-electromagnetic forceswhat are now called cosmic rays: they are waves or particles of such infinitesimal magnitude that some of them at least have only a mathematical substance or reality, a probability-point, although of calculable or incalculable energy! Vayu then would represent the fundamental field where these forces playperhaps something like the Einsteinian field with its "corrugated" surface: or it is like the "Pradhana" of Sankhya, the original Prakriti or basic Nature before it burst out in its creative activity.

10.35 - The Moral and the Spiritual, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The states of being or consciousness from the animal, or down from Matter itself up to the Supremebrahmastambaconstitute what is called a hierarchy. Hierarchy means a structure rising upward tier upon tier, step by step: it is a scale, as it were, of increasing values, only the values are not moral, they indicate only a measure, a neutral measure respecting position or a kind of mass content. As in a building where brick is laid upon brick, or stone upon stone, the one laid above is not superior to the one laid below; the terms inferior and superior indicate only the simple position of the objects. Even the system of the four social orders in ancient" India was originally such a hierarchy. The higher and lower orders did not carry any moral appreciation or depreciation. The four orders placed one above the other schematically denote only the respective social functions classified according to the nature of each, even as the human body represents such a hierarchy, rising from the feet at the bottom towards the head at the top. This is to say all objects and movements in nature are right when they are confined each to its own domain, following its own dharma of that domain. Thus one can be perfectly calm and at ease witnessing the catastrophes and cataclysms in nature, for one knows it is the dharma of material nature. Man terms them disasters for he judges them according to his own convenience. Even so, one should not be perturbed at the wild behaviourman calls it wildof wild animals. Likewise the gods in their sovereign tranquillity smile at the crudeness and stupidities of human beings. One has to lift oneself up, withdraw and stand high above all that one wishes to surpass and look at it, with a benign godly smile.
   The world is a gradation of developing consciousness, of growing states or status of being. There is a higher and lower level in point of the measure of consciousness but that involves no moral judgement: the moral judgement is man's; it is man's, one might almost say, idiosyncrasy, that is to say, a notion that is a prop to help him mount the ladder. Though it might be necessary at a certain stage, in certain circumstances, it is not a universal or ineluctable law, not even in his personal domain. The growing consciousness is like the growing tree rising upward first into a trunk, then spreading out into branches, into twigs and tendrils, then in flowers and finally, in fruits. These are mounting grades of growth, but the growth above is not superior to the growth below. It is a one unified whole and each portion has its own absolute value, beauty and utility.

1.03 - A Parable, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
  The Tathgatas see all sentient beings burning in the re of birth, old age, illness, and death, anxiety, sorrow, suffering, and distress. Because of the desires of the ve senses and the desire for monetary prot they also experience various kinds of suffering. Because of their attachment and pursuits they experience various kinds of suffering in the present; and in the future they will suffer in the states of existence of hell, animals, and hungry ghosts (pretas). If they are born in the heavens or in the human world they will experience a variety of sorrows such as suffering from poverty and destitution, separation from loved ones, or suffering from encounters with those they dislike.
  Although sentient beings are immersed in such sorrows, they rejoice and play. They are not aware, shocked, startled, or disgusted nor do they seek release. Running around in the burning house of the triple world, they experience great suffering and yet they do not realize it.
  --
  Although they are in other troubled states of being,
  They will feel as if they were in their own home.

1.03 - APPRENTICESHIP AND ENCULTURATION - ADOPTION OF A SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  rendered on the relative importance of particular states of motivation, with due regard for intensity, as
  expressed in individual action, in the social context. All societies are composed of individuals whose

1.03 - The Human Disciple, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   is the Divine to be distinguished among the various states of being which constitute our ordinary experience? What are the great manifestations of its self-energy in the world in which he can recognise and realise it by meditation? May he not see even now the divine cosmic Form of That which is actually speaking to him through the veil of the human mind and body? And his last questions demand a clear distinction between renunciation of works and this subtler renunciation he is asked to prefer; the actual difference between Purusha and Prakriti, the Field and the Knower of the Field, so important for the practice of desireless action under the drive of the divine Will; and finally a clear statement of the practical operations and results of the three modes of Prakriti which he is bidden to surmount.
  To such a disciple the Teacher of the Gita gives his divine teaching. He seizes him at a moment of his psychological development by egoistic action when all the mental, moral, emotional values of the ordinary egoistic and social life of man have collapsed in a sudden bankruptcy, and he has to lift him up out of this lower life into a higher consciousness, out of ignorant attachment to action into that which transcends, yet originates and orders action, out of ego into Self, out of life in mind, vitality and body into that higher nature beyond mind which is the status of the Divine. He has at the same time to give him that for which he asks and for which he is inspired to seek by the guidance within him, a new Law of life and action high above the insufficient rule of the ordinary human existence with its endless conflicts and oppositions, perplexities and illusory certainties, a higher Law by which the soul shall be free from this bondage of works and yet powerful to act and conquer in the vast liberty of its divine being. For the action must be performed, the world must fulfil its cycles and the soul of the human being must not turn back in ignorance from the work it is here to do. The whole course of the teaching of the Gita is determined and directed, even in its widest wheelings, towards the fulfilment of these three objects.

1.03 - The Phenomenon of Man, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  iar and specific property of organized states of matter; it is
  a property that is hardly perceptible, and therefore negligible,
  --
  great numbers towards states of greatest probability. On the
  other a persistent, incredible but undeniable rise towards the

1.03 - The Sephiros, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  Spirits, etc., for the whole universe in this philosophy is guided and animated by whole series of these hierarchies of sentient beings, each with a particular function and mission, varying in their respective degrees and states of conscious- ness and intelligence. There is but one indivisible and absolute consciousness thrilling throughout every particle and infinitesimal point in the manifested universe in Space.
  But its first differentiation, by emanation or reflection, is purely spiritual and gives rise to a number of " beings " which we may call Gods, their consciousness being of such a nature, of such a degree of sublimity, as to surpass our comprehension. From one point of consideration, the

1.045 - Piercing the Structure of the Object, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  Then the Samkhya tells us that there is a gradual solidification or concretisation of this state, and there is manifest a tendency to self-affirmation of a cosmic nature which is called ahamkara. This ahamkara is not the egoism of the human being, but it is a logical presupposition of the manifestation of variety. It is purely a logical 'x' without which we cannot explain anything that is manifest subsequently, but it has no connection whatsoever with the pride or the individual egoism of the human beings that we see usually. Sometimes these states of prakriti, mahat and ahamkara, mentioned in the Samkhya, are identified with the principles of Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat which are mentioned in the Vedanta doctrine.
  It is now that a condition or a state supervenes where there is a sudden split of this cosmic condition into the external and the internal. This is the beginning of what they call samsara or bondage of the jiva. There is no bondage as long as a bifurcation is not introduced between the subject and the object of knowledge. Bondage commences the moment there is a severance of the consciousness from its content, an isolation of the subject from the object. This happens subsequent to the appearance of ahamkara. So, on the objective side, we have what are known as the tanmatras and the mahabhutas. The tanmatras are the subtle principles behind the five gross elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether, and they are called sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa and gandha in Sanskrit, meaning thereby the sensations of sound, touch, form, taste and smell which have connection with the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether prithivi, appu, tejo, vayu and akasa. This is the external side of the world. Generally, what we call the world is constituted of these five great elements or mahabhutas. But the experiencing side, the subject side, is what is known as the jiva, the principle of individuality you, I, and everyone included who have an extrovert vision of these five mahabhutas, all of which we regard as something outside us, notwithstanding that every one of us, including the bhutas, have come from the same principle of ahamkara. It is something like the right hand looking at the left hand as an object of its perception, though both these are emanations of a single substance, a single unifying principle - namely, the bodily organism.

1.04 - KAI VALYA PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  The states of the mind are always known because the
  lord of the mind is unchangeable.

1.04 - Reality Omnipresent, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  16:We start, then, with the conception of an omnipresent Reality of which neither the Non-Being at the one end nor the universe at the other are negations that annul; they are rather different states of the Reality, obverse and reverse affirmations. The highest experience of this Reality in the universe shows it to be not only a conscious Existence, but a supreme Intelligence and Force and a self-existent Bliss; and beyond the universe it is still some other unknowable existence, some utter and ineffable Bliss. Therefore we are justified in supposing that even the dualities of the universe, when interpreted not as now by our sensational and partial conceptions, but by our liberated intelligence and experience, will be also resolved into those highest terms. While we still labour under the stress of the dualities, this perception must no doubt constantly support itself on an act of faith, but a faith which the highest Reason, the widest and most patient reflection do not deny, but rather affirm. This creed is given, indeed, to humanity to support it on its journey, until it arrives at a stage of development when faith will be turned into knowledge and perfect experience and Wisdom will be justified of her works.

1.04 - Religion and Occultism, #Words Of The Mother III, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  When I picked up the flowers to give you, I felt that several were coming and I willed: Let it be the number of the states of the being in which the Sincerity (in the consecration to the Divine) will be definitively established. Four means integrality: the four states of being, mental, psychic, vital, physical.
  27 December 1933

1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  my state at the present moment with other states of myself which I know, in order to determine what it
  is; on account of this retrospective connection with further knowledge, it has, at any rate, no immediate

1.04 - The Sacrifice the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  And yet there is not only in him or before him this eternal self-aware Existence, this spiritual Consciousness, this infinity of self-illumined Force, this timeless and endless Beatitude. There is too, constant also to his experience, this universe in measurable Space and Time, some kind perhaps of boundless finite, and in it all is transient, limited, fragmentary, plural, ignorant, exposed to disharmony and suffering, seeking vaguely for some unrealised yet inherent harmony of oneness, unconscious or half-conscious or, even when most conscious, still tied to the original Ignorance and Inconscience. He is not always in a trance of peace or bliss and, even if he were, it would be no solution, for he knows that this would still be going on outside him and yet within some larger self of him as if for ever. At times these two states of his spirit seem to exist for him alternately according to his state of consciousness; at others they are there as two parts of his being, disparate and to be reconciled, two halves, an upper and a lower or an inner and an outer half of his existence. He finds soon that this separation in his consciousness has an immense liberative power; for by it he is no longer bound to the Ignorance, the Inconscience; it no longer appears to him the very nature of himself and things but an illusion which can be overcome or at least a temporary wrong self-experience, Maya. It is tempting to regard it as only a contradiction of the Divine, an incomprehensible mystery-play, masque or travesty of the Infinite and so it irresistibly seems to his experience at times, on one side the luminous verity of Brahman, on the other a dark illusion of Maya. But something in him will not allow him to cut existence thus permanently in two and, looking more closely, he discovers that in this half-light or darkness too is the Eternalit is the Brahman who is here with this face of Maya.
  This is the beginning of a growing spiritual experience which reveals to him more and more that what seemed to him dark incomprehensible Maya was all the time no other than the Consciousness-Puissance of the Eternal, timeless and illimitable beyond the universe, but spread out here under a mask of bright and dark opposites for the miracle of the slow manifestation of the Divine in Mind and Life and Matter. All the Timeless presses towards the play in Time; all in Time turns upon and around the timeless Spirit. If the separate experience was liberative, this unitive experience is dynamic and effective. For he now not only feels himself to be in his soul-substance part of the Eternal, in his essential self and spirit entirely one with the Eternal, but in his active nature an instrumentation of its omniscient and omnipotent Consciousness-Puissance. However bounded and relative its present play in him, he can open to a greater and greater consciousness and power of it and to that expansion there seems to be no assignable limit. A level spiritual and supramental of that Consciousness-Puissance seems even to reveal itself above him and lean to enter into contact, where there are not these trammels and limits, and its powers too are pressing upon the play in Time with the promise of a greater descent and a less disguised or no longer disguised manifestation of the Eternal. The once conflicting but now biune duality of Brahman-Maya stands revealed to him as the first great dynamic aspect of the Self of all selves, the Master of existence, the Lord of the world-sacrifice and of his sacrifice.
  On another line of approach another Duality presents itself to the experience of the seeker. On one side he becomes aware of a witness recipient observing experiencing Consciousness which does not appear to act but for which all these activities inside and outside us seem to be undertaken and continue. On the other side he is aware at the same time of an executive Force or an energy of Process which is seen to constitute, drive and guide all conceivable activities and to create a myriad forms visible to us and invisible and use them as stable supports for its incessant flux of action and creation. Entering exclusively into the witness consciousness he becomes silent, untouched, immobile; he sees that he has till now passively reflected and appropriated to himself the movements of Nature and it is by this reflection that they acquired from the witness soul within him what seemed a spiritual value and significance. But now he has withdrawn that ascription or mirroring identification; he is conscious only of his silent self and aloof from all that is in motion around it; all activities are outside him and at once they cease to be intimately real; they appear now mechanical, detachable, endable. Entering exclusively into the kinetic movement, he has an opposite self-awareness; he seems to his own perception a mass of activities, a formation and result of forces; if there is an active consciousness, even some kind of kinetic being in the midst of it all, yet there is no longer a free soul in it anywhere. These two different and opposite states of being alternate in him or else stand simultaneously over against each other; one silent in the inner being observes but is unmoved and does not participate; the other active in some outer or surface self pursues its habitual movements. He has entered into an intense separative perception of the great duality, Soul-Nature, Purusha-Prakriti.
  But as the consciousness deepens, he becomes aware that this is only a first frontal appearance. For he finds that it is by the silent support, permission or sanction of this witness soul in him that this executive nature can work intimately or persistently upon his being; if the soul withdraws its sanction, the movements of Nature in their action upon and within him become a wholly mechanical repetition, vehement at first as if seeking still to enforce their hold, but afterwards less and less dynamic and real. More actively using this power of sanction or refusal, he perceives that he can, slowly and uncertainly at first, more decisively afterwards, change the movements of Nature. Eventually in this witness soul or behind it is revealed to him the presence of a Knower and master Will in Nature, and all her activities more and more appear as an expression of what is known and either actively willed or passively permitted by this Lord of her existence. Prakriti herself now seems to be mechanical only in the carefully regulated appearance of her workings, but in fact a conscious Force with a soul within her, a self-aware significance in her turns, a revelation of a secret Will and Knowledge in her steps and figures. This Duality, in aspect separate, is inseparable. Wherever there is Prakriti, there is Purusha; wherever there is Purusha, there is Prakriti. Even in his inactivity he holds in himself all her force and energies ready for projection; even in the drive of her action she carries with her all his observing and mandatory consciousness as the whole support and sense of her creative purpose. Once more the seeker discovers in his experience the two poles of existence of One Being and the two lines or currents of their energy negative and positive in relation to each other which effect by their simultaneity the manifestation of all that is within it. Here too he finds that the separative aspect is liberative; for it releases him from the bondage of identification with the inadequate workings of Nature in the Ignorance. The unitive aspect is dynamic and effective; for it enables him to arrive at mastery and perfection; while rejecting what is less divine or seemingly undivine in her, he can rebuild her forms and movements in himself according to a nobler pattern and the law and rhythm of a greater existence. At a certain spiritual and supramental level the Duality becomes still more perfectly Two-in-one, the Master Soul with the Conscious Force within it, and its potentiality disowns all barriers and breaks through every limit. Thus this once separate, now biune Duality of Purusha-Prakriti is revealed to him in all its truth as the second great instrumental and effective aspect of the Soul of all souls, the Master of existence, the Lord of the Sacrifice.

1.056 - Lack of Knowledge is the Cause of Suffering, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  This ignorance, or avidya, is the breeding ground for all these states of mind which undergo this fourfold stage of prasupta tanu vicchinna udrm (II.4). Avidy ketram uttare it is the ketram uttare. Uttare means anything that follows from this; all things that are the outcome of this find this as their mother. Our ignorance is the mother of all other distractions. It gives them its breast milk and supports them for all time. The desires and the activities of the mind cannot succeed if ignorance is absent, because that is the motive power behind the functions of the mind in whatever form it may function.
  The purpose of yoga is to cut at the root of this ignorance itself, so that its ramifications in the form of these vikshepas, or distractions, may not have vitality in them. They will be like a burnt seed or a burnt cloth, or a lifeless snake. It is a snake, but it has no life. Likewise will be these functions, activities and enterprises of the mind when it will look as if they are there in all their shape and form, but they will be lifeless. That is the purpose of the practice of yoga.

1.05 - Adam Kadmon, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
   inaccessible as the nature of external bodies is, and some philosophers observing this fact, and the experience that the mind was but a succession of states of consciousness and an associated setting up of various relations, considered that the existence of the Soul was not proven - confusing the idea of a Soul with the instrument of mind which it uses.
  Both Hume and Kant demonstrated its inherent self-con- tradictory nature, but the former did not apprehend a permanent integrating principle running through impres- sions. He therefore argued - with his Ruach, which is in- competent to argue on such a point, since its nature is self- contradictory - that the Soul, not being an impression or a sensation, nor an entity to which one can point holding it there for analysis when introspecting, did not exist, for- getting all the time, or unaware perhaps of the fact, that it is the Soul, or as the Qabalists would say, the Real Man above the Abyss, who is introspecting and examining the contents of its own Ruach.

1.05 - Computing Machines and the Nervous System, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
  The two possible states of a relay system may both be stable in
  the absence of outside interference, or only one may be stable,
  --
  two states of activity: firing and repose. Leaving aside those neu-
  rons which accept their messages from free endings or sensory
  --
  he reported visible actions rather than introspective states of
  mind. He found in dogs that the presence of food causes the

1.05 - Ritam, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  If we suppose evil in this rik to connote or include moral evil we find Dakshina to have a share, the active energy of the viveka to take its part in the function of protection from sin which is one of the principal attributes of Varuna. It is part of the ideas of Vedanta that sin is in reality a form of ignorance and is purified out of the system by the illumination of divine knowledge. We begin to find by this sin-effacing attri bute of Varuna, prachet, uruchakshas, ptadaksha, ritasya jyotishas pati, by this sin-repelling attri bute of Dakshina, the energy of ideal discrimination, the same profound idea already anticipated in the Rigveda. The Veda abounds with confirmatory passages, of which I will quote at present one only from the hymn of Kanwa to Agni, the thirty-sixth of thisMandala. High-uplifted protect us from evil by the perception, burn utterly every devourer, phi anhaso ni ketun a. All evil is a deviation from the right & truth, from the ritam, a deviation from the self-existent truth & right of the divine or immortal nature; the lords of knowledge dwelling in the human consciousness as the prachetasah, informing its acts of consciousness which include in the ancient psychology action & feeling no less than thought & attuning them to follow spontaneously the just rhythm of the divine right & truth, deliver effectually this human & mortal nature from evil & sin. The place of Daksha & Dakshina in that action is evident; it is primary & indispensable; for the mortal nature being full of wrong perceptions, warped impulses, evil & mixed & confused states of feeling, it is the business of the viveka to sort out the confusion & accustom the mind & heart of man to a juster, truer & purer working. The action of the other faculties of the Truth may be said to come after that of Daksha, of the viveka. In these hymns of Sunahshepa the clear physiognomy of Varuna begins to dawn upon us. He is evidently the master of right knowledge, wide, self-luminous & all-containing in the world-consciousness & in human consciousness. His physical connection with the all-containing ether,for Varuna is Uranus, the Greek Akasha, & wideness is constantly associated with him in the Veda,leads us to surmise that he may also be the master in the ideal faculty, ritam brihat, where he dwells, urukshaya, of pure infinite conscious-being out of which knowledge manifests & with which it is, ultimately, one entity
  The hymns of Kanwa follow the hymns of Sunahshepa and Hiranyastupa in the order of the first Mandala. In the hymns of Kanwa we find three or four times the mention, more or less extended in sense, of the Ritam. In his first reference to it he connects it not with Varuna, Mitra or Daksha, but with Agni. That Agni whom Kanwa Medhyatithi has kindled from the truth above (or it may equally mean upon the truth as a basis or in the field of the truth) and again Thee, O Agni, the Manu has set as a light for the eternal birth; thou hast shone forth in Kanwa born from the Truth. This passage is of great importance in fixing the character & psychological functions of Agni; for our present purpose it will be sufficient to notice the expression jyotir janya shashwate which may well have an intimate connection with the ritam jyotih of an earlier hymn, & the description in connection with this puissant phrase of Agni as born from the Truth, and again [of the Truth] as a sort of field in which or from which Kanwa has drawn the light of Agni.
  --
  To complete our idea of the hymn & its significance, I shall give my rendering of its last three slokas,the justification of that rendering or comment on it would lead me far from the confines of my present subject. How, O friends, cries Kanwa to his fellow-worshippers, may we perfect (or enrich) the establishment in ourselves (by the mantra of praise) of Mitra & Aryaman or how the wide form of Varuna? May I not resist with speech him of you who smites & rebukes me while he yet leads me to the godhead; through the things of peace alone may I establish you in all my being. Let a man fear the god even when he is giving him all the four states of being (Mahas, Swar, Bhuvah, Bhuh), until the perfect settling in the Truth: let him not yearn towards evil expression. In other words, perfect adoration & submission to the gods who are leading us in the path, those who are yajnanh, leaders of the sacrifice, is the condition of the full wideness of Varunas being in us & the full indwelling ofMitra & Aryaman in the principles of the Ananda & the Ritam.
  In this simple, noble & striking hymn we arrive at a number of certainties about the ideas of the Vedic Rishis & usual images of their poetry which are of the last importance to our inquiry. First we see that the ascension or the journey of the human soul to a state of divine Truth is among the chief objects of the prayers & sacrifices of the Veda. Secondly, we see that this Truth is not merely the simple primitive conception of truth-speaking, but a condition of consciousness consisting in delight & resulting in a perfect spontaneous & free activity in which there is no falsehood or error; it is a state of divine nature, the Vedantic amritam. Thirdly, we see that this activity of self-perfection, the sadhana of modern Yoga, is represented in the Veda under the image of a journey or of a battle or both in one image. It is a struggle to advance beset by pitfalls & difficult passages, assailed & beset by hostile spiritual forces, the enemies, hurters or destroyers. Whenever therefore we have the image of a battle or a journey, we have henceforth the right to enquire whether it is not in every case the symbol of this great spiritual & psychological process. Fourthly we see that the Vedic sacrifice is in some hymns & may be in all a symbol of the same purport. It is an activity offered to the gods, led by them in this path, directed towards the attainment of the divine Truth-Consciousness & Truth-Life &, presumably, assailed by the same spiritual enemies. Fifthly, we find that words like vasu & tokam, representing the result of the sacrifice, & usually understood as material wealth & children, are used here, must presumably be used in passages & may, possibly, be used in all in a symbolic sense to express by a concrete figure psychological conceptions like Christs treasure laid up in heaven or the common image of the children of ones brain or of ones works. We have in fact, provided always our conclusions are confirmed by the evidence of other hymns, the decisive clue to the Secret of the Veda.

1.05 - The Activation of Human Energy, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  mysterious progress towards higher states of thought and
  freedom. Willy-nilly, we are totally caught up in this

1.05 - The Ascent of the Sacrifice - The Psychic Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
     How precisely or by what stages this progression and change will take place must depend on the form, need and powers of the individual nature. In the spiritual domain the essence is always one, but there is yet an infinite variety and, at any rate in the integral Yoga, the rigidity of a strict and precise mental rule is seldom applicable; for, even when they walk in the same direction, no two natures proceed on exactly the same lines, in the same series of steps or with quite identical stages of their progress. It may yet be said that a logical succession of the states of progress would be very much in this order. First, there is a large turning in which all the natural mental activities proper to the individual nature are taken up or referred to a higher standpoint and dedicated by the soul in us, the psychic being, the priest of the sacrifice, to the divine service; next, there is an attempt at an ascent of the being and a bringing down of the Light and Power proper to some new height of consciousness gained by its upward effort into the whole action of the knowledge. Here there may be a strong concentration on the inward central change of the consciousness and an abandonment of a large part of the outward-going mental life or else its relegation to a small and subordinate place. At different stages it or parts of it may be taken up again from time to time to see how far the new inner psychic and spiritual consciousness can be brought into its movements, but that compulsion of the temperament or the nature which, in human beings, necessitates one kind of activity or another and makes it seem almost an indispensable portion of the existence, will diminish and eventually no attachment will be left, no lower compulsion or driving force felt anywhere. Only the Divine will matter, the Divine alone will be the one need of the whole being; if there is any compulsion to activity it will be not that of implanted desire or of force of Nature, but the luminous driving of some greater Consciousness-Force which is becoming more and more the sole motive power of the whole existence. On the other hand, it is possible at any period of the inner spiritual progress that one may experience an extension rather than a restriction of the' activities; there may be an opening of new capacities of mental creation and new provinces of knowledge by the miraculous touch of the Yoga-shakti. Aesthetic feeling, the power of artistic creation in one field or many fields together, talent or genius of literary expression, a faculty of metaphysical thinking, any power of eye or ear or hand or mind-power may awaken where none was apparent before. The Divine within may throw these latent riches out from the depths in which they were hidden or a Force from above may pour down its energies to equip the instrumental nature for the activity or the creation of which it is meant to be a channel or a builder. But, whatever may be the method or the course of development chosen by the hidden Master of the Yoga, the common culmination of this stage is the growing consciousness of him above as the mover, decider, shaper of all the movements of the mind and all the activities of knowledge.
     There are two signs of the transformation of the seeker's mind of knowledge and works of knowledge from the process of the Ignorance to the process of a liberated consciousness working partly, then wholly in the light of the Spirit. There is first a central change of the consciousness and a growing direct experience, vision, feeling of the Supreme and the cosmic existence, the Divine in itself and the Divine in all things; the mind will be taken up into a growing preoccupation with this first and foremost and will feel itself heightening, widening into a more and more illumined means of expression of the one fundamental knowledge. But also the central Consciousness in its turn will take up more and more the outer mental activities of knowledge and turn them into a parcel of itself or an annexed province; it will infuse into them its more au thentic movement and make a more and more spiritualised and illumined mind its instrument in these surface fields, its new conquests, as well as in its own deeper spiritual empire. And this will be the second sign, the sign of a certain completion and perfection, that the Divine himself has become the Knower and all the inner movements, including the activities of what was once a purely human mental action, have become his field of knowledge. There will be less and less individual choice, opinion, preference, less and less of intellectualisation, mental weaving, cerebral galley-slave labour; a Light within will see all that has to be seen, know all that has to be known, develop, create, organise. It will be the inner Knower who will do in the liberated and universalised mind of the individual the works of an all-comprehending knowledge.

1.05 - The Destiny of the Individual, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  9:But as in Thought, so in Life, the true rule of self-realisation is a progressive comprehension. Brahman expresses Itself in many successive forms of consciousness, successive in their relation even if coexistent in being or coeval in Time, and Life in its self-unfolding must also rise to ever-new provinces of its own being. But if in passing from one domain to another we renounce what has already been given us from eagerness for our new attainment, if in reaching the mental life we cast away or belittle the physical life which is our basis, or if we reject the mental and physical in our attraction to the spiritual, we do not fulfil God integrally, nor satisfy the conditions of His selfmanifestation. We do not become perfect, but only shift the field of our imperfection or at most attain a limited altitude. However high we may climb, even though it be to the Non-Being itself, we climb ill if we forget our base. Not to abandon the lower to itself, but to transfigure it in the light of the higher to which we have attained, is true divinity of nature. Brahman is integral and unifies many states of consciousness at a time; we also, manifesting the nature of Brahman, should become integral and all-embracing.
  10:Besides the recoil from the physical life, there is another exaggeration of the ascetic impulse which this ideal of an integral manifestation corrects. The nodus of Life is the relation between three general forms of consciousness, the individual, the universal and the transcendent or supracosmic. In the ordinary distribution of life's activities the individual regards himself as a separate being included in the universe and both as dependent upon that which transcends alike the universe and the individual. It is to this Transcendence that we give currently the name of God, who thus becomes to our conceptions not so much supracosmic as extra-cosmic. The belittling and degradation of both the individual and the universe is a natural consequence of this division: the cessation of both cosmos and individual by the attainment of the Transcendence would be logically its supreme conclusion.

1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  motivational or affective states of pride, resentment, jealousy, and hatred but which cannot be identified
  unerringly with the presence of any or all. The morality of an aggressive act, for example, depends on the
  --
  The incorporation of all competing states of motivation into a single hierarchy of value presupposes
  recognition of all diverse (painful, uncomfortable, difficult to manage) desires, and the forging of an
  --
  the mind (the overcoming the body by mental union). This stage refers to the integration of states of
  motivation (drives, emotions) into a single hierarchy, dominated by the figure of the exploratory hero. The
  --
  the personalities associated with given states of emotional seizure.
  In states of abnormal tension and in psychopathological or neurological breakdown the effects of foreign
  personalities are easily observable. Individuals afflicted with Tourettes syndrome appear possessed by a complex

1.05 - THE MASTER AND KESHAB, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "But the bhaktas accept all the states of consciousness. They take the waking state to be real also. They don't think the world to be illusory, like a dream. They say that the universe is a manifestation of God's power and glory. God has created all these - sky, stars, moon, sun, mountains, ocean, men, animals. They constitute His glory. He is within us, in our hearts. Again, He is outside. The most advanced devotees say that He Himself has become all this - the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. The devotee of God wants to eat sugar, not to become sugar. (All laugh.)
  "Do you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: 'O God, Thou are the Master, and I am Thy servant. Thou art the Mother, and I am Thy child.' Or again: 'Thou art my Father and Mother. Thou art the Whole, and I am a part.' He doesn't like to say, 'I am Brahman.'

1.05 - THE NEW SPIRIT, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  more be exchanged than can the successive states of infancy, ado-
  lescence, maturity and senility in our own lives.

1.06 - Agni and the Truth, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  In the next verse there seems to be stated the condition of the effective sacrifice. It is the continual resort day by day, in the night and in the light, of the thought in the human being with submission, adoration, self-surrender, to the divine Will and Wisdom represented by Agni. Night and Day, Naktos.asa, are also symbolical, like all the other gods in the Veda, and the sense seems to be that in all states of consciousness, whether
  68
  --
  For whether by day or night Agni shines out in the sacrifices; he is the guardian of the Truth, of the Ritam in man and defends it from the powers of darkness; he is its constant illumination burning up even in obscure and besieged states of the mind. The ideas thus briefly indicated in the eighth verse are constantly found throughout the hymns to Agni in the Rig Veda.
  Agni is finally described as increasing in his own home. We can no longer be satisfied with the explanation of the own home of Agni as the "fire-room" of the Vedic householder. We must seek in the Veda itself for another interpretation and we find it in the 75th hymn of the first Mandala.

1.06 - A Summary of my Phenomenological View of the World, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  there is a cosmic drift of matter towards states of arrangement
  of progressively greater complexity (this being towards - or

1.06 - Being Human and the Copernican Principle, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
  toward greater states of disorder. This increase in entropy
  must, in the opinion of positivist science, inevitably lead to

1.06 - Magicians as Kings, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
  native states of the Malay Peninsula, the success or failure of the
  rice-crops is often attributed to a change of district officers. The

1.06 - Man in the Universe, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  20:To do this we must dare to go below the clear surfaces of things on which the mind loves to dwell, to tempt the vast and obscure, to penetrate the unfathomable depths of consciousness and identify ourselves with states of being that are not our own. Human language is a poor help in such a search, but at least we may find in it some symbols and figures, return with some just expressible hints which will help the light of the soul and throw upon the mind some reflection of the ineffable design.

1.06 - On Thought, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  During the few moments you devote each day to this preliminary exercise of meditation, avoid, if possible, the complacent contemplation of your sensations, your feelings, your states of mind.
  We all have an inexhaustible fund of self-indulgence, and very often we treat all these little inner movements with the greatest respect and give them an importance which they certainly do not have, even relative to our own evolution.
  When one has enough self-control to be able to analyse coldly, to dissect these states of mind, to strip them of their brilliant or painful appearance, so as to perceive them as they are in all their childish insignificance, then one can profitably devote oneself to studying them. But this result can only be achieved gradually, after much reflection in a spirit of complete impartiality. I would like to make a short digression here to put you on your guard against a frequent confusion.
  I have just said that we always look upon ourselves with great indulgence, and I think in fact that our defects very often appear to us to be full of charm and that we justify all our weaknesses. But to tell the truth, this is because we lack self-confidence. Does this surprise you?.. Yes, I repeat, we lack confidence, not in what we are at the present moment, not in our ephemeral and ever-changing outer beingthis being always finds favour in our eyes but we lack confidence in what we can become through effort, we have no faith in the integral and profound transformation which will be the work of our true self, of the eternal, the divine who is in all beings, if we surrender like children to its supremely luminous and far-seeing guidance.

1.06 - Raja Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
  23. Kshipta (wandering), Vikshipta (gathering), Mudha (ignorant), Ekagra (one-pointed), and Nirodha (contrary) are the five states of the mind.
  24. By controlling the thoughts the Sadhaka attains great Siddhis. He becomes an adept. He attains Asamprajnata Samadhi or Kaivalya.

1.06 - The Desire to be, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  The desire to be being possible, the being came into existence and with him the movement by whose transformations were generated, along with the successions of Time, states of increasing materiality.
  For desire is tendency, abstract, subjective movement, outside Space, in pure duration of Time.
  And the progressive passage of this conditional and virtual form of movement to its concrete, objective, material forms defines the succession of the states of being from the first transcendences to the last realisations of the physical order of things.
  In the domain of our comprehension the first desire was the first being; in the world of forms the first being was the first movement.

1.06 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "The various states of mind of the Brahmajnani are described in the Vedas. The path of knowledge is extremely difficult. One cannot obtain jnna if one has the least trace of worldliness and the slightest attachment to 'woman and gold'. This is not the path for the Kaliyuga.
  Seven planes of the mind

1.07 - Bridge across the Afterlife, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
  individualize the states of being that till now were never
  conscious in man and thus to put the Earth in connection

1.07 - Incarnate Human Gods, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
  About the year 1830 there appeared, in one of the states of the
  American Union bordering on Kentucky, an impostor who declared that

1.07 - Medicine and Psycho therapy, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  psychoses have from time immemorial been regarded as states of
  possession, since the impression forces itself upon the nave observer that

1.07 - Note on the word Go, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The word Go in the Vedas appears to bear two ordinary meanings, first, cow, secondly, ray, light or lustre. In the hymns of Madhuchchhanda it occurs 6 times, in five hymns. It occurs twice in the fourth hymn addressed to Indra in the first three verses which are all of them important for the discovery of the proper sense of the word as it is used in this passage. In the third verse which is the key to the passage, we find the prayer Then may we know (of) thy ultimate good thoughts. Then may we know. When? as a consequence to what? Obviously as a consequence to the result of the second verse, which I translate Come to us, O bringer out of the nectar (savana), thou the Soma-drinker; drink of the ecstatic Soma wine, a giver of illumination, enraptured or in better English bringing out the sense & association of the words, Come to us, O thou who art a distiller of the nectar, thou, the Soma-drinker, drink of the impetuously ecstatic Soma wine & be in the rapture of its intoxication our giver of illuminating light. Then may we know thy ultimate perceptions of the intellect. Pass us not byO come! Id lays emphasis on goda as the capacity in which, the purpose for which Indra is to drink. Revato and madah give the conditions under which Indra becomes a giver of illumination, the rushing & impetuous ecstasy produced by the Soma wine. It is then that men know the ultimate perceptions of mind, the highest realisations that can be given by the intellect when Indra, lord of mental force & power, is full of the ecstasy of the immortalising juice. This clear & easy sense being fixed for these two verses, we can return to the first & discover its connection with what follows. From sky to sky, its Rishi says to Indra, thou callest forth for uti, (for favour or kindness, as the ordinary interpretation would have it or for manifestation, expansion in being, as I suggest), the maker of beautiful forms, (who, being compared with a cow, must be some goddess), who is like one that gives milk freely to the milker of the cows, or, as I suggest, who milks freely to the milker of the rays. Undoubtedly, sudugham goduhe may be translated, a good milch cow to the milker of the cows; undoubtedly the poet had this idea in his mind when he wrote. The goddess is in the simile a milch cow, Indra is the milker. In each of the skies (the lower, middle & higher) he calls to her & makes her bring out the beautiful forms which she reveals to the drinker of the Soma. But it is impossible, when we take the connection with the two following verses, to avoid seeing that he is taking advantage of the double sense of go, and that while in the simile Indra is goduh the cow-milker, in the subject of the comparison he is goduh, the bringer out of the illumination, the flashes of higher light which produce the beautiful forms by the power of the goddess. The goddess herself must be one who is habitually associated with illumination, either Ila or Mahi. To anyone acquainted with the processes of Yoga, the whole passage at once becomes perfectly clear & true. The forms are those beautiful & myriad images of things in all the three worlds, the three akashas, dyavi dyavi, which appear to the eye of the Yogin when mental force in the Yoga is at its height, the impetuous & joyous activity (revato madah) of the mingled Ananda and Mahas fills the brain with Ojas and the highest intellectual perceptions, those akin to the supra-rational revelation, become not only possible, but easy, common & multitudinous. The passage describes the condition in which the mind, whether by drinking the material wine, the Karanajal of the Tantrics, or, as I hold, by feeding on the internal amrita, is raised to its highest exalted condition, before it is taken up into mahas or karanam, (whether in the state of Samadhi or in the waking state of the man who has realised his mahan atma, his ideal self), a state in which it is full of revealing thoughts & revealing visions which descend to it from the supra-rational level of the mahat, luminous & unerring, sunrita gomati mahi, where all is Truth & Light. Uti is the state of manifestation in Sat, in being, when that conscious existence which we are is stimulated into intensity & produces easily to the waking consciousness states of existence, movements of knowledge, outpourings of bliss which ordinarily it holds guha, in the secret parts of being.
  The next passage to which I shall turn is the eighth verse of the eighth hymn, also to Indra, in which occurs the expression , a passage which when taken in the plain and ordinary sense of the epithets sheds a great light on the nature of Mahi. Sunrita means really true and is opposed to anrita, false for in the early Aryan speech su and s would equally signify, well, good, very; and the euphonic n is of a very ancient type of sandhioriginally, it was probably no more than a strong anuswartraces of which can still be found in Tamil; in the case of su this n euphonic seems to have been dropped after the movement of the literary Aryan tongue towards the modern principle of Sandhi,a movement the imperfect progress of which we see in the Vedas; but by that time the form an, composed of privative a and the euphonic n, had become a recognised alternative form to a and the omission of the n would have left the meaning of words very ambiguous; therefore n was preserved in the negative form, omitted from the affirmative where its omission caused no inconvenience,for to write gni instead of anagni would be confusing, but to write svagni instead of sunagni would create no confusion. In the pair sunrita and anrita it is probable that the usage had become so confirmed, so much of an almost technical phraseology, that confirmed habit prevailed over new rule. The second meaning of the word is auspicious, derived from the idea good or beneficent in its regular action. The Vedic scholars give a third sense, quick, active; but this is probably due to confusion with an originally distinct word derived from the root , to move on rapidly, to be strong, swift, active from which we have to dance, & strong and a number of other derivatives, for although ri means to go, it does not appear that rita was used in the sense of motion or swiftness. In any case our choice (apart from unnecessary ingenuities) lies here between auspicious and true. If we take Mahi in the sense of earth, the first is its simplest & most natural significance.We shall have then to translate the earth auspicious (or might it mean true in the sense observing the law of the seasons), wide-watered, full of cows becomes like a ripe branch to the giver. This gives a clear connected sense, although gross and pedestrian and open to the objection that it has no natural and inevitable connection with the preceding verses. My objection is that sunrita and gomati seem to me to have in the Veda a different and deeper sense and that the whole passage becomes not only ennobled in sense, but clearer & more connected in sense if we give them that deeper significance. Gomatir ushasah in Kutsas hymn to the Dawn is certainly the luminous dawns; Saraswati in the third hymn who as chodayitri sunritanam chetanti sumatinam shines pervading all the actions of the understanding, certainly does so because she is the impeller to high truths, the awakener to right thoughts, clear perceptions and not because she is the impeller of things auspiciousa phrase which would have no sense or appropriateness to the context. Mahi is one of the three goddesses Ila, Saraswati and Mahi who are described as tisro devir mayobhuvah, the three goddesses born of delight or Ananda, and her companions being goddesses of knowledge, children of Mahas, she also must be a goddess of knowledge, not the earth; the word mahi also bears the sense of knowledge, intellect, and Mahas undoubtedly refers in many passages to the vijnana or supra-rational level of consciousness, the fourth Vyahriti of the Taittiriya Upanishad. What then prevents us from taking Mahi, here as there, in the sense of the goddess of suprarational knowledge or, if taken objectively, the world of Mahat? Nothing, except a tradition born in classical times when mahi was the earth and the new Nature-worship theory. In this sense I shall take it. I translate the line For thus Mahi the true, manifest in action, luminous becomes like a ripe branch to the giveror, again in better English, For thus Mahi the perfect in truth, manifesting herself in action, full of illumination, becomes as a ripe branch to the giver. For the Yogin again the sense is clear. All things are contained in the Mahat, derived from the Mahat, depend on theMahat, but we here in the movement of the alpam, have not our desire, are blinded & confined, enjoy an imperfect, erroneous & usually baffled & futile activity. It is only when we regain the movement of the Mahat, the large & uncontracted consciousness that comes from rising to the infinite,it is only then that we escape from this limitation. She is perfect in truth, full of illumination; error and ignorance disappear; she manifests herself virapshi in a wide & various activity; our activities are enlarged, our desires are fulfilled. The connection with the preceding stanzas becomes clear. The Vritras, the great obstructors & upholders of limitation, are slain by the help of Indra, by the result of the yajnartham karma, by alliance with the armed gods in mighty internal battle; Indra, the god within our mental force, manifests himself as supreme and full of the nature of ideal truth from which his greatness weaponed with the vajra, vidyut or electric principle, derives (mahitwam astu vajrine). The mind, instinct with amrita, is then full of equality, samata; it drinks in the flood of activity of all kinds as the sea takes in the rivers. For the condition then results in which the ideal consciousness Mahi is like a ripe branch to the giver, when all powers & expansions of being at once (without obstacle as the Vritras are slain) become active in consciousness as masterful and effective knowledge or awareness (chit). This is the process prayed for by the poet. The whole hymn becomes a consecutive & intelligible whole, a single thought worked out logically & coherently and relating with perfect accuracy of ensemble & detail to one of the commonest experiences of Yogic fulfilment. In both these passages the faithful adherence to the intimations of language, Vedantic idea & Yogic experience have shed a flood of light, illuminating the obscurity of the Vedas, bringing coherence into the incoherence of the naturalistic explanation, close & strict logic, great depth of meaning with great simplicity of expression, and, as I shall show when I take up the final interpretation of the separate hymns, a rational meaning & reason of existence in that particular place for each word & phrase and a faultless & inevitable connection with what goes before & with what goes after. It is worth noticing that by the naturalistic interpretation one can indeed generally make out a meaning, often a clear or fluent sense for the separate verses of the Veda, but the ensemble of the hymn has almost always about it an air bizarre, artificial, incoherent, almost purposeless, frequently illogical and self-contradictoryas in Max Mullers translation of the 39th hymn, Kanwas to the Maruts,never straightforward, self-assured & easy. One would expect in these primitive writers,if they are primitive,crudeness of belief perhaps, but still plainness of expression and a simple development of thought. One finds instead everything tortuous, rugged, gnarled, obscure, great emptiness with great pretentiousness of mind, a labour of diction & development which seems to be striving towards great things & effecting a nullity. The Vedic singers, in the modern version, have nothing to say and do not know how to say it. I sacrifice, you drink, you are fine fellows, dont hurt me or let others hurt me, hurt my enemies, make me safe & comfortablethis is practically all that the ten Mandalas have to say to the gods & it is astonishing that they should be utterly at a loss how to say it intelligibly. A system which yields such results must have at its root some radical falsity, some cardinal error.

1.07 - On Dreams, #Words Of Long Ago, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The same discipline of concentration which enables man not to remain a stranger to the inner activities of the waking state also provides him with a way to escape from his ignorance of the even richer activities of the various states of sleep.
  These activities usually leave behind them only a few rare and confused memories.

1.07 - The Ego and the Dualities, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  3:At first, however, we must strive to relate the individual again to the harmony of the totality. There it is necessary for us - otherwise there is no issue from the problem - to realise that the terms in which our present consciousness renders the values of the universe, though practically justified for the purposes of human experience and progress, are not the sole terms in which it is possible to render them and may not be the complete, the right, the ultimate formulas. Just as there may be sense-organs or formations of sense-capacity which see the physical world differently and it may well be better, because more completely, than our sense-organs and sense-capacity, so there may be other mental and supramental envisagings of the universe which surpass our own. states of consciousness there are in which Death is only a change in immortal Life, pain a violent backwash of the waters of universal delight, limitation a turning of the Infinite upon itself, evil a circling of the good around its own perfection; and this not in abstract conception only, but in actual vision and in constant and substantial experience. To arrive at such states of consciousness may, for the individual, be one of the most important and indispensable steps of his progress towards self-perfection.
  4:Certainly, the practical values given us by our senses and by the dualistic sense-mind must hold good in their field and be accepted as the standard for ordinary life-experience until a larger harmony is ready into which they can enter and transform themselves without losing hold of the realities which they represent. To enlarge the sense-faculties without the knowledge that would give the old sense-values their right interpretation from the new standpoint might lead to serious disorders and incapacities, might unfit for practical life and for the orderly and disciplined use of the reason. Equally, an enlargement of our mental consciousness out of the experience of the egoistic dualities into an unregulated unity with some form of total consciousness might easily bring about a confusion and incapacity for the active life of humanity in the established order of the world's relativities. This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life-basis and thought-basis of the ignorant; for, impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.

1.07 - The Primary Data of Being, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  In the synthetic unity, in the indivisibility of the conscious ego the same characteristic is represented on the contrary by pure internal movement and by an increasing mutability of the subjective states of the being, a succession of more and more rapid movements in its becoming.
  Finally, in the moral characteristics of the individual being, the two dissociated principles of the Absolute are diversely affirmed, that of unity by the exclusive and egoistic oneness of the personal I, that of permanence by a sort of fixity, of inertia, of resistance to the universal movement, a refusal unceasingly opposed to the powers of evolution and progress.
  --
  To these abstract modes there correspond, in the objective world, concrete states of substance and of being, states which extend in an indefinite series from the first transcendences to our own physical domain.
  In each of these states Space and Time find a real content which forms the stuff of their weaving.
  --
  By an ever more detailed, precise and individual differentiation of its elements, it constitutes for itself one after another the successive states of an increasing materiality, that is to say, of an increasing complexity in its substance. And in each of these states the objective forms of the being become more concrete, rich and real.
  It is therefore by the simple prolongation in its effect of the desire for individual manifestation according to the sole law of a rigorously egoistic affirmation that universal being unrolls the whole process of its material evolution.

1.07 - The Psychic Center, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
  connecting our various states of being (the prime result of mental silence and of quieting the vital has even been to separate this consciousness-force from the mental and vital activities in which it is usually embroiled), and we have felt this current of force, or consciousness, as the fundamental reality of our being behind our various states. But this consciousness-force must be the consciousness of someone. Who or what is conscious in us? Where is the center, the master? Are we merely the puppets of some universal Being, who is our true center, since all the mental, vital and physical activities are in fact universal ones? The truth is twofold, but in no way are we puppets, except when we insist on mistaking the frontal being for our self, for it is a puppet. We do have an individual center, which Sri Aurobindo calls the psychic being, and a cosmic center or central being. Step by step, we must recover the one and the other, and become Master of all our states. For the moment, we will try to discover our individual center, the psychic being, which others call the soul.
  It is at once the simplest thing in the world and the most difficult.

1.08a - The Ladder, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
  " It is needless to say that medical materialism draws in point of fact no such sweeping sceptical conclusion. It is sure, just as every simple man is sure, that some states of mind are inwardly superior to others, and reveal to us more truth, and in this it simply makes use of an ordinary spiri- tual judgment. It has no physiological theory of the pro- duction of these its favourite states, by which it may accredit them ; and its attempt to discredit the states which it dislikes, by vaguely associating them with nerves and liver, and connecting them with names connoting bodily affliction, is altogether illogical and inconsistent."
  Not long ago (May 27th, 1931) Mr. J. W. N. Sullivan, the mathematician and exponent of popular scientific prin- ciples, wrote in The Daily Express what appears to be, on the part of non-mystical writers and thinkers of to-day, a growing realization of the value of the experience which I have been labouring to explain. He writes :
  --
  To the philosopher new states of consciousness will be dis- closed ; states which, because of the very path he has been pursuing, have hitherto been barred from his examination.
  From the psychological point of view, the following are true of the experience under discussion :
  --
  2. The mystical states of all men, of different ages, exhibit an extraordinary similarity.
  3. It is related to something which represents Reality.

1.08 - Independence from the Physical, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
  depending on how "removed" the consciousness is from the physical level. This is an opportunity to verify concretely that when consciousness withdraws, force withdraws, because they are one and the same thing. When we faint, the consciousness withdraws also, because we are unable to withstand certain degrees of intensity, and since we have not built a conscious bridge between our various states of being, this involuntary withdrawal results in a void for us. Finally, we notice that remembering his Master, in this case the Mother, was enough to restore order in the disorder of fear, and to enable the young disciple to make the correct movement for reentering his body. By thinking of Mother, he instantly tuned in to the right vibration, which set everything right. This is, roughly speaking, one of the mechanisms of protection or help from Master to disciple.
  viewpoint of the truth of things.95 For the true viewpoint is always that of the Master, the psychic, the spirit in us. Each time we feel an impossibility, a limitation, or a barrier, we can be sure that this represents tomorrow's victory, because without perceiving the obstacle we could not conquer it; we are created to conquer all and live all our dreams, for it is the spirit in us that dreams. In a world where constraints are closing in on us like an iron network, the first of these dreams is perhaps to be able to sail out in the open, unhampered by the body and by boundaries. Then we will no longer need passports;

1.08 - Introduction to Patanjalis Yoga Aphorisms, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
  The really difficult part to understand is that this state, the Absolute, which has been called the highest, is not, as some fear, that of the zoophyte or of the stone. According to them, there are only two states of existence, one of the stone, and the other of thought. What right have they to limit existence to these two? Is there not something infinitely superior to thought? The vibrations of light, when they are very low, we do not see; when they become a little more intense, they become light to us; when they become still more intense, we do not see them it is dark to us. Is the darkness in the end the same darkness as in the beginning? Certainly not; they are different as the two poles. Is the thoughtlessness of the stone the same as the thoughtlessness of God? Certainly not. God does not think; He does not reason. Why should He? Is anything unknown to Him, that He should reason? The stone cannot reason; God does not. Such is the difference. These philosophers think it is awful if we go beyond thought; they find nothing beyond thought.
  There are much higher states of existence beyond reasoning. It is really beyond the intellect that the first state of religious life is to be found. When you step beyond thought and intellect and all reasoning, then you have made the first step towards God; and that is the beginning of life. What is commonly called life is but an embryo state.
  The next question will be: What proof is there that the state beyond thought and reasoning is the highest state? In the first place, all the great men of the world, much greater than those that only talk, men who moved the world, men who never thought of any selfish ends whatever, have declared that this life is but a little stage on the way towards Infinity which is beyond. In the second place, they not only say so, but show the way to every one, explain their methods, that all can follow in their steps. In the third place, there is no other way left. There is no other explanation. Taking for granted that there is no higher state, why are we going through this circle all the time; what reason can explain the world? The sensible world will be the limit to our knowledge if we cannot go farther, if we must not ask for anything more. This is what is called agnosticism. But what reason is there to believe in the testimony of the senses? I would call that man a true agnostic who would stand still in the street and die. If reason is all in all, it leaves us no place to stand on this side of nihilism. If a man is agnostic of everything but money, fame, and name, he is only a fraud. Kant has proved beyond all doubt that we cannot penetrate beyond the tremendous dead wall called reason. But that is the very first idea upon which all Indian thought takes its stand, and dares to seek, and succeeds in finding something higher than reason, where alone the explanation of the present state is to be found. This is the value of the study of something that will take us beyond the world. "Thou art our father, and wilt take us to the other shore of this ocean of ignorance." That is the science of religion, nothing else.

1.08 - The Gods of the Veda - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  But why, it might be asked, should each subjective order or stratum of consciousness necessarily involve the co-existence of a corresponding order of beings & objective world-stratum? For the modern mind, speculative & introspective like the Vedic, is yet speculative within the limits of sensational experience and therefore unable to believe in, even if it can conceive of existence, least of all of an objective existence under conditions different from those [with] which we are familiar and of which our senses assure us. We may therefore admit the profundity & subtlety of the subjective distinction, but we shall be apt to regard the belief in objective worlds & beings unseen by our senses as either an early poetic fancy or a crude superstition of savages. But the Vedic mentality, although perfectly rational, stood at the opposite pole of ideas from the modern and its subjective consciousness admitted a class of experiences which we reject and cut short the moment they begin to present themselves by condemning them as hallucinations. The idea of modern men that the ancients evolved their gods by a process of poetic imagination, is an error due to inability to understand an alien mentality & unwillingness to investigate from within those survivals of it which still subsist though with difficulty under modern conditions. Encouraging this order of phenomena, fostering & developing carefully the states of mind in which they were possible and the movements of mind & sense by which they were effected, the Vedic Rishis saw and communed with the gods and threw themselves into the worlds of which they had the conception. They believed in them for the same reason that Joan of Arc believed in her saints & her voices, Socrates in his daemon or Swedenborg in his spirits, because they had constant experience of them and of the validity both of the experiences and of the instruments of mind & sense by which they were maintained in operation. They would have answered a modern objector that they had as good a proof of them as the scientist has of the worlds & the different orders of life revealed to his optical nerve by microscope & telescope. Some of them might even question whether these scientific discoveries were not optical illusions due to the excitation of the nerve by the instruments utilised! We may, similarly, get rid of the Vedic experiences, disbelieve and discount them, saying that they missed one essential instrument of truth, the sceptical distrust of their instruments,but we cannot argue from them in the minds that received them a childish irrationality or a savage superstition. They trusted, like us, their experience, believed their mind & senses and argued logically from their premisses.
  It is true that apart from these experiences the existence of various worlds & different orders of beings was a logical necessity of the Vedic conception of existence. Existence being a life, a soul expressing itself in forms, every distinct order of consciousness, every stratum or sea of conscious-being (samudra, sindhu, apah as the Vedic thinkers preferred to call them) demanded its own order of objective experiences (lokas, worlds), tended inevitably to throw itself into forms of individualised being (vishah, ganah, prajah). Moreover, in a world so conceived, nothing could happen in this world without relation to some force or being in the worlds behind; nor could there be any material, vital or mental movement except as the expression of a life & a soul behind it. Everything here must be supported from the worlds of mind or it could not maintain its existence. From this idea to the peopling of the world with innumerable mental & vital existences,existences essentially vital like the Naiads, Dryads, Nereids, Genii, Lares & Penates of the Greeks and Romans, the wood-gods, river-gods, house-gods, tree-deities, snake-deities of the Indians, or mental like the intermediate gods of our old Pantheon, would be a natural and inevitable step. This Animism is a remarkably universal feature in the religious culture of the ancient world. I cannot accept the modern view that its survival in a crude form among the savages, those waifs & strays of human progress, is a proof of their low & savage originany more than the peculiarly crude ideas of Christianity that exist in uneducated negro minds [and] would survive in a still more degraded form if they were long isolated from civilised life, would be a proof to future research that Christianity originated from a cannibal tribe on the African continent. The idea is essentially a civilised conception proceeding from keen susceptibility & only possible after a meditative dwelling upon Naturenot different indeed in rank & order from Wordsworths experience of Nature which no one, I suppose, would consider an atavistic recrudescence of old savage mentality, and impossible to the animal man. The dog & crow who reason from their senses, do not stand in awe of inanimate objects, or of dawn & rain & shine or expect from them favours.
  --
  The word vja, usually rendered by Sayana, food or ghee,a sense which he is swift to foist upon any word which will at all admit that construction, as well as on some which will not admit it,has in other passages another sense assigned to it, strength, bala. It is the latter significance or its basis of substance & solidity which I propose to attach to vja in every line of the Rigveda where it occursand it occurs with an abundant frequency. There are a number of words in the Veda which have to be rendered by the English strength,bala, taras, vja, sahas, avas, to mention only the most common expressions. Can it be supposed that all these vocables rejoice in one identical connotation as commentators and lexicographers would lead us to conclude, and are used in the Veda promiscuously & indifferently to express the same idea of strength? The psychology of human language is more rich and delicate. In English the words strength, force, vigour, robustness differ in their mental values; force can be used in offices of expression to which strength and vigour are ineligible. In Vedic Sanscrit, as in every living tongue, the same law holds and a literary and thoughtful appreciation of its documents, whatever may be the way of the schools, must take account of these distinctions. In the brief list I have given, bala answers to the English strength, taras gives a shade of speed and impetuosity, sahas of violence or force, avas of flame and brilliance, vja of substance and solidity. In the philological appendix to this work there will be found detailed reasons for concluding that strength is in the history of the word vja only a secondary sense, like its other meanings, wealth and food; the basic idea is a strong sufficiency of substance or substantial energy. Vja is one of the great standing terms of the Vedic psychology. All states of being, whether matter, mind or life and all material, mental & vital activities depend upon an original flowing mass of Energy which is in the vivid phraseology of the Vedas called a flood or sea, samudra, sindhu or arnas. Our power or activity in any direction depends first on the amount & substantiality of this stream as it flows into, through or within our own limits of consciousness, secondly, on our largeness of being constituted by the wideness of those limits, thirdly, on our power of holding the divine flow and fourthly on the force and delight which enter into the use of our available Energy. The result is the self-expression, ansa or vyakti, which is the objective of Vedic Yoga. In the language of the Rishis whatever we can make permanently ours is called our holding or wealth, dhanam or in the plural dhanni; the powers which assist us in the getting, keeping or increasing of our dhanni, the yoga, s ti & vriddhi, are the gods; the powers which oppose & labour to rob us of this wealth are our enemies & plunderers, dasyus, and appear under various names, Vritras, Panis, Daityas, Rakshasas, Yatudhanas. The wealth itself may be the substance of mental light and knowledge or of vital health, delight & longevity or of material strength & beauty or it may be external possessions, cattle, progeny, empire, women. A close, symbolic and to modern ideas mystic parallelism stood established in the Vedic mind between the external & the internal wealth, as between the outer sacrifice which earned from the gods the external wealth & the inner sacrifice which brought by the aid of the gods the internal riches. In this system the word vja represents that amount & substantial energy of the stuff of force in the dhanam brought to the service of the sacrificer for the great Jivayaja, our daily & continual life-sacrifice. It is a substantial wealth, vjavad dhanam that the gods are asked to bring with them. We see then in what sense Saraswati, a goddess purely mental in her functions of speech and knowledge, can be vjebhir vjinvat. Vjin is that which is composed of vja, substantial energy; the plural vj h or vj ni the particular substantialities of various composed. For the rest, to no other purpose can a deity of speech & knowledge be vjebhir vjinvat. In what appropriateness or coherent conceivable sense can the goddess of knowledge be possessed of material wealth or full-stored with material food, ghee & butter, beef & mutton? If it be suggested that Speech of the mantras was believed by these old superstitious barbarians to bring them their ghee & butter, beef & mutton, the answer is that this is not what the language of the hymns expresses. Saraswati herself is said to be vjinvat, possessed of substance of food; she is not spoken of as being the cause of fullness of food or wealth to others.
  This explanation of vjebhir vjinvat leads at once to the figurative sense of maho arnas. Arnas or samudra is the image of the sea, flood or stream in which the Vedic seers saw the substance of being and its different states. Sometimes one great sea, sometimes seven streams of being are spoken of by the Rishis; they are the origin of the seven seas of the Purana. It cannot be doubted that the minds of the old thinkers were possessed with this image of ocean or water as the very type & nature of the flux of existence, for it occurs with a constant insistence in the Upanishads. The sole doubt is whether the image was already present to the minds of the primitive Vedic Rishis. The Europeans hold that these were the workings of a later imagination transfiguring the straightforward material expressions & physical ideas of the Veda; they admit no real parentage of Vedantic ideas in the preexistent Vedic notions, but only a fictitious derivation. I hold, on the contrary, that Vedantic ideas have a direct & true origin & even a previous existence in the religion & psychology of the Vedas. If, indeed, there were no stuff of high thinking or moral sensibility in the hymns of the Vedic sages, then I should have no foundation to stand upon and no right to see this figure in the Vedic arnas or samudra. But when these early minds,early to us, but not perhaps really so primitive in human history as we imagine,were capable of such high thoughts & perceptions as these three Riks bear on their surface, it would be ridiculous to deny them the capacity of conceiving these great philosophical images & symbols. A rich poetic imagery expressing a clear, direct & virgin perception of the facts of mind and being, is not by any means impossible, but rather natural in these bright-eyed sons of the morning not yet dominated in their vision by the dry light of the intellect or in their speech & thought by the abstractions & formalities of metaphysical thinking. Water was to them, let us hold in our hypothesis, the symbol of unformed substance of being, earth of the formed substance. They even saw a mystic identity between the thing symbolised & the symbol.
  What then is maho arnas? Is it the great sea of general being, substance of general existence out of which the substance of thought & speech are formed? It is possible; but such an interpretation is not entirely in consonance with the context of this passage. The suggestion I shall advance will therefore be different. Mahas, as a neuter adjective, means great,maho arnas, the great water; but mahas may be equally a noun and then maho arnas will mean Mahas the sea. In some passages again, mahas is genitive singular or accusative plural of a noun mah; maho arnas may well be the flowing stream or flood of Mah, as in the expression vasvo arnavam, the sea of substance, in a later Sukta.We are therefore likely to remain in doubt unless we can find an actual symbolic use of either word Mah or Mahas in a psychological sense which would justify us in supposing this Maho Arnas to be a sea of substance of knowledge rather than vaguely the sea of general substance of being. For this is the significance which alone entirely suits the actual phraseology of the last Rik of the Sukta. We find our clue in the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is said there that there are three recognised vyahritis of the Veda, Bhur, Bhuvar, Swah, but the Rishi Mahachamasya affirmed a fourth. The name of this doubtful fourth vyahriti is Mahas. Now the mystic vyahritis of the Veda are the shabdas or sacred words expressing objectively the three worlds, subjectively mentalised material being, mentalised vital being & pure mental being, the three manifest states of our phenomenal consciousness. Mahas, therefore, must express a fourth state of being, which is so much superior to the other three or so much beyond the ordinary attainment of our actual human consciousness that it is hardly considered in Vedic thought a vyahriti, whatever one or two thinkers may have held to the contrary. What do we know of this Mahas from Vedantic or later sources? Bhuh, Bhuvah, Swar of the Veda rest substantially upon the Annam, Prana, Manas, matter, life & mind of the Upanishads. But the Upanishads speak of a fourth state of being immediately aboveManas, preceding it therefore & containing it, Vijnanam, ideal knowledge, and a fifth immediately above Vijnanam, Ananda or Bliss. Physically, these five are the pancha kshitayah, five earths or dwelling-places, of the Rig Veda and they are the pancha koshas, five sheaths or bodies of the Upanishads. But in our later Yogic systems we recognise seven earths, seven standing grounds of the soul on which it experiences phenomenal existence. The Purana gives us their names [the names of the two beyond the five already mentioned], Tapas and Satya, Energy&Truth. They are the outward expressions of the two psychological principles, Self-Awareness &Self-Being (Chit&Sat) which with Ananda, Self-Bliss, are the triune appearance in the soul of the supreme Existence which the Vedanta calls Brahman. Sat, Chit & Ananda constitute to Vedantic thought the parardha or spiritual higher half [of] our existence; in less imaginative language, we are in our supreme existence self-existence, self-awareness & self-delight. Annam, Prana & Manas constitute to Vedantic thought the aparardha or lower half; again, in more abstract speech, we are in our lower phenomenal existence mind, life & matter. Vijnana is the link; standing in ideal knowledge we are aware, looking upward, of our spiritual existence, looking downward, we pour it out into the three vyahritis, Bhur, Bhuvah & Swar, mental, vital & material existence, the phenomenal symbols of our self-expression. Objectively vijnana becomes mahat, the great, wide or extended state of phenomenal being,called also brihat, likewise signifying vast or great,into which says the Gita, the Self or Lord casts his seed as into a womb in order to engender all these objects & creatures. The Self, standing in vijnanam or mahat, is called the Mahan Atma, the great Self; so that, if we apply the significance [of] these terms to the Vedic words mah, mahas, mahi, mahn, then, even accepting mahas as an adjective and maho arnas in the sense of the great Ocean, it may very well be the ocean of the ideal or pure ideative state of existence in true knowledge which is intended, the great ocean slumbering in our humanity and awakened by the divine inspiration of Saraswati. But have we at all the right to read these high, strange & subtle ideas of a later mysticism into the primitive accents of the Veda? Let us at least support for a while that hypothesis. We may very well ask, if not from the Vedic forefa thers, whence did the Aryan thinkers get these striking images, this rich & concrete expression of the most abstract ideas and persist in them even after the Indian mind had rarefied & lifted its capacity to the height of the most difficult severities & abstractions known to any metaphysical thinking? Our hypothesis of a Vedic origin remains not only a possible suggestion but the one hypothesis in lawful possession of the field, unless a foreign source or a later mixed ideation can be proved. At present this later ideation may be assumed, it has not been & cannot be proved. The agelong tradition of India assigns the Veda as the source & substance of our theosophies; Brahmana, Aranyaka, Upanishad & Purana as only the interpretation & later expression; the burden of disproof rests on those who negative the tradition.
  Vjebhir vjinvat and maho arnas are therefore fixed in their significance. The word vashtu in the tenth Rik offers a difficulty. It is equivalent to vahatu, says the Brahmana; to kmayatu, says Sayana; but, deferring to the opinion of the Brahmana, he adds that it means really kmayitw vahatu. Undoubtedly the root va means in classical Sanscrit to desire; but from the evidence of the classical Sanscrit we have it established that in more ancient times its ordinary meaning must have been to subdue or control; for although the verb has lost this sense in the later language, almost all its derivatives bear that meaning & the sense of wish, will or desire only persists in a few of them, va, wish and possibly va, a woman. It is this sense which agrees best with the context of the tenth rik and is concealed in the vahatu of the Brahmanas. There is no other difficulty of interpretation in the passage.

1.08 - THE MASTERS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Now and then he went into samdhi, standing still as a statue. While he was in one of these states of divine unconsciousness, the devotees put thick garlands of jasmine around his neck. The enchanting form of the Master reminded the devotees of Chaitanya, another Incarnation of God. The Master passed alternately through three moods of divine consciousness: the inmost, when he completely lost all knowledge of the outer world; the semi-conscious, when he danced with the devotees in an ecstasy of love; and the conscious, when he joined them in loud singing. It was indeed a sight for the gods, to see the Master standing motionless in samdhi, with fragrant garlands hanging from his neck, his countenance beaming with love, and the devotees singing and dancing around him.
  When it was time for his noon meal, Sri Ramakrishna put on a new yellow cloth and sat on the small couch. His golden complexion, blending with his yellow cloth, enchanted the eyes of the devotees.

1.08 - The Synthesis of Movement, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  To this state of pure energy or of pure will which is that of the absolute manifestation, are opposed the different states of the relative manifestation in which is worked out progressively the disjunction of the categories of Time and Space.
  The more Time and Space are disjoined, the more concrete they become and the movement also more relative. It is this increasing relativity which is expressed by the decreasing swiftness of the movement in its states of ever-growing materiality. The acceleration of the movement, on the contrary, tends to make it pass progressively through domains of a less and less relative reality less and less subjected to Space and Time.
  Hence the incapacity of our senses to perceive it as movement at all outside its most concrete and slowest forms. The moment it is accelerated, our sense-perception translates it into more and more abstract phenomena of sound, heat, light and beyond them there begins the gamut of the purely mystical movement of feeling and thought.
  In proportion as it raises itself in the order of these transcendent movements, our consciousness passes from its more individualised states to states of increasing impersonality. This is the opposite road to that which the impulsion of desire has followed in order to individualise itself increasingly in more and more concrete forms of substance. And the material world, the last term of the manifestations of creative Desire, is at the same time the nodus of the slowest movements and of the most relative states of consciousness.
  But it is precisely in the apparent inertia of Matter that is hidden the secret of the relative movements return towards the absolute movement and of a correlative ascent of the being towards the Impersonal. It is there that by a veritable magic the objective and analytical movements of the elements are transmuted into the synthetic, abstract and subjective movements which are those of the internal life and the conscient ego.
  While in the successive states of pre-physical manifestation the universal movement slackened more and more in order to give birth to diverse vibrations without any limitation of the space offered for its development, in the physical state on the contrary that movement inclosed in the infinitesimal circle of the atom is transformed into vibrations of a rapidity increasing with the limitation of its field into a whirl the more vertiginous, the more it is internal.
  And it is by this self-transformation that it gives birth to all the possibilities of a conscious organisation.

1.09 - Civilisation and Culture, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  We have first the distinction between civilisation and barbarism. In its ordinary, popular sense civilisation means the state of civil society, governed, policed, organised, educated, possessed of knowledge and appliances as opposed to that which has not or is not supposed to have these advantages. In a certain sense the Red Indian, the Basuto, the Fiji islander had their civilisation; they possessed a rigorously, if simply organised society, a social law, some ethical ideas, a religion, a kind of training, a good many virtues in some of which, it is said, civilisation is sadly lacking; but we are agreed to call them savages and barbarians, mainly it seems, because of their crude and limited knowledge, the primitive rudeness of their appliances and the bare simplicity of their social organisation. In the more developed states of society we have such epithets as semi-civilised and semi-barbarous which are applied by different types of civilisation to each other,the one which is for a time dominant and physically successful has naturally the loudest and most self-confident say in the matter. Formerly men were more straightforward and simpleminded and frankly expressed their standpoint by stigmatising all peoples different in general culture from themselves as barbarians or Mlechchhas. The word civilisation so used comes to have a merely relative significance or hardly any fixed sense at all. We must therefore get rid in it of all that is temporary or accidental and fix it upon this distinction that barbarism is the state of society in which man is almost entirely preoccupied with his life and body, his economic and physical existence,at first with their sufficient maintenance, not as yet their greater or richer well-being, and has few means and little inclination to develop his mentality, while civilisation is the more evolved state of society in which to a sufficient social and economic organisation is added the activity of the mental life in most if not all of its parts; for sometimes some of these parts are left aside or discouraged or temporarily atrophied by their inactivity, yet the society may be very obviously civilised and even highly civilised. This conception will bring in all the civilisations historic and prehistoric and put aside all the barbarism, whether of Africa or Europe or Asia, Hun or Goth or Vandal or Turcoman. It is obvious that in a state of barbarism the rude beginnings of civilisation may exist; it is obvious too that in a civilised society a great mass of barbarism or numerous relics of it may exist. In that sense all societies are semi-civilised. How much of our present-day civilisation will be looked back upon with wonder and disgust by a more developed humanity as the superstitions and atrocities of an imperfectly civilised era! But the main point is this that in any society which we can call civilised the mentality of man must be active, the mental pursuits developed and the regulation and improvement of his life by the mental being a clearly self-conscious concept in his better mind.
  But in a civilised society there is still the distinction between the partially, crudely, conventionally civilised and the cultured. It would seem therefore that the mere participation in the ordinary benefits of civilisation is not enough to raise a man into the mental life proper; a farther development, a higher elevation is needed. The last generation drew emphatically the distinction between the cultured man and the Philistine and got a fairly clear idea of what was meant by it. Roughly, the Philistine was for them the man who lives outwardly the civilised life, possesses all its paraphernalia, has and mouths the current stock of opinions, prejudices, conventions, sentiments, but is impervious to ideas, exercises no free intelligence, is innocent of beauty and art, vulgarises everything that he touches, religion, ethics, literature, life. The Philistine is in fact the modern civilised barbarian; he is often the half-civilised physical and vital barbarian by his unintelligent attachment to the life of the body, the life of the vital needs and impulses and the ideal of the merely domestic and economic human animal; but essentially and commonly he is the mental barbarian, the average sensational man. That is to say, his mental life is that of the lower substratum of the mind, the life of the senses, the life of the sensations, the life of the emotions, the life of practical conduct the first status of the mental being. In all these he may be very active, very vigorous, but he does not govern them by a higher light or seek to uplift them to a freer and nobler eminence; rather he pulls the higher faculties down to the level of his senses, his sensations, his unenlightened and unchastened emotions, his gross utilitarian practicality. His aesthetic side is little developed; either he cares nothing for beauty or has the crudest aesthetic tastes which help to lower and vulgarise the general standard of aesthetic creation and the aesthetic sense. He is often strong about morals, far more particular usually about moral conduct than the man of culture, but his moral being is as crude and undeveloped as the rest of him; it is conventional, unchastened, unintelligent, a mass of likes and dislikes, prejudices and current opinions, attachment to social conventions and respectabilities and an obscure dislikerooted in the mind of sensations and not in the intelligenceof any open defiance or departure from the generally accepted standard of conduct. His ethical bent is a habit of the sensemind; it is the morality of the average sensational man. He has a reason and the appearance of an intelligent will, but they are not his own, they are part of the group-mind, received from his environment; or so far as they are his own, merely a practical, sensational, emotional reason and will, a mechanical repetition of habitual notions and rules of conduct, not a play of real thought and intelligent determination. His use of them no more makes him a developed mental being than the daily movement to and from his place of business makes the average Londoner a developed physical being or his quotidian contri butions to the economic life of the country make the bank-clerk a developed economic man. He is not mentally active, but mentally reactive,a very different matter.

1.09 - Concentration - Its Spiritual Uses, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
  What results from this constant meditation? We must remember how in a previous aphorism Patanjali went into the various states of meditation, how the first would be the gross, the second the fine, and from them the advance was to still finer objects. The result of these meditations is that we can meditate as easily on the fine as on the gross objects. Here the Yogi sees the three things, the receiver, the received, and the receiving instrument, corresponding to the Soul, external objects, and the mind. There are three objects of meditation given us. First, the gross things, as bodies, or material objects; second, fine things, as the mind, the Chitta; and third, the Purusha qualified, not the Purusha itself, but the Egoism. By practice, the Yogi gets established in all these meditations. Whenever he meditates he can keep out all other thoughts; he becomes identified with that on which he meditates. When he meditates, he is like a piece of crystal. Before flowers the crystal becomes almost identified with the flowers. If the flower is red, the crystal looks red, or if the flower is blue, the crystal looks blue.
    

1.09 - Saraswati and Her Consorts, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Ila is also the word of the truth; her name has become identical in a later confusion with the idea of speech. As Saraswati is an awakener of the consciousness to right thinkings or right states of mind, cetant sumatnam, so also Ila comes to the sacrifice awakening the consciousness to knowledge, cetayant.
  She is full of energy, suvra, and brings knowledge. She also is connected with Surya, the Sun, as when Agni, the Will is invoked

1.09 - Talks, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
  People who read our Correspondence were under the impression that our days bubbled with "jest and jollity, quips and cranks" all the while. In fact, a friend did not believe me when I said that the bubbling lasted only for a short time. Sri Aurobindo was, after all, a Yogi. All who knew him knew that. In one of his letters to Dilip, when Dilip complained that Sri Aurobindo would not laugh or even smile, he replied that since his childhood, he had been estranged from his family and accustomed to live a solitary life. His nature had therefore become reserved, somewhat remote and he felt shy of too much personal emotion. The English racial climate may have, I suppose, added its own large share to it. Moreover, the Yoga he had practised, beginning with the transcendental nirvanic experience, must have crowned the natural disposition. Buddha, I believe, for all his compassion, could not but have been impersonal in his daily communication. This vast impersonality even in personal relations, is it not the basis of his Yoga? I have often wondered what his state of consciousness was, for instance, when he was talking with us or dictating Savitri. Now I have learnt that the three states of consciousness: transcendent, cosmic and individual can operate at the same time. I also used to wonder how he could take interest even in the most trivial, "unspiritual" amusing talk or incidents, and joke with us, say on snoring or baldness! He had found the rasa,the delight of Brahman in everything. So his jokes were never trivial; they could be playful but always had an intellectual element in them.
  I have already given some examples of his humour in the previous chapters; let me now quote something to show his light mood. One day suddenly breaking his silence, he addressed Purani and said, "There is something nice for you, Purani." (For once he used his name!)

1.09 - The Absolute Manifestation, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  One could as well say that the being between these two absolute poles ascends from an impossible Nothingness towards an inaccessible Infinite. Or rather that from either of these poles proceed two opposite currents, one tending from being towards non-being, the other from non-being towards being. At every point where they meet, their conflict generates all the possible forms of the relative in all its states of substance.
  The point at which these two dreams of the Infinite are in equilibrium or identify themselves in a sole reality, is the point of the eternal consciousness.

1.1.01 - Seeking the Divine, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  That involves something which throws all your reasoning out of gear. For these are aspects of the Divine Nature, powers of it, states of his being, - but the Divine Himself is something absolute, someone self-existent, not limited by his aspects, - wonderful and ineffable, not existing by them, but they existing because of him. It follows that if he attracts by his aspects, all the more he can attract by his very absolute selfness which is sweeter, mightier, profounder than any aspect. His peace, rapture, light, freedom, beauty are marvellous and ineffable, because he is himself magically, mysteriously, transcendently marvellous and ineffable. He can then be sought after for his wonderful and ineffable self and not only for the sake of one aspect or another of him. The only thing needed for that is, first, to arrive at a point when the psychic being feels this pull of the Divine in himself and, secondly, to arrive at the point when the mind, vital and each thing else begins to feel too that that was what it was wanting and the surface hunt after Ananda or what else was only an excuse for drawing the nature towards that supreme magnet.
  Your argument that because we know the union with the

1.10 - Concentration - Its Practice, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
  The Chitta-Vrittis, the mind-waves, which are gross, we can appreciate and feel; they can be more easily controlled, but what about the finer instincts? How can they be controlled? When I am angry, my whole mind becomes a huge wave of anger. I feel it, see it, handle it, can easily manipulate it, can fight with it; but I shall not succeed perfectly in the fight until I can get down below to its causes. A man says something very harsh to me, and I begin to feel that I am getting heated, and he goes on till I am perfectly angry and forget myself, identify myself with anger. When he first began to abuse me, I thought, "I am going to be angry". Anger was one thing, and I was another; but when I became angry, I was anger. These feelings have to be controlled in the germ, the root, in their fine forms, before even we have become conscious that they are acting on us. With the vast majority of mankind the fine states of these passions are not even known the states in which they emerge from subconsciousness. When a bubble is rising from the bottom of the lake, we do not see it, nor even when it is nearly come to the surface; it is only when it bursts and makes a ripple that we know it is there. We shall only be successful in grappling with the waves when we can get hold of them in their fine causes, and until you can get hold of them, and subdue them before they become gross, there is no hope of conquering any passion perfectly. To control our passions we have to control them at their very roots; then alone shall we be able to burn out their very seeds. As fried seeds thrown into the ground will never come up, so these passions will never arise.
  
  --
  19. The states of the qualities are the defined, the undefined, the indicated only, and the signless.
  The system of Yoga is built entirely on the philosophy of the Snkhyas, as I told you before, and here again I shall remind you of the cosmology of the Sankhya philosophy. According to the Sankhyas, nature is both the material and the efficient cause of the universe. In nature there are three sorts of materials, the Sattva, the Rajas, and the Tamas. The Tamas material is all that is dark, all that is ignorant and heavy. The Rajas is activity. The Sattva is calmness, light. Nature, before creation, is called by them Avyakta, undefined, or indiscrete; that is, in which there is no distinction of form or name, a state in which these three materials are held in perfect balance. Then the balance is disturbed, the three materials begin to mingle in various fashions, and the result is the universe. In every man, also, these three materials exist. When the Sattva material prevails, knowledge comes; when Rajas, activity; and when Tamas, darkness, lassitude, idleness, and ignorance. According to the Sankhya theory, the highest manifestation of nature, consisting of the three materials, is what they call Mahat or intelligence, universal intelligence, of which each human intellect is a part. In the Sankhya psychology there is a sharp distinction between Manas, the mind function, and the function of the Buddhi, intellect. The mind function is simply to collect and carry impressions and present them to the Buddhi, the individual Mahat, which determines upon it. Out of Mahat comes egoism, out of which again come the fine materials. The fine materials combine and become the gross materials outside the external universe. The claim of the Sankhya philosophy is that beginning with the intellect down to a block of stone, all is the product of one substance, different only as finer to grosser states of existence. The finer is the cause, and the grosser is the effect. According to the Sankhya philosophy, beyond the whole of nature is the Purusha, which is not material at all. Purusha is not at all similar to anything else, either Buddhi, or mind, or the Tanmatras, or the gross materials. It is not akin to any one of these, it is entirely separate, entirely different in its nature, and from this they argue that the Purusha must be immortal, because it is not the result of combination. That which is not the result of combination cannot die. The Purushas or souls are infinite in number.
  Now we shall understand the aphorism that the states of the qualities are defined, undefined, indicated only, and signess. By the "defined" are meant the gross elements, which we can sense. By the "undefined" are meant the very fine materials, the Tanmatras, which cannot be sensed by ordinary men. If you practise Yoga, however, says Patanjali, after a while your perceptions will become so fine that you will actually see the Tanmatras. For instance, you have heard how every man has a certain light about him; every living being emits a certain light, and this, he says, can be seen by the Yogi. We do not all see it, but we all throw out these Tanmatras, just as a flower continuously sends out fine particles which enable us to smell it. Every day of our lives we throw out a mass of good or evil, and everywhere we go the atmosphere is full of these materials. That is how there came to the human mind, unconsciously, the idea of building temples and churches. Why should man build churches in which to worship God? Why not worship Him anywhere? Even if he did not know the reason, man found that the place where people worshipped God became full of good Tanmatras. Every day people go there, and the more they go the holier they get, and the holier that place becomes. If any man who has not much Sattva in him goes there, the place will influence him and arouse his Sattva quality. Here, therefore, is the significance of all temples and holy places, but you must remember that their holiness depends on holy people congregating there. The difficulty with man is that he forgets the original meaning, and puts the cart before the horse. It was men who made these places holy, and then the effect became the cause and made men holy. If the wicked only were to go there, it would become as bad as any other place. It is not the building, but the people that make a church, and that is what we always forget. That is why sages and holy persons, who have much of this Sattva quality, can send it out and exert a tremendous influence day and night on their surroundings. A man may become so pure that his purity will become tangible. Whosoever comes in contact with him becomes pure.
  Next "the indicated only" means the Buddhi, the intellect. "The indicated only" is the first manifestation of nature; from it all other manifestations proceed. The last is "the signless". There seems to be a great difference between modern science and all religions at this point. Every religion has the idea that the universe comes out of intelligence. The theory of God, taking it in its psychological significance, apart from all ideas of personality, is that intelligence is first in the order of creation, and that out of intelligence comes what we call gross matter. Modern philosophers say that intelligence is the last to come. They say that unintelligent things slowly evolve into animals, and from animals into men. They claim that instead of everything coming out of intelligence, intelligence itself is the last to come. Both the religious and the scientific statements, though seeming directly opposed to each other are true. Take an infinite series, ABAB AB. etc. The question is which is first, A or B? If you take the series as AB. you will say that A is first, but if you take it as BA, you will say that B is first. It depends upon the way we look at it. Intelligence undergoes modification and becomes the gross matter, this again merges into intelligence, and thus the process goes on. The Sankhyas, and other religionists, put intelligence first, and the series becomes intelligence, then matter. The scientific man puts his finger on matter, and says matter, then intelligence. They both indicate the same chain. Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusha, or Self, which is beyond intelligence, of which intelligence is but the borrowed light.
  --
  The organs are separate states of the mind-stuff. I see a book; the form is not in the book, it is in the mind. Something is outside which calls that form up. The real form is in the Chitta. The organs identify themselves with, and take the forms of, whatever comes to them. If you can restrain the mind-stuff from taking these forms, the mind will remain calm. This is called Pratyahara.
  

1.10 - Conscious Force, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  6:Physical analysis of Matter by modern Science has come to the same general conclusion, even if a few last doubts still linger. Intuition and experience confirm this concord of Science and Philosophy. Pure reason finds in it the satisfaction of its own essential conceptions. For even in the view of the world as essentially an act of consciousness, an act is implied and in the act movement of Force, play of Energy. This also, when we examine from within our own experience, proves to be the fundamental nature of the world. All our activities are the play of the triple force of the old philosophies, knowledge-force, desire-force, action-force, and all these prove to be really three streams of one original and identical Power, Adya Shakti. Even our states of rest are only equable state or equilibrium of the play of her movement.
  7:Movement of Force being admitted as the whole nature of the Cosmos, two questions arise. And first, how did this movement come to take place at all in the bosom of existence? If we suppose it to be not only eternal but the very essence of all existence, the question does not arise. But we have negatived this theory. We are aware of an existence which is not compelled by the movement. How then does this movement alien to its eternal repose come to take place in it? by what cause? by what possibility? by what mysterious impulsion?
  8:The answer most approved by the ancient Indian mind was that Force is inherent in Existence. Shiva and Kali, Brahman and Shakti are one and not two who are separable. Force inherent in existence may be at rest or it may be in motion, but when it is at rest, it exists none the less and is not abolished, diminished or in any way essentially altered. This reply is so entirely rational and in accordance with the nature of things that we need not hesitate to accept it. For it is impossible, because contradictory of reason, to suppose that Force is a thing alien to the one and infinite existence and entered into it from outside or was non-existent and arose in it at some point in Time. Even the Illusionist theory must admit that Maya, the power of self-illusion in Brahman, is potentially eternal in eternal Being and then the sole question is its manifestation or non-manifestation. The Sankhya also asserts the eternal coexistence of Prakriti and Purusha, Nature and Conscious-Soul, and the alternative states of rest or equilibrium of Prakriti and movement or disturbance of equilibrium.
  9:But since Force is thus inherent in existence and it is the nature of Force to have this double or alternative potentiality of rest and movement, that is to say, of self-concentration in Force and self-diffusion in Force, the question of the how of the movement, its possibility, initiating impulsion or impelling cause does not arise. For we can easily, then, conceive that this potentiality must translate itself either as an alternative rhythm of rest and movement succeeding each other in Time or else as an eternal self-concentration of Force in immutable existence with a superficial play of movement, change and formation like the rising and falling of waves on the surface of the ocean. And this superficial play - we are necessarily speaking in inadequate images - may be either coeval with the self-concentration and itself also eternal or it may begin and end in Time and be resumed by a sort of constant rhythm; it is then not eternal in continuity but eternal in recurrence.
  --
  12:It is then necessary to examine into the relation between Force and Consciousness. But what do we mean by the latter term? Ordinarily we mean by it our first obvious idea of a mental waking consciousness such as is possessed by the human being during the major part of his bodily existence, when he is not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his physical and superficial methods of sensation. In this sense it is plain enough that consciousness is the exception and not the rule in the order of the material universe. We ourselves do not always possess it. But this vulgar and shallow idea of the nature of consciousness, though it still colours our ordinary thought and associations, must now definitely disappear out of philosophical thinking. For we know that there is something in us which is conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged or in a swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being. Not only so, but we may now be sure that the old thinkers were right when they declared that even in our waking state what we call then our consciousness is only a small selection from our entire conscious being. It is a superficies, it is not even the whole of our mentality. Behind it, much vaster than it, there is a subliminal or subconscient mind which is the greater part of ourselves and contains heights and profundities which no man has yet measured or fathomed. This knowledge gives us a starting-point for the true science of Force and its workings; it delivers us definitely from circumscription by the material and from the illusion of the obvious.
  13:Materialism indeed insists that, whatever the extension of consciousness, it is a material phenomenon inseparable from our physical organs and not their utiliser but their result. This orthodox contention, however, is no longer able to hold the field against the tide of increasing knowledge. Its explanations are becoming more and more inadequate and strained. It is becoming always clearer that not only does the capacity of our total consciousness far exceed that of our organs, the senses, the nerves, the brain, but that even for our ordinary thought and consciousness these organs are only their habitual instruments and not their generators. Consciousness uses the brain which its upward strivings have produced, brain has not produced nor does it use the consciousness. There are even abnormal instances which go to prove that our organs are not entirely indispensable instruments, - that the heart-beats are not absolutely essential to life, any more than is breathing, nor the organised brain-cells to thought. Our physical organism no more causes or explains thought and consciousness than the construction of an engine causes or explains the motive-power of steam or electricity. The force is anterior, not the physical instrument.

1.10 - Foresight, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  To solve the problem one must know that, to begin with, all living creatures, and more especially human beings, are made up of a combination of several entities that come together, interpenetrate, sometimes organising themselves and completing each other, sometimes opposing and contradicting one another. Each one of these beings or states of being belongs to a world of its own and carries within it its own destiny, its own determinism. And it is the combination of all these determinisms, which is sometimes very heterogeneous, that results in the destiny of the individual. But as the organisation and relationship of all these entities can be altered by personal discipline and effort of will, as these various determinisms act on each other in different ways according to the concentration of the consciousness, their combination is nearly always variable and therefore unforeseeable.
  For example, the physical or material destiny of a being comes from his paternal and maternal forebears, from the physical conditions and circumstances in which he is born; one should be able to foresee the events of his physical life, his state of health and approximately how long his body will last. But then there comes into play the formation of his vital being (the being of desires and passions, but also of impulsive energy and active will) which brings with it its own destiny. This destiny affects the physical destiny and can alter it completely and often even change it for the worse. For example, if a man born with a very good physical balance, who ought to live in very good health, is driven by his vital to all kinds of excesses, bad habits and even vices, he can in this way partly destroy his good physical destiny and lose the harmony of health and strength which would have been his but for this unfortunate interference. This is only one example. But the problem is much more complex, for, to the physical and vital destinies, there must be added the mental destiny, the psychic destiny, and many others besides.
  In fact, the higher a being stands on the human scale, the more complex is his being, the more numerous are his destinies and the more unforeseeable his fate seems to be as a consequence. This is however only an appearance. The knowledge of these various states of being and their corresponding inner worlds gives at the same time the capacity to discern the various destinies, their interpenetration and their combined or dominant action. Higher destinies are quite obviously the closest to the central truth of the universe, and if they are allowed to intervene, their action is necessarily beneficent. The art of living would then consist in maintaining oneself in ones highest state of consciousness and thus allowing ones highest destiny to dominate the others in life and action. So one can say without any fear of making a mistake: be always at the summit of your consciousness and the best will always happen to you. But that is a maximum which is not easy to reach. If this ideal condition turns out to be unrealisable, the individual can at least, when he is confronted by a danger or a critical situation, call upon his highest destiny by aspiration, prayer and trustful surrender to the divine will. Then, in proportion to the sincerity of his call, this higher destiny intervenes favourably in the normal destiny of the being and changes the course of events insofar as they concern him personally. It is events of this kind that appear to the outer consciousness as miracles, as divine interventions.
  Bulletin, February 1950

1.10 - The Image of the Oceans and the Rivers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Saraswati, the inspiration, is full of her luminous plenitudes, rich in substance of thought. She upholds the Sacrifice, the offering of the mortal being's activities to the divine by awakening his consciousness so that it assumes right states of emotion and right movements of thought in accordance with the Truth from which she pours her illuminations and by impelling in it the rise
  The Image of the Oceans and the Rivers

1.10 - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The distinction is of the greatest importance; for not only does it show that the substance of our religious mentality and discipline goes back to the prehistoric antiquity of the Upanishads, but it justifies the hypothesis that the Vedantins of the Upanishads themselves held it as an inheritance from their Vedic forefa thers. If the Upanishads were only a record of intellectual speculations, the theory of a progression from Vedic materialism to new modes of thought would be entirely probable and no other hypothesis could hold the field without first destroying the rationalistic theory by new and unsuspected evidence. But the moment we perceive that the Upanishads are the result of this ancient & indigenous system of truth-finding, we are liberated from the burden of European examples. Evidently, we have here to deal with phenomena of thought which do not fall within the European scheme of a rapid transition from gross savage superstition to subtle metaphysical speculation. We have phenomena which are either sui generis or, if at any time common to humanity both within and outside India, then more ancient or at any rate earlier in the progression of mind than the modern intellectual methods first universalised by the Hellenic & Latin races; we have an intuitive and experiential method of truth finding, a fixed psychological theory and discipline, a system in which observation & comparison of subjective experiences forms the basis of fixed & verifiable psychological truth, just as nowadays in Europe observation & comparison of objective experiences forms the basis of fixed and verifiable physical truth. The difference between the speculative method and the experiential is that the speculative aims only at logical harmony and, due to the rigid abstract tendency, drives towards new blocks of thought and new mental attitudes; the experiential aims at verification by experience and drives towards the progressive discovery or restatement of eternal truths and their application to varying conditions. The indispensable basis of all Science is the invariability of the same result from the same experiment, given the same conditions; the same experiment with oxygen & hydrogen will always, in whatever age or clime it is applied, have one invariable result, the appearance of water. The indispensable basis of all Yoga is the same invariability in psychological experiments & their results. The same experiment with the limited waking or manifest consciousness and the unlimited unmanifest consciousness from which it is a selection and formation will always, in whatever age or clime it is applied, have the same result, the dissolution, gradual or rapid, complete or partial according to the instruments and conditions of the experiment, of the waking ego into the cosmic consciousness. In each method, physical Science or psychological Science, different Scientists or different teachers may differ as to some of the final generalisations to be drawn from the facts & the most appropriate terms to be used, or invent different instruments in the hope of arriving at a more rapid or a more delicate process, but the facts and the fundamental truths remain common to all, even if stated in different terms, because they are the subjects of a common experience. Now the facts discovered by the Indian method, the duality of Purusha and Prakriti, the triple states of conscious being, the relation between the macrocosm & the microcosm, the fivefold and sevenfold principles of consciousness, the existence of more than one bodily case in which, simultaneously, we dwell, these and a number of other fixed ideas which the modern Yogins hold not as speculative propositions but as observable and verifiable facts of experience, are to be found in the Upanishads already enounced in more ancient formulae and in a slightly different language. The question arises, when did they originate? If they are facts, when were they first discovered? If they are hallucinations, when were the methods of subjective experiment which result so persistently in these hallucinations, first evolved and fixed? Not at the time of the Upanishads, for the Upanishads professedly record the traditional knowledge of older Rishis which is still verifiable by the moderns, prvebhir rishibhir dyo ntanair uta.Then, some time before the composition of the Upanishads, either by the earlier or later Vedic Rishis or by predecessors of the Vedic Rishis or in the interval between the Vedic hymns and the first Vedantic compositions. But for the period between Veda & Vedanta we have no documents, no direct & plain evidence. The question therefore can only be decided by an examination of the Vedic hymns themselves. Only by settling the meaning of Veda can we decide whether the early Vedantins were right in supposing that they were merely restating in more modern terms the substantial ideas & experiences of Vedic Rishis or whether this grand assumption of the Upanishads must take its rank among those pious fictions or willing & half honest errors which have often been immensely helpful to the advance of human knowledge but are none the less impostures upon posterity.
  European scholars believe that they have fixed finally the meaning of Veda. Using as their tools the Sciences of Comparative Philology & Comparative Mythology, itself a part of the strangely termed Science of Comparative Religion, they have excavated for us out of the ancient Veda a buried world, a forgotten civilisation, lost names of kings and nations, wars & battles, institutions, social habits & cultural ideas which the men of Vedantic times & their forerunners never dreamed were lying concealed in the revered & sacred words used daily by them in their worship and the fount and authority for their richest spiritual experiences deepest illuminated musings. The picture these discoveries constitute is a remarkable composition, imposing in its mass, brilliant and attractive in its details. The one lingering objection to them is a possible doubt of the truth of these discoveries, the soundness of the methods used to arrive at them. Are the conclusions of Vedic scholarship so undoubtedly true or so finally authoritative as to preclude a totally different hypothesis even though it may lead possibly to an interpretation which will wash out every colour & negative every detail of this great recovery? We must determine, first, whether the foundations of the European theory of Veda are solid & certain fact or whether it has been reared upon a basis of doubtful inference and conjecture. If the former, the question of the Veda is closed, its problem solved; if the latter, the European results may even then be true, but equally they may be false and replaceable by a more acceptable theory and riper conclusions.

11.15 - Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The conception of the United states of the world is taking possession of the human mind; it is being applied and larger and more integrated collective groupings than the nation are developing; they may ere long become familiar realities. Such formations moving towards and effectuating the one indivisible humanity open out the possibility towards a superhumanity which will have to base itself on a new principle of organisation; for that must be a new mode of consciousness.
   Even the family, the first unit of collective formation in humanity that has attained a fulfilled status, is yet capable of a remodelling, a transmutation in the higher supramental consciousness. The family instead of being built upon blood-relationship may surely have a different foundation in soul-kinship, in affinity of consciousness, comradeship in life-work. It means a total revolution, a reversal of nature, the roots being above instead of being below, as already referred to.

1.11 - GOOD AND EVIL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  We see then that, for the Perennial Philosophy, good is the separate selfs conformity to, and finally annihilation in, the divine Ground which gives it being; evil, the intensification of separateness, the refusal to know that the Ground exists. This doctrine is, of course, perfectly compatible with the formulation of ethical principles as a series of negative and positive divine commandments, or even in terms of social utility. The crimes which are everywhere forbidden proceed from states of mind which are everywhere condemned as wrong; and these wrong states of mind are, as a matter of empirical fact, absolutely incompatible with that unitive knowledge of the divine Ground, which, according to the Perennial Philosophy, is the supreme good.
  next chapter: 1.12 - TIME AND ETERNITY

1.11 - The Seven Rivers, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Indra with the Vasus is intoxicated with ecstasy, may we who seek the Godhead taste today. Strained through the hundred purifiers, ecstatic by their self-nature, they are divine and move to the goal of the movement of the Gods (the supreme ocean); they limit not the workings of Indra: offer to the rivers a food of oblation full of the clarity (ghr.tavat). May the rivers which the sun has formed by his rays, from whom Indra clove out a moving wave, establish for us the supreme good. And do ye, O gods, protect us ever by states of felicity."
  Here we have Vamadeva's madhuman urmih., the sweet intoxicating wave, and it is plainly said that this honey, this sweetness is the Soma, the drink of Indra. That is farther made clear by the epithet satapavitrah. which can only refer in the

1.11 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "The song speaks of the Kundalini's passing through the six centres. God is both within and without. From within He creates the various states of mind. After passing through the six centres, the jiva goes beyond the realm of maya and becomes united with the Supreme Soul. This is the vision of God.
  "One cannot see God unless maya steps aside from the door. Rma, Lakshmana, and Sita were walking together. Rma was in front, Sita walked in the middle, and Lakshmana followed them. But Lakshmana could not see Rma because Sita was between them. In like manner, man cannot see God because maya is between them.

1.1.2 - Commentary, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  five elemental states of Matter, the ethereal, aerial, fiery, liquid
  and solid; everything that has to do with our material existence
  --
  three states of existence, the human and mortal, the Brahmanconsciousness which is the absolute of our relativities, and the
  utter Absolute which is unknowable. The first is in a sense a

1.12 - Independence, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
  17. The states of the mind are always known, because the lord of the mind, the Purusha, is unchangeable.
  The whole gist of this theory is that the universe is both mental and material. Both of these are in a continuous state of flux. What is this book? It is a combination of molecules in constant change. One lot is going out, and another coming in; it is a whirlpool, but what makes the unity? What makes it the same book? The changes are rhythmical; in harmonious order they are sending impressions to my mind, and these pieced together make a continuous picture, although the parts are continuously changing. Mind itself is continuously changing. The mind and body are like two layers in the same substance, moving at different rates of speed. Relatively, one being slower and the other quicker, we can distinguish between the two motions. For instance, a train is in motion, and a carriage is moving alongside it. It is possible to find the motion of both these to a certain extent. But still something else is necessary. Motion can only be perceived when there is something else which is not moving. But when two or three things are relatively moving, we first perceive the motion of the faster one, and then that of the slower ones. How is the mind to perceive? It is also in a flux. Therefore another thing is necessary which moves more slowly, then you must get to something in which the motion is still slower, and so on, and you will find no end. Therefore logic compels you to stop somewhere. You must complete the series by knowing something which never changes. Behind this never-ending chain of motion is the Purusha, the changeless, the colourless, the pure. All these impressions are merely reflected upon it, as a magic lantern throws images upon a screen, without in any way tarnishing it.

1.12 - THE FESTIVAL AT PNIHTI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Different states of bhakti
  MASTER: "Bhakti matured becomes bhava. Next is mahabhava, then prema, and last of all is the attainment of God. Gaurnga experienced the states of mahabhava and prema. When prema is awakened, a devotee completely forgets the world; he also forgets his body, which is so dear to a man. Gaurnga experienced prema. He jumped into the ocean, thinking it to be the Jamuna. The ordinary jiva does not experience mahabhava or prema. He goes only as far as bhava. But Gaurnga experienced all three states. Isn't that so?"
  NAVADVIP: "Yes, sir, that is true. The inmost state, the semi-conscious state, and the conscious state."
  --
  Was the Master making a veiled reference to his own states of mind?
  Knowledge and ignorance

1.14 - IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  More precisely, good men spiritualize their mind-bodies; bad men incarnate and mentalize their spirits. The completely spiritualized mind-body is a Tathagata, who doesnt go anywhere when he dies, for the good reason that he is already, actually and consciously, where everyone has always potentially been without knowing. The person who has not, in this life, gone into Thusness, into the eternal principle of all states of being, goes at death into some particular state, either purgatorial or paradisal. In the Hindu scriptures and their commentaries several different kinds of posthumous salvation are distinguished. The thus-gone soul is completely delivered into complete union with the divine Ground; but it is also possible to achieve other kinds of mukti, or liberation, even while retaining a form of purified I-consciousness. The nature of any individuals deliverance after death depends upon three factors: the degree of holiness achieved by him while in the body, the particular aspect of the divine Reality to which he gave his primary allegiance, and the particular path he chose to follow. Similarly, in the Divine Comedy, Paradise has its various circles; but whereas in the oriental eschatologies the saved soul can go out of even sublimated individuality, out of survival even in some kind of celestial time, to a complete deliverance into the eternal, Dantes souls remain for ever where (after passing through the unmeritorious sufferings of purgatory) they find themselves as the result of their single incarnation in a body. Orthodox Christian doctrine does not admit the possibility, either in the posthumous state or in some other embodiment, of any further growth towards the ultimate perfection of a total union with the Godhead. But in the Hindu and Buddhist versions of the Perennial Philosophy the divine mercy is matched by the divine patience: both are infinite. For oriental theologians there is no eternal damnation; there are only purgatories and then an indefinite series of second chances to go forward towards not only mans, but the whole creations final endtotal reunion with the Ground of all being.
  Preoccupation with posthumous deliverance is not one of the means to such deliverance, and may easily, indeed, become an obstacle in the way of advance towards it. There is not the slightest reason to suppose that ardent spiritualists are more likely to be saved than those who have never attended a sance or familiarized themselves with the literature, speculative or evidential. My intention here is not to add to that literature, but rather to give the baldest summary of what has been written about the subject of survival within the various religious traditions.

1.14 - The Structure and Dynamics of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  394 The remarkable thing about this paralleling of states of
  aggregation with different kinds of fire is that it amounts to a
  --
  hinted at: fire is peculiar to all the states of aggregation and is
  therefore responsible for their constitution. This idea is old 85
  --
  the elements or states of aggregation can be reduced to a com-
  mon denominator. Today we know that the factor common to
  --
  the quaternio of alchemical states of aggregation, which, as we
  have seen, is ultimately based on the space-time quaternio. The

1.14 - TURMOIL OR GENESIS?, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  ganized states of complexity 1 Thus considered, the era of the
  Organic (living) which may have appeared so exceptional in Na-

1.15 - Index, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  aggregation, states of, 250/, 257
  dyvoia, 191

1.15 - In the Domain of the Spirit Beings, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
  Just the same as our physical world exists in three different states: solid, fluid and gaseous, so exist, following the laws of analogy, certain states of aggregation in a more subtle form, which are not accessible to our normal senses, but which are, however, connected with our physical world. These states of aggregation are called, from the hermetic point of view, planes and spheres. In these more subtle spheres the same things happen as in our physical world, and there, too, the Law of the Hermes diagram is valid: that which is above is as that which is below.
  The same powers are in action there, just the same as on our planet. Here as well as there the same kind of influences work.
  --
  That these spheres are more subtle and more compact states of aggregation has long become obvious to the true magician by his own personal experience. The magician will always be able to visit with his mental body the sphere corresponding to the state of development of his mental body's senses, and to be active in it.
  He must always bear this in mind when practising the magic of evocation. Naturally, these more subtle spheres are not subject to our ideas of space and time but go into one another in our terms, so that for instance, in a space which, in our imagination, is always somehow bordered and furnished with limits, many different spheres may be present.

1.15 - The Possibility and Purpose of Avatarhood, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  For the Purushottama within is not readily manifest to any and every being; he conceals himself in a thick cloud of darkness or a bright cloud of light, utterly he envelops and wraps himself in his Yogamaya.1 "All this world," says the Gita, "because it is bewildered by the three states of being determined by the modes of Nature, fails to recognise me, for this my divine Maya of the modes of Nature is hard to get beyond; those cross beyond it who approach Me; but those who dwell in the Asuric nature of being, have their knowledge reft from them by Maya." In
   naham prakasah. sarvasya yogamaya-samavr.tah..

1.16 - THE ESSENCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC IDEA, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  him toward certain new states of superpersonalization or, which
  comes to the same thing, superreflection. In other words, let us

1.16 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "Chaitanya experienced three states of mind. First, the conscious state, when his mind dwelt on the gross and the subtle. Second, the semi-conscious state, when his mind entered the causal body and was absorbed in the bliss of divine intoxication. Third, the inmost state, when his mind was merged in the Great Cause.
  This agrees very well with the five koshas, or 'sheaths', described in the Vednta. The gross body corresponds to the annamayakosha and the pranamayakosha, the subtle body to the manomayakosha and the vijnanamayakosha, and the causal body to the nandamayakosha. The Mahakarana, the Great Cause, is beyond the five sheaths.
  --
  M. (to himself): "Is the Master hinting at the different states of his own mind? There is much similarity between Chaitanya and the Master."
  MASTER: "Chaitanya was Divine Love incarnate. He came down to earth to teach people how to love God. One achieves everything when one loves God. There is no need of hathayoga."
  --
  "iva has two states of mind. First, the state of samdhi, when He is transfixed in the Great Yoga. He is then tmrma, satisfied in the Self. Second, the state when He descends from samdhi and keeps a trace of ego. Then He dances about, chanting, 'Rma, Rma!'"
  Did the Master describe iva to hint at his own state of mind?

1.17 - The Seven-Headed Thought, Swar and the Dashagwas, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  That the making visible of Swar to the eyes of the Swarseers, svardr.sah., their drinking of the honeyed well and their outpouring of the divine waters amounts to the revelation to man of new worlds or new states of existence is clearly told us in the next verse, II.24.5, sana ta ka cid bhuvana bhavtva, madbhih. saradbhir duro varanta vah.; ayatanta carato anyad anyad id, ya cakara vayuna brahman.aspatih., "Certain eternal worlds ( states of existence) are these which have to come into being, their doors are shut5 to you (or, opened) by the months and the years; without effort one (world) moves in the other, and it is these that Brahmanaspati has made manifest to knowledge"; vayuna means knowledge, and the two forms are divinised earth and heaven which Brahmanaspati created.
  These are the four eternal worlds hidden in the guha, the secret, unmanifest or superconscient parts of being which although in themselves eternally present states of existence (sana bhuvana) are for us non-existent and in the future; for us they have to be brought into being, bhavtva, they are yet to be created. Therefore the Veda sometimes speaks of Swar being made visible, as here (vyacaks.ayat svah.), or discovered and taken possession of, vidat, sanat, sometimes of its being created or made (bhu, kr.). These secret eternal worlds have been closed to us, says the
  Rishi, by the movement of Time, by the months and years; therefore naturally they have to be discovered, revealed, conquered,

1.18 - Mind and Supermind, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  13:Whence then does the limiting Avidya, the fall of mind from Supermind and the consequent idea of real division originally proceed? exactly from what perversion of the supramental functioning? It proceeds from the individualised soul viewing everything from its own standpoint and excluding all others; it proceeds, that is to say, by an exclusive concentration of consciousness, an exclusive self-identification of the soul with a particular temporal and spatial action which is only a part of its own play of being; it starts from the soul's ignoring the fact that all others are also itself, all other action its own action and all other states of being and consciousness equally its own as well as the action of the one particular moment in Time and one particular standing-point in Space and the one particular form it presently occupies. It concentrates on the moment, the field, the form, the movement so as to lose the rest; it has then to recover the rest by linking together the succession of moments, the succession of points of Space, the succession of forms in Time and Space, the succession of movements in Time and Space. It has thus lost the truth of the indivisibility of Time, the indivisibility of Force and Substance. It has lost sight even of the obvious fact that all minds are one Mind taking many standpoints, all lives one Life developing many currents of activity, all body and form one substance of Force and Consciousness concentrating into many apparent stabilities of force and consciousness; but in truth all these stabilities are really only a constant whorl of movement repeating a form while it modifies it; they are nothing more. For the Mind tries to clamp everything into rigidly fixed forms and apparently unchanging or unmoving external factors, because otherwise it cannot act; it then thinks it has got what it wants: in reality all is a flux of change and renewal and there is no fixed form-in-itself and no unchanging external factor. Only the eternal Real-Idea is firm and maintains a certain ordered constancy of figures and relations in the flux of things, a constancy which the Mind vainly attempts to imitate by attri buting fixity to that which is always inconstant. These truths Mind has to rediscover; it knows them all the time, but only in the hidden back of its consciousness, in the secret light of its selfbeing; and that light is to it a darkness because it has created the ignorance, because it has lapsed from the dividing into the divided mentality, because it has become involved in its own workings and in its own creations.
  14:This ignorance is farther deepened for man by his selfidentification with the body. To us mind seems to be determined by the body, because it is preoccupied with that and devoted to the physical workings which it uses for its conscious superficial action in this gross material world. Employing constantly that operation of the brain and nerves which it has developed in the course of its own development in the body, it is too absorbed in observing what this physical machinery gives to it to get back from it to its own pure workings; those are to it mostly subconscious. Still we can conceive a life mind or life being which has got beyond the evolutionary necessity of this absorption and is able to see and even experience itself assuming body after body and not created separately in each body and ending with it; for it is only the physical impress of mind on matter, only the corporeal mentality that is so created, not the whole mental being. This corporeal mentality is merely our surface of mind, merely the front which it presents to physical experience. Behind, even in our terrestrial being, there is this other, subconscious or subliminal to us, which knows itself as more than the body and is capable of a less materialised action. To this we owe immediately most of the larger, deeper and more forceful dynamic action of our surface mind; this, when we become conscious of it or of its impress on us, is our first idea or our first realisation of a soul or inner being, Purusha.3

1.19 - Life, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  18:Apart from all other considerations, this conclusion imposes itself as a logical necessity if we observe even the surface process of the emergence in the light of the evolutionary theme. It is self-evident that Life in the plant, even if otherwise organised than in the animal, is yet the same power, marked by birth and growth and death, propagation by the seed, death by decay or malady or violence, maintenance by indrawing of nourishing elements from without, dependence on light and heat, productiveness and sterility, even states of sleep and waking, energy and depression of life-dynamism, passage from infancy to maturity and age; the plant contains, moreover, the essences of the force of life and is therefore the natural food of animal existences. If it is conceded that it has a nervous system and reactions to stimuli, a beginning or undercurrent of submental or purely vital sensations, the identity becomes closer; but still it remains evidently a stage of life evolution intermediate between animal existence and "inanimate" Matter. This is precisely what must be expected if Life is a force evolving out of Matter and culminating in Mind, and, if it is that, then we are bound to suppose that it is already there in Matter itself submerged or latent in the material subconsciousness or inconscience. For from where else can it emerge? Evolution of Life in matter supposes a previous involution of it there, unless we suppose it to be a new creation magically and unaccountably introduced into Nature. If it is that, it must either be a creation out of nothing or a result of material operations which is not accounted for by anything in the operations themselves or by any element in them which is of a kindred nature; or, conceivably, it may be a descent from above, from some supraphysical plane above the material universe. The two first suppositions can be dismissed as arbitrary conceptions; the last explanation is possible and it is quite conceivable and in the occult view of things true that a pressure from some plane of Life above the material universe has assisted the emergence of life here. But this does not exclude the origin of life from Matter itself as a primary and necessary movement; for the existence of a Life-world or Life-plane above the material does not of itself lead to the emergence of Life in matter unless that Life-plane exists as a formative stage in a descent of Being through several grades or powers of itself into the Inconscience with the result of an involution of itself with all these powers in Matter for a later evolution and emergence. Whether signs of this submerged life are discoverable, unorganised yet or rudimentary, in material things or there are no such signs, because this involved Life is in a full sleep, is not a question of capital importance. The material Energy that aggregates, forms and disaggregates4 is the same Power in another grade of itself as that Life-Energy which expresses itself in birth, growth and death, just as by its doing of the works of Intelligence in a somnambulist subconscience it betrays itself as the same Power that in yet another grade attains the status of Mind; its very character shows that it contains in itself, though not yet in their characteristic organisation or process, the yet undelivered powers of Mind and Life.
  19:Life then reveals itself as essentially the same everywhere from the atom to man, the atom containing the subconscious stuff and movement of being which are released into consciousness in the animal, with plant life as a midway stage in the evolution. Life is really a universal operation of Conscious-Force acting subconsciously on and in Matter; it is the operation that creates, maintains, destroys and re-creates forms or bodies and attempts by play of nerve-force, that is to say, by currents of interchange of stimulating energy to awake conscious sensation in those bodies. In this operation there are three stages; the lowest is that in which the vibration is still in the sleep of Matter, entirely subconscious so as to seem wholly mechanical; the middle stage is that in which it becomes capable of a response still submental but on the verge of what we know as consciousness; the highest is that in which life develops conscious mentality in the form of a mentally perceptible sensation which in this transition becomes the basis for the development of sense-mind and intelligence. It is in the middle stage that we catch the idea of Life as distinguished from Matter and Mind, but in reality it is the same in all the stages and always a middle term between Mind and Matter, constituent of the latter and instinct with the former. It is an operation of Conscious-Force which is neither the mere formation of substance nor the operation of mind with substance and form as its object of apprehension; it is rather an energising of conscious being which is a cause and support of the formation of substance and an intermediate source and support of conscious mental apprehension. Life, as this intermediate energising of conscious being, liberates into sensitive action and reaction a form of the creative force of existence which was working subconsciently or inconsciently, absorbed in its own substance; it supports and liberates into action the apprehensive consciousness of existence called mind and gives it a dynamic instrumentation so that it can work not only on its own forms but on forms of life and matter; it connects, too, and supports, as a middle term between them, the mutual commerce of the two, mind and matter. This means of commerce Life provides in the continual currents of her pulsating nerve-energy which carry force of the form as a sensation to modify Mind and bring back force of Mind as will to modify Matter. It is therefore this nerve-energy which we usually mean when we talk of Life; it is the Prana or Life-force of the Indian system. But nerve-energy is only the form it takes in the animal being; the same Pranic energy is present in all forms down to the atom, since everywhere it is the same in essence and everywhere it is the same operation of Conscious-Force, - Force supporting and modifying the substantial existence of its own forms, Force with sense and mind secretly active but at first involved in the form and preparing to emerge, then finally emerging from their involution. This is the whole significance of the omnipresent Life that has manifested and inhabits the material universe.

1.19 - The Curve of the Rational Age, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Democracy and its panacea of education and freedom have certainly done something for the race. To begin with, the people are, for the first time in the historical period of history, erect, active and alive, and where there is life, there is always a hope of better things. Again, some kind of knowledge and with it some kind of active intelligence based on knowledge and streng thened by the habit of being called on to judge and decide between conflicting issues and opinions in all sorts of matters have been much more generalised than was formerly possible. Men are being progressively trained to use their minds, to apply intelligence to life, and that is a great gain. If they have not yet learned to think for themselves or to think soundly, clearly and rightly, they are at least more able now to choose with some kind of initial intelligence, however imperfect as yet it may be, the thought they shall accept and the rule they shall follow. Equal educational equipment and equal opportunity of life have by no means been acquired; but there is a much greater equalisation than was at all possible in former states of society. But here a new and enormous defect has revealed itself which is proving fatal to the social idea which engendered it. For given even perfect equality of educational and other opportunity, and that does not yet really exist and cannot in the individualistic state of society,to what purpose or in what manner is the opportunity likely to be used? Man, the half infrarational being, demands three things for his satisfaction, power, if he can have it, but at any rate the use and reward of his faculties and the enjoyment of his desires. In the old societies the possibility of these could be secured by him to a certain extent according to his birth, his fixed status and the use of his capacity within the limits of his hereditary status. That basis once removed and no proper substitute provided, the same ends can only be secured by success in a scramble for the one power left, the power of wealth. Accordingly, instead of a harmoniously ordered society there has been developed a huge organised competitive system, a frantically rapid and one-sided development of industrialism and, under the garb of democracy, an increasing plutocratic tendency that shocks by its ostentatious grossness and the magnitudes of its gulfs and distances. These have been the last results of the individualistic ideal and its democratic machinery, the initial bankruptcies of the rational age.
  The first natural result has been the transition of the rational mind from democratic individualism to democratic socialism. Socialism, labouring under the disadvantageous accident of its birth in a revolt against capitalism, an uprising against the rule of the successful bourgeois and the plutocrat, has been compelled to work itself out by a war of classes. And, worse still, it has started from an industrialised social system and itself taken on at the beginning a purely industrial and economic appearance. These are accidents that disfigure its true nature. Its true nature, its real justification is the attempt of the human reason to carry on the rational ordering of society to its fulfilment, its will to get rid of this great parasitical excrescence of unbridled competition, this giant obstacle to any decent ideal or practice of human living. Socialism sets out to replace a system of organised economic battle by an organised order and peace. This can no longer be done on the old lines, an artificial or inherited inequality brought about by the denial of equal opportunity and justified by the affirmation of that injustice and its result as an eternal law of society and of Nature. That is a falsehood which the reason of man will no longer permit. Neither can it be done, it seems, on the basis of individual liberty; for that has broken down in the practice. Socialism therefore must do away with the democratic basis of individual liberty, even if it professes to respect it or to be marching towards a more rational freedom. It shifts at first the fundamental emphasis to other ideas and fruits of the democratic ideal, and it leads by this transference of stress to a radical change in the basic principle of a rational society. Equality, not a political only, but a perfect social equality, is to be the basis. There is to be equality of opportunity for all, but also equality of status for all, for without the last the first cannot be secured; even if it were established, it could not endure. This equality again is impossible if personal, or at least inherited right in property is to exist, and therefore socialism abolishesexcept at best on a small scale the right of personal property as it is now understood and makes war on the hereditary principle. Who then is to possess the property? It can only be the community as a whole. And who is to administer it? Again, the community as a whole. In order to justify this idea, the socialistic principle has practically to deny the existence of the individual or his right to exist except as a member of the society and for its sake. He belongs entirely to the society, not only his property, but himself, his labour, his capacities, the education it gives him and its results, his mind, his knowledge, his individual life, his family life, the life of his children. Moreover, since his individual reason cannot be trusted to work out naturally a right and rational adjustment of his life with the life of others, it is for the reason of the whole community to arrange that too for him. Not the reasoning minds and wills of the individuals, but the collective reasoning mind and will of the community has to govern. It is this which will determine not only the principles and all the details of the economic and political order, but the whole life of the community and of the individual as a working, thinking, feeling cell of this life, the development of his capacities, his actions, the use of the knowledge he has acquired, the whole ordering of his vital, his ethical, his intelligent being. For so only can the collective reason and intelligent will of the race overcome the egoism of individualistic life and bring about a perfect principle and rational order of society in a harmonious world.

12.07 - The Double Trinity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The triple person, it may be noted, is psychologically co-related to the three well-known Upanishadic states of consciousness one, sushupti (perfect sleep), two swapna (dream) and three, jagrat (wakefulness).
   The triple human person, it is evident, exists as a movement parallel to the triple Divine person: it is an application of the latter to a special set of conditions, in a particular frame of reference. The human triplicity in other words is a specialisation of the Divine Triplicity.

1.21 - FROM THE PRE-HUMAN TO THE ULTRA-HUMAN, THE PHASES OF A LIVING PLANET, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  evident that the cosmic substance is drawn toward these states of
  extreme arrangement by a particular kind of attraction which

1.21 - The Ascent of Life, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  2:But as the scientific mind sought to extend to Life the mechanical principle proper to the existence and concealed mechanical consciousness in Matter, not seeing that a new principle has entered whose very reason of being is to subject to itself the mechanical, so the Darwinian formula was used to extend too largely the aggressive principle of Life, the vital selfishness of the individual, the instinct and process of self-preservation, selfassertion and aggressive living. For these two first states of Life contain in themselves the seeds of a new principle and another state which must increase in proportion as Mind evolves out of matter through the vital formula into its own law. And still more must all things change when as Life evolves upward towards Mind, so Mind evolves upward towards Supermind and Spirit. Precisely because the struggle for survival, the impulse towards permanence is contradicted by the law of death, the individual life is compelled, and used, to secure permanence rather for its species than for itself; but this it cannot do without the co-operation of others; and the principle of co-operation and mutual help, the desire of others, the desire of the wife, the child, the friend and helper, the associated group, the practice of association, of conscious joining and interchange are the seeds out of which flowers the principle of love. Let us grant that at first love may only be an extended selfishness and that this aspect of extended selfishness may persist and dominate, as it does still persist and dominate, in higher stages of the evolution: still as mind evolves and more and more finds itself, it comes by the experience of life and love and mutual help to perceive that the natural individual is a minor term of being and exists by the universal. Once this is discovered, as it is inevitably discovered by man the mental being, his destiny is determined; for he has reached the point at which Mind can begin to open to the truth that there is something beyond itself; from that moment his evolution, however obscure and slow, towards that superior something, towards Spirit, towards supermind, towards supermanhood is inevitably predetermined.
  3:Therefore Life is predestined by its own nature to a third status, a third set of terms of its self-expression. If we examine this ascent of Life we shall see that the last terms of its actual evolution, the terms of that which we have called its third status, must necessarily be in appearance the very contradiction and opposite but in fact the very fulfilment and transfiguration of its first conditions. Life starts with the extreme divisions and rigid forms of Matter, and of this rigid division the atom, which is the basis of all material form, is the very type. The atom stands apart from all others even in its union with them, rejects death and dissolution under any ordinary force and is the physical type of the separate ego defining its existence against the principle of fusion in Nature. But unity is as strong a principle in Nature as division; it is indeed the master principle of which division is only a subordinate term, and to the principle of unity every divided form must therefore subordinate itself in one fashion or another by mechanical necessity, by compulsion, by assent or inducement. Therefore, if Nature for her own ends, in order principally to have a firm basis for her combinations and a fixed seed of forms, allows the atom ordinarily to resist the process of fusion by dissolution, she compels it to subserve the process of fusion by aggregation; the atom, as it is the first aggregate, is also the first basis of aggregate unities.

1.22 - Dominion over different provinces of creation assigned to different beings, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
  There are two states of this Brahma; one with, and one without shape; one perishable, and one imperishable; which are inherent in all beings. The imperishable is the supreme being; the perishable is all the world. The blaze of fire burning on one spot diffuses light and heat around; so the world is nothing more than the manifested energy of the supreme Brahma: and inasmuch, Maitreya, as the light and heat are stronger or feebler as we are near to the fire, or far off from it, so the energy of the supreme is more or less intense in the beings that are less or more remote from him. Brahma, Viṣṇu, and Śiva are the most powerful energies of god; next to them are the inferior deities, then the attendant spirits, then men, then animals, birds, insects, vegetables; each becoming more and more feeble as they are farther from their primitive source. In this way, illustrious Brahman, this whole world, although in essence imperishable and eternal, appears and disappears, as if it was subject to birth and death.
  The supreme condition of Brahma, which is meditated by the Yogis in the commencement of their abstraction, as invested with form, is Viṣṇu, composed of all the divine energies, and the essence of Brahma, with whom the mystic union that is sought, and which is accompanied by suitable elements, is effected[7] by the devotee whose whole mind is addressed to that object. This Hari, who is the most immediate of all the energies of Brahma, is his embodied shape, composed entirely of his essence; and in him therefore is the whole world interwoven; and from him, and in him, is the universe; and he, the supreme lord of all, comprising all that is perishable and imperishable, bears upon him all material and spiritual existence, identified in nature with his ornaments and weapons.

1.240 - 1.300 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  D.: Are they not states of the soul functioning through the senses, etc.?
  M.: They are not of the soul or of the body. The soul remains always uncontaminated. It is the substratum running through all these three states. Wakefulness passes off, I am; the dream state passes off, I am; the sleep state passes off, I am. They repeat themselves, and yet
  --
  M.: One is always only in sleep. The present waking state is no more than a dream. Dream can take place only in sleep. Sleep is underlying these three states. Manifestation of these three states is again a dream, which is in its turn another sleep. In this way these states of dream and sleep are endless.
  Similar to these states, birth and death also are dreams in a sleep.
  --
  We can separate ourselves from that which is external to us and not from that which is one with us. Hence the ego is not one with the body. This must be realised in the waking state. Avas thatraya (the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep) should be studied only for gaining this outlook.
  The ego in its purity is experienced in intervals between two states or two thoughts. Ego is like that caterpillar which leaves its hold only after catching another. Its true nature can be found when it is out of contact with objects or thoughts. Realise this interval with the conviction gained by the study of avas thatraya (the three states of consciousness).
  D.: How do we go to sleep and how do we wake up?

1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  D.: Are they not states of the soul functioning through the senses, etc.?
  M.: They are not of the soul or of the body. The soul remains always uncontaminated. It is the substratum running through all these three states. Wakefulness passes off, I am; the dream state passes off, I am; the sleep state passes off, I am. They repeat themselves, and yet
  --
  M.: One is always only in sleep. The present waking state is no more than a dream. Dream can take place only in sleep. Sleep is underlying these three states. Manifestation of these three states is again a dream, which is in its turn another sleep. In this way these states of dream and sleep are endless.
  Similar to these states, birth and death also are dreams in a sleep.
  --
  We can separate ourselves from that which is external to us and not from that which is one with us. Hence the ego is not one with the body. This must be realised in the waking state. Avas thatraya (the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep) should be studied only for gaining this outlook.
  The ego in its purity is experienced in intervals between two states or two thoughts. Ego is like that caterpillar which leaves its hold only after catching another. Its true nature can be found when it is out of contact with objects or thoughts. Realise this interval with the conviction gained by the study of avas thatraya (the three states of consciousness).
  D.: How do we go to sleep and how do we wake up?
  --
  Jnani in whom pass the states of waking, samadhi, deep sleep and dream, like the bulls moving, standing or being unyoked when the passenger is asleep as aforesaid. These questions are from the point of view of the ajnani; otherwise these questions do not arise.
  D.: Of course they cannot arise for the Self. Who would be there to ask? But unfortunately I have not yet realised the Self.
  --
  He again pointed out like babe, lunatic, spirit (Balonmattapisachavat) describing the states of jnanis. There babe (bala) is given precedence over others.
  Talk 416.
  --
  Self-realised jnanis are seen to take food and do actions like others. Do they similarly experience the states of dream and of sleep?
  M.: Why do you seek to know the state of others, maybe jnanis?
  --
  The sleep, dream, samadhi, etc., are all states of the ajnanis.
  The Self is free from all these. Here is the answer for the former question also.

1.25 - ADVICE TO PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  Three states of God-Consciousness "Chaitanyadeva used to experience three spiritual states: the inmost, the semi-conscious, and the conscious. In the inmost state he would see God and go into samdhi. He would be in the state of jada samdhi. In the semi-conscious state he would be partially conscious of the outer world. In the conscious state he could sing the name and glories of God."
  HAZRA (to the Pundit): "So your doubts are now solved."

1.26 - The Ascending Series of Substance, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  1:IF WE consider what it is that most represents to us the materiality of Matter, we shall see that it is its aspects of solidity, tangibility, increasing resistance, firm response to the touch of Sense. Substance seems more truly material and real in proportion as it presents to us a solid resistance and by virtue of that resistance a durability of sensible form on which our consciousness can dwell; in proportion as it is more subtle, less densely resistant and enduringly seizable by the sense, it appears to us less material. This attitude of our ordinary consciousness towards Matter is a symbol of the essential object for which Matter has been created. Substance passes into the material status in order that it may present to the consciousness which has to deal with it durable, firmly seizable images on which the mind can rest and base its operations and which the Life can handle with at least a relative surety of permanence in the form upon which it works. Therefore in the ancient Vedic formula Earth, type of the more solid states of substance, was accepted as the symbolic name of the material principle. Therefore, too, touch or contact is for us the essential basis of Sense; all other physical senses, taste, smell, hearing, sight are based upon a series of more and more subtle and indirect contacts between the percipient and the perceived. Equally, in the Sankhya classification of the five elemental states of Substance from ether to earth, we see that their characteristic is a constant progression from the more subtle to the less subtle so that at the summit we have the subtle vibrations of the ethereal and at the base the grosser density of the earthly or solid elemental condition. Matter therefore is the last stage known to us in the progress of pure substance towards a basis of cosmic relation in which the first word shall be not spirit but form, and form in its utmost possible development of concentration, resistance, durably gross image, mutual impenetrability, - the culminating point of distinction, separation and division. This is the intention and character of the material universe; it is the formula of accomplished divisibility.
  2:And if there is, as there must be in the nature of things, an ascending series in the scale of substance from Matter to Spirit, it must be marked by a progressive diminution of these capacities most characteristic of the physical principle and a progressive increase of the opposite characteristics which will lead us to the formula of pure spiritual self-extension. This is to say that they must be marked by less and less bondage to the form, more and more subtlety and flexibility of substance and force, more and more interfusion, interpenetration, power of assimilation, power of interchange, power of variation, transmutation, unification. Drawing away from durability of form, we draw towards eternity of essence; drawing away from our poise in the persistent separation and resistance of physical Matter, we draw near to the highest divine poise in the infinity, unity and indivisibility of Spirit. Between gross substance and pure spirit substance this must be the fundamental antinomy. In Matter Chit or Conscious-Force masses itself more and more to resist and stand out against other masses of the same Conscious-Force; in substance of Spirit pure consciousness images itself freely in its sense of itself with an essential indivisibility and a constant unifying interchange as the basic formula even of the most diversifying play of its own Force. Between these two poles there is the possibility of an infinite gradation.

1.28 - Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  10:Since the Consciousness-Force of the eternal Existence is the universal creatrix, the nature of a given world will depend on whatever self-formulation of that Consciousness expresses itself in that world. Equally, for each individual being, his seeing or representation to himself of the world he lives in will depend on the poise or make which that Consciousness has assumed in him. Our human mental consciousness sees the world in sections cut by the reason and sense and put together in a formation which is also sectional; the house it builds is planned to accommodate one or another generalised formulation of Truth, but excludes the rest or admits some only as guests or dependents in the house. Overmind Consciousness is global in its cognition and can hold any number of seemingly fundamental differences together in a reconciling vision. Thus the mental reason sees Person and the Impersonal as opposites: it conceives an impersonal Existence in which person and personality are fictions of the Ignorance or temporary constructions; or, on the contrary, it can see Person as the primary reality and the impersonal as a mental abstraction or only stuff or means of manifestation. To the Overmind intelligence these are separable Powers of the one Existence which can pursue their independent self-affirmation and can also unite together their different modes of action, creating both in their independence and in their union different states of consciousness and being which can be all of them valid and all capable of coexistence. A purely impersonal existence and consciousness is true and possible, but also an entirely personal consciousness and existence; the Impersonal Divine, Nirguna Brahman, and the Personal Divine, Saguna Brahman, are here equal and coexistent aspects of the Eternal. Impersonality can manifest with person subordinated to it as a mode of expression; but, equally, Person can be the reality with impersonality as a mode of its nature: both aspects of manifestation face each other in the infinite variety of conscious Existence. What to the mental reason are irreconcilable differences present themselves to the Overmind intelligence as coexistent correlatives; what to the mental reason are contraries are to the Overmind intelligence complementaries. Our mind sees that all things are born from Matter or material Energy, exist by it, go back into it; it concludes that Matter is the eternal factor, the primary and ultimate reality, Brahman. Or it sees all as born of Life-Force or Mind, existing by Life or by Mind, going back into the universal Life or Mind, and it concludes that this world is a creation of the cosmic Life-Force or of a cosmic Mind or Logos. Or again it sees the world and all things as born of, existing by and going back to the Real Idea or Knowledge-Will of the Spirit or to the Spirit itself and it concludes on an idealistic or spiritual view of the universe. It can fix on any of these ways of seeing, but to its normal separative vision each way excludes the others. Overmind consciousness perceives that each view is true of the action of the principle it erects; it can see that there is a material world-formula, a vital world-formula, a mental world-formula, a spiritual worldformula, and each can predominate in a world of its own and at the same time all can combine in one world as its constituent powers. The self-formulation of Conscious Force on which our world is based as an apparent Inconscience that conceals in itself a supreme Conscious-Existence and holds all the powers of Being together in its inconscient secrecy, a world of universal Matter realising in itself Life, Mind, Overmind, Supermind, Spirit, each of them in its turn taking up the others as means of its selfexpression, Matter proving in the spiritual vision to have been always itself a manifestation of the Spirit, is to the Overmind view a normal and easily realisable creation. In its power of origination and in the process of its executive dynamis Overmind is an organiser of many potentialities of Existence, each affirming its separate reality but all capable of linking themselves together in many different but simultaneous ways, a magician craftsman empowered to weave the multicoloured warp and woof of manifestation of a single entity in a complex universe.
  11:In this simultaneous development of multitudinous independent or combined Powers or Potentials there is yet - or there is as yet - no chaos, no conflict, no fall from Truth or Knowledge. The Overmind is a creator of truths, not of illusions or falsehoods: what is worked out in any given overmental energism or movement is the truth of the Aspect, Power, Idea, Force, Delight which is liberated into independent action, the truth of the consequences of its reality in that independence. There is no exclusiveness asserting each as the sole truth of being or the others as inferior truths: each God knows all the Gods and their place in existence; each Idea admits all other ideas and their right to be; each Force concedes a place to all other forces and their truth and consequences; no delight of separate fulfilled existence or separate experience denies or condemns the delight of other existence or other experience. The Overmind is a principle of cosmic Truth and a vast and endless catholicity is its very spirit; its energy is an all-dynamism as well as a principle of separate dynamisms: it is a sort of inferior Supermind, - although it is concerned predominantly not with absolutes, but with what might be called the dynamic potentials or pragmatic truths of Reality, or with absolutes mainly for their power of generating pragmatic or creative values, although, too, its comprehension of things is more global than integral, since its totality is built up of global wholes or constituted by separate independent realities uniting or coalescing together, and although the essential unity is grasped by it and felt to be basic of things and pervasive in their manifestation, but no longer as in the Supermind their intimate and ever-present secret, their dominating continent, the overt constant builder of the harmonic whole of their activity and nature.

1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  Jnani in whom pass the states of waking, samadhi, deep sleep and dream, like the bulls moving, standing or being unyoked when the passenger is asleep as aforesaid. These questions are from the point of view of the ajnani; otherwise these questions do not arise.
  D.: Of course they cannot arise for the Self. Who would be there to ask? But unfortunately I have not yet realised the Self.

1.3.2.01 - I. The Entire Purpose of Yoga, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  He is also Absolute and Supreme Personality playing in the universe and as the universe; in the universe He appears to be its Soul & Lord, as the universe He appears to be the motion or process of the Will of the Lord and to become all the subjective and objective results of the motion. All the states of the Brahman, the transcendent, the continent, the universal, the individual are informed & sustained by the divine Personality. He is both the Existent & the state of existence. We call the state of existence the Impersonal Brahman, the Existent the
  Personal Brahman. There is no difference between them except to the play of our consciousness; for every impersonal state depends upon a manifest or secret Personality and can reveal the Personality which it holds and veils and every Personality attaches to itself and can plunge itself into an impersonal existence. This they can do because Personality & Impersonality are merely different states of self-consciousness in one Absolute
  Being.
  --
  Swar"; they are states of consciousness in which the principles of the upper world are expressed or try to express themselves under different conditions. Pure in their own homes, they are in this foreign country subject to perverse, impure & disturbing combinations & workings. The ultimate object of life is to get rid of the perversity, impurity & disturbance & express them perfectly in these other conditions. Your life on this earth is a divine poem that you are translating into earthly language or a strain of music which you are rendering into words.
  Being in Sat is one in multiplicity, one that regards its multiplicity without being lost or confused in it and multiplicity that knows itself as one without losing the power of multiple play in the universe. Under the conditions of mind, life & body, ahankara is born, the subjective or objective form of consciousness is falsely taken for self-existent being, the body for an independent reality & the ego for an independent personality; the one loses itself in us in its multiplicity & when it recovers its unity, finds it difficult, owing to the nature of mind, to preserve its play of multiplicity. Therefore when we are absorbed in world, we miss God in Himself; when we seek God, we miss
  --
   have, therefore, states of consciousness, non-consciousness & false consciousness, knowledge & ignorance & false knowledge, effective force & inertia and ineffective force. Our business is by renouncing our divided & unequal individual force of action
  & thought into the one, undivided universal Chitshakti of Kali to replace our egoistic activities by the play in our body of the universal Kali and thus exchange blindness & ignorance for knowledge and ineffective human strength for the divine effective Force.

1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  He again pointed out 'like babe, lunatic, spirit' (Balonmattapisachavat) describing the states of jnanis. There babe (bala) is given precedence over others.
  Talk 416.
  --
  Self-realised jnanis are seen to take food and do actions like others. Do they similarly experience the states of dream and of sleep?
  M.: Why do you seek to know the state of others, maybe jnanis?
  --
  The sleep, dream, samadhi, etc., are all states of the ajnanis.
  The Self is free from all these. Here is the answer for the former question also.

1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  M.: Real waking lies beyond the three states of waking, dream and sleep.
  D.: I am really awake and know that I am not in sleep.
  --
  M.: Now, of these three factors, the awareness, sleep and knowledge of it, the first one is changeless. That awareness, which cognised sleep as a state, now sees the world also in the waking state. The negation of the world is the state of sleep. The world may appear or disappear - that is to say, one may be awake or asleep - the awareness is unaffected. It is one continuous whole over which the three states of waking, dream and sleep pass. Be that awareness even now. That is the Self - that is Realisation - there is Peace - there is Happiness.
  The lady thanked Maharshi and retired.

1.44 - Serious Style of A.C., or the Apparent Frivolity of Some of my Remarks, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  To this rule there is, as usual with rules, an exception. Some states of mind are of the same structure as poetry, where the "one step from the sublime to the ridiculous" is an easy and fatal step. But even so, pedantry is as bad as ribaldry. Personally, I have tried to avoid the dilemma by the use of poetic language and form; for instance, in AHA!
  It is all difficult, dammed difficult; but if it must be that one's most sacred shrine be profaned, let it be the clean assault of laughter rather than the slimy smear of sactimoniousness!

1.450 - 1.500 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
  M.: Real waking lies beyond the three states of waking, dream and sleep.
  D.: I am really awake and know that I am not in sleep.
  --
  M.: Now, of these three factors, the awareness, sleep and knowledge of it, the first one is changeless. That awareness, which cognised sleep as a state, now sees the world also in the waking state. The negation of the world is the state of sleep. The world may appear or disappear - that is to say, one may be awake or asleep - the awareness is unaffected. It is one continuous whole over which the three states of waking, dream and sleep pass. Be that awareness even now. That is the Self - that is Realisation - there is Peace - there is Happiness.
  The lady thanked Maharshi and retired.

1.55 - Money, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  (This epigram is copyright in Basutoland, the United states of America, the Republic of San Marino, the Sanjak of Novibazar, Arabia Petraea, and the Scandinavian countries.)
  Then there is travel, by which I do not mean globe-trotting; and privacy, less attainable every year as the Meddlesome Matties invade every corner of life.

1.73 - Monsters, Niggers, Jews, etc., #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  It is peculiarly noticeable that when a class is a ruling minority, it acquires a detestation as well as a contempt for the surrounding "mob." In the Northern states of U.S.A., where the whites are overwhelming in number, the "nigger" can be more or less a "regular fellow;" in the South, where fear is a factor, Lynch Law prevails. (Should it? The reason for "NO" is that it is a confession of weakness.) But in the North, there is a very strong feeling about certain other classes: the Irish, the Italians, the Jews. Why? Fear again; the Irish in politics, the Italians in crime, the Jews in finance. But none of these phobias prevent friendship between individuals of hostile classes.
  I think that perhaps I have already written enough at least enough to start you thinking on the right lines. And mark well this! The submergence of the individual in his class means the end of all true human relations between men. Socialism means war. When the class moves as a class, there can be no exceptions.

1914 05 18p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Thou art the sole Reality, O Lord, Thou art Omnipotence and Eternity. And he who is united with Thee in the depths of his being becomes Thy Reality in its eternal and immutable omnipotence. But for others the comm and is, even while remaining in contact with Thee, to turn their eyes and activity towards the earth; such is the mission Thou hast given them. Here begins the difficulty, for everything depends upon the perfection of the various states of their being and, even after attaining the sublime identification, they must still work at perfecting the instrument which will manifest Thy divine Will. This is where the task becomes arduous. Everything seems to me mediocre, insufficient, neutral, almost inert in the present instrument which Thou makest me call myself; and the more I am united with Thee, the more do I realise the mediocrity of its faculties and its manifestation. Everything in it seems to me an incorrigible approximation. And if that cannot disturb me in any way, it is because the true self is lying at Thy feet or nestling in Thy heart or conscious with Thy eternal and immutable Consciousness, and looks at the whole manifestation with a smile of patient and understanding benevolence.
   ***

1914 05 20p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   This divine world of Thy immutable domain of pure love and indivisible unity must be brought into close communion with the divine world of all the other domains, right down to the most material in which Thou art the centre and very constitution of each atom. To establish a bond of perfect consciousness between all these successive divine worlds is the only way to live constantly, invariably in Thee, accomplishing integrally the mission Thou hast entrusted to the entire being in all its states of consciousness and all its modes of activity.
   O my sweet Master, Thou hast caused a new veil to be rent, another veil of my ignorance and, without leaving my blissful place in Thy eternal heart, I am at the same time in the imperceptible but infinite heart of each of the atoms constituting my body.

1914 05 22p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   When we have discerned successively what is real from what is unreal in all the states of being and all the worlds of life, when we have arrived at the perfect and integral certitude of the sole Reality, we must turn our gaze from the heights of this supreme consciousness towards the individual aggregate which serves as the immediate instrument for Thy manifestation upon earth, and see in it nothing but Thee, our sole real existence. Thus each atom of this aggregate will be awakened to receive Thy sublime influence; the ignorance and the darkness will disappear not only from the central consciousness of the being but also from its most external mode of expression. It is only by the fulfilment, by the perfection of this labour of transfiguration that there can be manifested the plenitude of Thy Presence, Thy Light and Thy Love.
   Lord, Thou makest me understand this truth ever more clearly; lead me step by step on that path. My whole being down to its smallest atom aspires for the perfect knowledge of Thy presence and a complete union with it. Let every obstacle disappear, let Thy divine knowledge replace in every part the darkness of the ignorance. Even as Thou hast illumined the central consciousness, the will in the being, enlighten too this outermost substance. And let the whole individuality, from its first origin and essence to its last projection and most material body, be unified in a perfect realisation and a complete manifestation of Thy sole Reality.

1914 05 27p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   In each one of the domains of the being, the consciousness must be awakened to the perfect existence, knowledge and bliss. These three worlds or modes of the Divine are found in the physical reality as well as in the states of force and light and those of impersonality and infinitude, of eternity. When one enters with full consciousness into the higher states, to live this existence, light and bliss is easy, almost inevitable. But what is very important, as well as very difficult, is to awaken the being to this triple divine consciousness in the most material worlds. This is the first point. Then one must succeed in finding the centre of all the divine worlds (probably in the intermediate world), whence one can unite the consciousness of these divine worlds, synthetise them, and act simultaneously and with full awareness in all domains.
   I know that it is a very long way from these incomplete and imperfect explanations to the sublime reality which manifests Thee, O Lord. Thy splendour, Thy power and Thy magnificence, Thy incommensurable love are above all explanation and comment. But my intellect needs to represent things to itself at least a little schematically, in order to allow the most material states of the being to enter as completely as possible into harmony with Thy Will.
   Yet it is in the deep silence of my mute and total adoration that I best understand Thee. For then who can say what loves, what is loved, and what is the power of loving in itself? All three are but one in an infinite bliss.

1914 06 11p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Every morning, O Lord, an innumerable salutation rises towards Thee, a salutation from all the states of being and from all the multitude of their elements. And it is a daily consecration of all things to the All, a call from ignorance and egoism to Thy light and love. And Thy answer comes constant and is integrally perceived: All is light, all is love, ignorance and egoism are but vain phantoms, they can be dissolved.
   And over all things spreads Thy sovereign peace, Thy fecund calmness.

1914 06 13p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   But those whom Thou hast appointed as Thy representatives upon earth cannot rest content with the result so obtained. To know Thee first and before all else, yes; but once Thy knowledge is acquired there remains all the work of Thy manifestation; and then there intervene the quality, force, complexity and perfection of this manifestation. Very often those who have known Thee, dazzled and rapt in ecstasy by this knowledge, have been content to see Thee for themselves and express Thee somehow or other in their outermost being. He who wants to be perfect in Thy manifestation cannot be satisfied with that; he must manifest Thee on all the planes, in all the states of being and thus turn the knowledge he has acquired to the best account for the whole universe.
   Before the immensity of this programme, the entire being exults and sings a hymn of gladness to Thee.

1914 06 23p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Oh, give us the faith which we lack; give us the certitude of detail which is wanting in us. Deliver us from the ordinary way of thinking and judging; grant that we may live in the consciousness of Thy infinite love and see it at work at every moment and that by our consciousness of it we may bring it into touch with the most material states of being.
   O Lord, deliver us from all ignorance, give us true faith.

1914 06 26p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   In a deep meditation, all the states of manifestation consecrate themselves to Thy manifestation.
   ***

1914 07 12p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   In all the states of being, in all the modes of activity, in all things, in all the worlds, one can meet Thee and unite with Thee, for Thou art everywhere and always present. He who has met Thee in one activity of his being or in one world of the universe, says I have found Him and seeks nothing more; he thinks he has reached the summit of human possibilities. What a mistake! In all the states, in all the modes, in all things, all worlds, all the elements we must discover Thee and unite with Thee and if one element is left aside, however small it may be, the communion cannot be perfect, the realisation cannot be accomplished.
   And that is why to have found Thee is but a first step on an infinite ladder.

1917 09 24p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Thou hast subjected me to a hard discipline; rung after rung, I have climbed the ladder which leads to Thee and, at the summit of the ascent, Thou hast made me taste the perfect joy of identity with Thee. Then, obedient to Thy command, rung after rung, I have descended to outer activities and external states of consciousness, re-entering into contact with these worlds that I left to discover Thee. And now that I have come back to the bottom of the ladder, all is so dull, so mediocre, so neutral, in me and around me, that I understand no more.
   What is it then that Thou awaitest from me, and to what use that slow long preparation, if all is to end in a result to which the majority of human beings attain without being subjected to any discipline?

1951-01-20 - Developing the mind. Misfortunes, suffering; developed reason. Knowledge and pure ideas., #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  It is a question of a difference of consciousness. In some it is the external states of consciousness which are most developed; others, on the contrary, have taken care to develop the higher states of consciousness. So, to say each one bears his cross is true of the external consciousness (of material happenings, happenings which touch the vital being, the emotional being and the mental being); for such people there will always be a considerable number of catastrophes, all the more because catastrophes seem to be proportionate to the capacity of the individual, they seem to be dealt out according to his capacity to bear things. It may just be that those who have greater capacities have an over-plus of suffering and misfortune.
  But there are people who are above all misfortune and yet misfortunes exist for them. Why? Because the inner consciousness in them is stronger, more developed than the other consciousness (I do not speak here of transformed beings, for in them one can visualise a state of things in which even the physical being is above suffering; we are speaking of men as they are at present). If your consciousness is seated in a place where these external things do not exist, then it may be said that you do not bear your cross because you are above it. Yet there are exceptions, there are human beings who are above afflictions, yet carry their cross. How can we reconcile these two apparently contradictory things?

1951-03-26 - Losing all to gain all - psychic being - Transforming the vital - physical habits - the subconscient - Overcoming difficulties - weakness, an insincerity - to change the world - Psychic source, flash of experience - preparation for yoga, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   You must arm yourself with an endless patience and endurance. You do a thing once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times if necessary, but you do it till it gets done. And not done only here and there, but everywhere and everywhere at the same time. This is the great problem one sets oneself. That is why, to those who come to tell me very light-heartedly, I want to do yoga, I reply, Think it over, one may do the yoga for a number of years without noticing the least result. But if you want to do it, you must persist and persist with such a will that you should be ready to do it for ten lifetimes, a hundred lifetimes if necessary, in order to succeed. I do not say it will be like that, but the attitude must be like that. Nothing must discourage you; for there are all the difficulties of ignorance of the different states of being, to which are added the endless malice and the unbounded cunning of the hostile forces in the world. They are there, do you know why? They have been tolerated, do you know why?simply to see how long one can last out and how great is the sincerity in ones action. For everything depends upon your sincerity. If you are truly sincere in your will, nothing will stop you, you will go right to the end, and if it is necessary for you to live a thousand years to do it, you will live a thousand years to do it.
   Does not the vital seek its own transformation? It aspires but it is always the victim of things, of impulsions from outside.

1951-04-12 - Japan, its art, landscapes, life, etc - Fairy-lore of Japan - Culture- its spiral movement - Indian and European- the spiritual life - Art and Truth, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   There is an essential difference, but generally if he has not been contaminated by European materialism, when someone speaks to him about spiritual things, he has an opening, he understands. In the countries of the West, if you are in touch with the average man and speak to him of spiritual things, he is absolutely closed up and, into the bargain, if you speak to him of a possibility of relation with higher states of consciousness, he looks at you as though you were mad! If someone renounces the ordinary life to live an ascetic life, they think he is out of his senses!
   There is a small minority among those who have kept the religious traditions, which understands, but understands only under the religious form. That is to say, if someone enters a monastery, they understand him more or less. But for the average man (I am not speaking of cultured people), if someone wants to lead a spiritual life independent of all religion, simply setting out in the personal quest of a higher truth, then surely he is ready to be put in a lunatic asylum! It would be better not to speak of it. There are those who have read a little, who are educated, who may think you a little eccentric, but still they understand what it means; but the ordinary man, no. I am speaking of fifty years ago, of course; now, after the Second [World] War, I dont know, I cant say if this has begun to change. But evidently, the educated classes of Europe are now in search of something higher because their life has been so tragic that they need to lean upon something else; and perhaps their effort is contagious, in a sense, and there are more people than one thinks who are seekingit is possible. But fifty years ago it was not like that. While here, ordinary people, people of the lower classes dont perhaps have any discernment, perhaps they cannot distinguish between the imposter and the sincere man, but it is understood that if somebody comes along in the yellow robe and with the beggars bowl, he will be given something, he wont be kicked out. If a man did that in Europe (naturally there is no question of the yellow robe), but if he came in sordid clothes, he would be immediately taken to the first police station and arrested for indigence. It is understood that in the so-called civilised countries, if you dont have the minimum money in your pocket, you are a vagabond, and the vagabond has no right to be on the streets, he is put into prison for vagabondage. That is the difference.

1951-04-28 - Personal effort - tamas, laziness - Static and dynamic power - Stupidity - psychic and intelligence - Philosophies- different languages - Theories of Creation - Surrender of ones being and ones work, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   One of the great difficulties for most philosophies is that they have never recognised or studied the different planes of existence, the different regions of the being. They have the Supreme and then the Creation and then thats all, nothing between the two. This makes explanations very difficult. All explanations, in the last analysis, are simply languages there are languages which make understanding easier and others which make it more difficult. And some of these theories make the understanding of things very difficultwhile if you recognize and study and become aware of the different intermediary states between the most material Nature and the Supreme Origin, if you recognise and become conscious of all the intermediary regions, of all the inner states of being and all the outer regions, that can explain many problems. We have already studied this in connection with determinisms. If you say that the determinism is absolute and remain there, you understand nothing; it is quite obvious that all the events of life give you the lie; or else the problem is so complicated that you cant get hold of it. But if you understand that there are a large number of determinisms acting upon each other, interpenetrating, changing the action of one determinism by the action of another, then the problem becomes comprehensible. It is the same thing for explaining the action of the Divine in the universe. If you take a central creative Force or a central creative Consciousness or a central immobile Witness, and then the universe, only that, nothing between the two, you cannot understand. There are people who have used this in such a naive way! They have made a Creator God and then his creatures. So all the problems come up. He has made the world, with what? Some tell you it is from the dust, but what is it, this dust? What was it doing before it was used to make a world? Or from nothing! A universe was created out of nothing that is foolish! It is very awkward for a logical mind. And over and above all that, you are told that He did this consciously, deliberately, and when he had finished he exclaimed, Look, it is very good. Then, those who are in the universe reply, We dont find it so good. It is perhaps very good for you but not for us. These are naive conceptions. They are simply ignorant and naive conceptions which make the problem of the universe absolutely incomprehensible. And all these explanations are inadmissible for a mind which is ever so slightly awakened. That is why you are told, Dont try to understand, you will never understand. But that is mental laziness, it is the minds bad will. You see, one feels within oneself that, because one has this kind of power of thought-activity, this aspiration to find a light, a solution, it must correspond to something, otherwiseo therwise, truly (I think I have written this somewhere), if the universe were reduced to that simple notion, well, it would be the most sinister of farces and I should very well understand those who have declared, Run away, get out of it as fast as possible. Unfortunately, I dont see how they would be able to get out of it, for there is nothing elsehow can you get out of something which alone exists? So, one enters a vicious circle, one turns round and round and this leads quite naturally to mental despair. But when one has the keythere are one or two keys, but there is one which opens all the doors when one has the key, one follows ones road and little by little understands the Thing.
   What is the difference between consciousness and physical Nature?

1951-05-11 - Mahakali and Kali - Avatar and Vibhuti - Sachchidananda behind all states of being - The power of will - receiving the Divine Will, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  object:1951-05-11 - Mahakali and Kali - Avatar and Vibhuti - Sachchidananda behind all states of being - The power of will - receiving the Divine Will
  author class:The Mother
  --
   I have explained that to you in connection with Sachchidananda. Sachchidananda exists at the very origin of the worlds, but there is a Sachchidananda behind all the other states of being. You could make a diagram (though that does not explain much, it is quite an erroneous idea, but it makes things more easily understandable), you arrange the states of being according to a scale. Then, you have the earth below and the Supreme above (it is not at all like that, I hasten to tell you! But anyway, it is easy to understand), you put the earth at the bottom and the Supreme at the top, and you divide that into lots of little parts each of which represents a state of being; that makes a kind of ladder. And then, you have as though behind it, behind your ladder, something which supports it, against which it leans. It is not a wall but it is something which supports your ladder. And that is precisely the first principle of the universal form. In Hindu terminology it is called Sachchidananda. It is there, everything leans upon that; without that nothing could exist. It is that which upholds and allows existence. Then, if you enter a certain state of consciousness and find yourself, for instance, in the higher mind (for generally it is more easily there that this happens; you have started from the physical and climbed slowly, rung by rung, as far as the higher mind), but instead of continuing your ascent on the ladder you enter into a kind of interiorisation and try to go out of the form, you pass into a kind of silence outside the form. You pass in between the bars of your ladder and enter straight into Sachchidananda which supports everything from behind. And then you can have mentally the experience of Sachchidananda. I have known people who had it and thought they had reached the heights of the Supreme. For there is a similarity in the experience, a very great likeness, only it is limited to the mind, the mind alone participates in it. Well, for the will it is the same thing. Instead of being the support of the ladder it is a kind of force, a very powerful current which passes through all these states, starting from aboveit is the supreme Willand coming down into the physical manifestation. Hence, if you get into affinity with this vibration or this force, you can enter the state of will; that is, whatever state of being you may find yourself inphysical, vital, mental, etc.if you enter a certain state of consciousness and force, you come into contact with this power of will: it penetrates into you and you can use it for any purpose. If your reception is free from all egoism, if you are pure, completely surrendered and accept only what comes from the Divine, and if you dont mix anything with it, egoism or desires or limitations well, it is a state a bit difficult to attain, but if you attain it, you receive this force of will in its original state, pure (for it comes down pure, it is only in its reception that it gets deformed), then, instead of being your will it becomes an expression of the divine Will. And this happens without your leaving the physical bodyyou can receive the force of the divine Will without leaving the physical. Only, you see, you must not change it and deform it, spoil it in the receiving. When you feel within you a kind of indomitable energy to realise something, when you tell yourself, I shall do this whatever the cost, I shall go to the end and shall use all my will (for you always say my will), well, you cannot be in that state unless you have come into contact with this current of will-force. Only, with your little personal reaction, naturally you deform it and use it all wrongly, and then you come into conflict with other elements. But if you are truly a yogi, you receive the current and nothing can stop the lan of your action, even physically.
   There are other things like that, other states, other forces, there are many of these. Fundamentally, if one studies very attentively, one perceives that there is nothing in the individual being which is not the expression or the deformation or diminution, reduction and lessening of something which has its origin in the Supreme and is of a universal nature. So, you see, all these ideas of pulling, calling, are not quite right. Essentially, the only thing one should do is to prepare oneself, make oneself worthy of this contact and, when one has had it, not deform it. And this excludes nobody. Even a very small child can, at certain moments in his life, come into touch with one of these great universal forces of divine origin, and use it for its childish needs. Unfortunately, there are added to it so many limitations, so much egoism, ignorance, stupidity, that it is often completely disfigured. It cannot be recognised, it is unrecognisable. But the origin of the force is the same, and that is why when one attains a certain state of consciousness, one perceives that if these forces were not there, one would be nothing, would not exist. And instead of saying with the usual self-complacency, I do this, I do not do that, I have decided that, I want that thing, I shall succeed, all this goes away from you in such a way that you can never again think like that; it seems to you so ridiculousso ridiculous. As soon as the little I comes in, that means a deformation, a limitation, a degradation. In fact, all that you do not value comes with your Iyou remove the I and all that disappears at the same time.

1953-05-06, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Some people do not have a passage between one state and another, there is a little gap and so they leap from one to the other; there is no highway passing through all the states of being with no break of the consciousness. A small dark hole, and you do not remember. It is like a precipice across which one has to extend the consciousness. To build a bridge takes a very long time; it takes much longer than building a physical bridge. Very few people want to and know how to do it. They may have had magnificent activities, they do not remember them or sometimes only the last, the nearest, the most physical activity, with an uncoordinated movementdreams having no sense.
   But there are as many different kinds of nights and sleep as there are different days and activities. There are not many days that are alike, each day is different. The days are not the same, the nights are not the same. You and your friends are doing apparently the same thing, but for each one it is very different. And each one must have his own procedure.

1953-05-27, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Oh! that is, you expect to see a divine form in everything! I do not know, that may happen. But I have the feeling that a great deal of imagination enters into it, for it is not like that. You change consciousness, you change the state of consciousness and change the states of perception.
   If I understand well what you mean, you expect to see a form, like the form of Krishna for example, or the form of Christ, of Buddha, in every person? That seems to me childishness. But still I do not say that it cannot happen; I think it may happen. But there is in it much human consciousness added to the perception, for that would no longer be exactly what I have just told you: for those who have the consciousness of the Divine, when they are in contact with the Divine, whoever they may be, whatever age, whatever country they may belong to, the experience is the same. Whereas if it were as you say, then Indians would see one of their divinities, Europeans one of theirs, the Japanese one of their own, and so on. Then it would no longer be a pure perception, there would already be an addition of their own mental formation. It is no longer the Thing in its essence and purity, which is beyond all form.

1953-07-01, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   In any case, to come back to our paradise, it is a childish deformationignorant or politicalof something which is true in a sense but not quite like that. I have told you many times and I could not repeat it too often, that one is not built up of one single piece. We have within us many states of being and each state of being has its own life. All this is put together in one single body, so long as you have a body, and acts through that single body; so that gives you the feeling that it is one single person, a single being. But there are many beings and particularly there are concentrations on different levels: just as you have a physical being, you have a vital being, you have a mental being, you have a psychic being, you have many others and all possible intermediaries. But it is a little complicated, you might not understand. Suppose you were living a life of desire, passion and impulse: you live with your vital being dominant in you; but if you live with spiritual effort, with great good will, the desire to do things well and an unselfishness, a will for progress, you live with the psychic being dominant in you. Then, when you are about to leave your body, all these beings start to disperse. Only if you are a very advanced yogi and have been able to unify your being around the divine centre, do these beings remain bound together. If you have not known how to unify yourself, then at the time of death all that is dispersed: each one returns to its domain. For example, with regard to the vital being, all your different desires will be separated and each one run towards its own realisation, quite independently, for the physical being will no longer be there to hold them together. But if you have united your consciousness with the psychic consciousness, when you die you remain conscious of your psychic being and the psychic being returns to the psychic world which is a world of bliss and delight and peace and tranquillity and of a growing knowledge. So, if you like to call that a paradise, it is all right; because in fact, to the extent to which you are identified with your psychic being, you remain conscious of it, you are one with it, and it is immortal and goes to its immortal domain to enjoy a perfectly happy life or rest. If you like to call that paradise, call it paradise. If you are good, if you have become conscious of your psychic and live in it, well, when your body dies, you will go with your psychic being to take rest in the psychic world, in a blissful state.
   But if you have lived in your vital with all its impulses, each impulse will try to realise itself here and there. For example, a miser who is concentrated upon his money, when he dies, the part of the vital that was interested in his money will be stuck there and will continue to watch over the money so that nobody may take it. People do not see him, but he is there all the same, and is very unhappy if something happens to his precious money. I knew quite well a lady who had a good amount of money and children; she had five children who were all prodigals each one more than the other. The same amount of care she had taken in amassing the money, they seemed to take in squandering it; they spent it at random. So when the poor old lady died, she came to see me and told me: Ah, now they are going to squander my money! And she was extremely unhappy. I consoled her a little, but I had a good deal of difficulty in persuading her not to keep watching over her money so that it might not be wasted.

1953-09-30, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Well, yes, it is that. That is what I meant: replace a purely mental memory by states of consciousness. That is exactly what I wanted to say. For, if you try to learn a thing by heart, after a time you are sure to forget it. Or else there are holes: you remember one thing and you do not remember another. But if you associate a particular knowledge with a phenomenon of consciousness, you can always bring it back and the knowledge will come back as it was.
   Voil, au revoir my children.

1953-11-11, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   2) The individualisation of states of being which have so far never been conscious in man and, consequently, putting the earth into touch with one or several sources of universal force which are yet sealed to it.
   The individualisation of states of being which have so far never been conscious in man, that is to say, there are superposed states of consciousness, and there are new regions which have never yet been manifested on earth, and which Sri Aurobindo called supramental. It is that, this was the same idea. That is, one must go into the depths or the heights of creation which have never been manifested upon earth, and become conscious of that, and manifest it on earth. Sri Aurobindo called it the Supermind. I simply say these are states of being which were never yet conscious in man (that is, that man has so far never been aware of them). One must get identified with them, then bring them into the outer consciousness, and manifest them in action. And then, I add (exactly what I foresaw I did not know that Sri Aurobindo would do it, but still I foresaw that this had to be done):
   3) To speak to the world, under a new form adapted to the present state of its mentality, the eternal word.

1954-02-10 - Study a variety of subjects - Memory -Memory of past lives - Getting rid of unpleasant thoughts, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Now, there is another aspect also. Outside the mental memory, which is something defective, there are states of consciousness. Each state of consciousness in which one happen to be registers the phenomena of that moment, whatever they may be. If your consciousness remain limpid, wide and strong, you can at any moment whatsoever, by concentrating, call into the active consciousness what you did, thought, saw, observed at any time before; all this you can remember by bringing up in yourself the same state of consciousness. And that, that is never for gotten. You could live a thousand years and you would remember it. Consequently, if you dont want to forget, it must be your consciousness which remembers and not your mental memory. Your mental memory will perforce be wiped out, get blurred, and new things will take the place of the old ones. But things of which you are conscious you do not forget. You have only to bring up the same state of consciousness again. And thus one can remember circumstances one has lived thousands of years ago, if one knows how to bring up the same state of consciousness. It is in this way that one can remember ones past lives. This never gets blotted out, while you dont have any more the memory of what you have done physically when you were very young. You would be told many things you no longer remember. That gets wiped off immediately. For the brain is constantly changing and certain weaker cells are replaced by others, which are much stronger, and by other combinations, other cerebral organisations. And so, what was there before is effaced or deformed.
  One can remember things, which happened thousands of years ago!

1954-04-07 - Communication without words - Uneven progress - Words and the Word, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  This means that one has not yet touched the true domain of the idea In the domain of the idea there are no words: there are states of consciousness.
  What does the Word mean?

1954-06-30 - Occultism - Religion and vital beings - Mothers knowledge of what happens in the Ashram - Asking questions to Mother - Drawing on Mother, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  In this life? That depends upon what one wants to do. You mean in the life of yoga? Not at all necessary. And besides, as he says, there are many who are not gifted, who dont have the faculty. Lots of people, as soon as they have the least experience, the least experience, for instance when they just begin to come out of their body, are panic-stricken, and this indeed is something very difficult to cure. It can be cured if one has a strong will and a great self-mastery. But many people are not able to dissociate their states of being. If they dissociate them, something goes wrong, their body suffers; while there are others who go out, take a walk, return. For them this is quite natural. Usually, those who are interested in thisunless it is only a kind of mental curiosityare also gifted. They may not know it but they can be taught. But these things have to be practised with precaution. For instance I am going to give you an example: as soon as one goes out of the body, no matter how slightly, and even just mentally, well, that part of the mind which controls the functioning goes out; and the automatic side of the mind which makes or produces movements or glandular secretions, that whole automatic side, you see, remain without the protection and control of the conscious, thinking part. Well, in the atmosphere there are always numerous little entities, very tiny, usually originating from human disintegrations, which are like physical microbes, some kind of microbes of the vital. They are more visible and have a will of their own. One cant say they are wicked but they are full of mischief. They like to have a good time and enjoy themselves at peoples expense. So, as soon as they see that you are not sufficiently protected, they get hold of the automatic mind and bring upon you all sorts of quite unpleasant thingsas, for example, some people swallow their tongue when in a trance; this suffocates them if they dont take care. Others bite their tongue; sometimes this hurts very badly. All sorts of things like this may happen to youwhich means that normally you should never enter into a trance without having somebody nearby to watch over you, and not only watch just physically but watch with the conscious power of preventing these little entities from getting hold of your nervous centres which are not protected by the conscious Presence. This is a general rule. There are greater dangers than that. When one goes out of the body materially and nothing but the contact of a link remain, you understand, it is a kind of link like a thread of light joining the being that has gone out with the one that remain behindif this link is protected, nothing happen. But if it is not protected, there may be adverse forces, not only full of mischief but with much ill-will also, which could come and cut it. And then, once it is cut, you may try as hard as you like, but you cannot get back into the body.
  One dies?

1954-08-18 - Mahalakshmi - Maheshwari - Mahasaraswati - Determinism and freedom - Suffering and knowledge - Aspects of the Mother, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Yes. It is at work in this world and, working in this world, for the necessity of the work, it works for a certain end, you see, to bring the darkened consciousness back to its normal state of divine consciousness. And each time in its work it meets with a new obstacle, a new thing to conquer or transform, it calls to a new Force. (Mother opens her hand.) And this new Force is like a new creation. And so, as everything has its correspondence, it may be said in the same way that each being has in its different domainsa human beingit has in its different domain a destiny which is, so to speak, absolute. But it has also the capacity, through aspiration, to enter into contact with a higher domain and introduce the action of this higher domain in these more material determinisms. And there it is still the same thing; these two things combined: a determinism which we could call horizontal (to make it understandable) in each domain, which is absolute, and the intervention of other domain or a much higher domain, in that determinism, which changes it completely. So, everyone at the same time is a set of determinisms which seem quite absolute, and has a total freedom to bring in the intervention of states of being or states of consciousness or forces of a higher domain; and calling these forces and bringing them into the external determinisms alters everything completely.And it is only thus that things can give the impression of the unexpected, the unknown and of freedom.
  Mother is this what we call Grace?

1954-09-08 - Hostile forces - Substance - Concentration - Changing the centre of thought - Peace, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Some people use a rather unclassical word, rarefied, but I dont think it has exactly this see. Well, you see, we say that substance has different deities, and the more material it becomes, the denser it is, the farther it moves away from matter, the less dense it is. But it is a substance all the same. There is even an etheric substance. I dont say that this conforms with scientific theories; I dont guarantee that I am not talking scientific heresies! But this is a cosmic fact. (Mother laughs.) It is exactly I think I said this when I spoke about occultism I said the first thing one must know before being able to practise occultism is that the different states of being have a different deity, and they have an individual independent existence of their own, that they are existing realities, that they are truly real substances, that it is not just a way of being. There can be a mental being and mental activity and, for instance, a thought that is completely independent of the brain, whereas the materialistic theories say that it is the brain which creates mental activity. But this is not correct. The brain is the material transcription of the mental activity, and mental activity has its own domain; the mental domain has its reality, its own substance. One can think outside ones brain, think, act, make formations outside ones brain. One can even live, move, go from one place to another, have a direct knowledge of mental things in the mental world, in a word, absolutely independent of a body which, indeed, can be in a state of complete inertia, not only asleep but also in a cataleptic state. And moreover, it is quite certain that so long as one has not understood that one is made up of different states of being which have their own independent life, one cant have a complete control over ones being. There will always be something that escapes you.
  (To a child) Do you have something to ask?

1954-11-24 - Aspiration mixed with desire - Willing and desiring - Children and desires - Supermind and the higher ranges of mind - Stages in the supramental manifestation, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  It can very well happen-besides, when he spoke of the supermind he said that there are many regions in the supermind itself and that it would naturally be the first ones, the lowest regions, which would manifest to begin with-it can very well happen that there are still a number of intermediary states of being, this is possible-intermediary stages.
  Certainly the perfect race will not come spontaneously. Very probably not. But already, even the first attempts... in comparison with the present human being, it will make a great difference, great enough for one to feel that this is something miraculous.

1955-03-09 - Psychic directly contacted through the physical - Transforming egoistic movements - Work of the psychic being - Contacting the psychic and the Divine - Experiences of different kinds - Attacks of adverse forces, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  I think I have already told you this once. One can find the psychic through each part of the consciousness: you can find a psychic behind the physical you can enter into contact with the psychic directly through the physical consciousness, directly through the vital consciousness, directly through the mental consciousness. It is not as though you had to cross all the states of being in order to find the psychic. You can enter the psychic without leaving your physical consciousness, through interiorisation, because it is not an ascent or gradation. It is an interiorisation, and this interiorisation can be done without passing through the other states of being, directly. This is what Sri Aurobindo means: you are in the physical consciousness, nothing prevents you from opening this physical consciousness to the psychic consciousness, you dont need to develop vitally or mentally or to return to these states of being in order to enter into contact with the psychic. You can enter directly. The psychic manifests itself directly in your physical without passing through the other states; thats what it means.
  Sweet Mother, here it is said: a complete equality and peace and a complete dedication free from personal demand or desire in the physical and the lower vital parts are the thing to be established.
  --
  Oh! Oh, oh, but I dont understand your question very well. The present being, whatever it may be, and whoever may be within it, always has a psychic being. You see, usually it depends on the degree of evolution of the psychic being but still every psychic being which is in a body has states of being formed in the present formation. Its work is always to transform these; it is as though this were the part of the universe given to him for his work of transformation. And even if he has a vaster mission than that of his own person, unless he does this work in his person he cannot do the other You cannot change the outer world unless you begin by changing yourself. This is the first condition; and for everyone, great and small, old and youngold, I mean those who have lived very long, and young those who havent lived very longit is always the same work. This is why life upon earth for a psychic being is the opportunity to progress.
  The duration of earthly life is the time of progress. Outside earthly life there is, so to say, no progress. It is in earthly life that there is the possibility and the means of progress. But for all conscious beings it is the same thing, not only for those you call incarnated. It is for everyone the same thing. One must first begin with the work on himself. When one has done the work on himself, one can do it on others; but the first thing to do is to do it on oneself.

1955-04-27 - Symbolic dreams and visions - Curing pain by various methods - Different states of consciousness - Seeing oneself dead in a dream - Exteriorisation, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  object:1955-04-27 - Symbolic dreams and visions - Curing pain by various methods - Different states of consciousness - Seeing oneself dead in a dream - Exteriorisation
  class:chapter
  --
  Well, its something one must learn to distinguish, ones states of consciousness, because otherwise one lives in a perpetual confusion.
  In fact, it is the first step on the path, it is the beginning of the thread, if one doesnt hold on to the end of the thread, one is lost on the way. This is only to hold the end of the thread.

1955-07-20 - The Impersonal Divine - Surrender to the Divine brings perfect freedom - The Divine gives Himself - The principle of the inner dimensions - The paths of aspiration and surrender - Linear and spherical paths and realisations, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Its what is called in some philosophies and religions the Formless; something thats beyond all form, even the forms of thought, you see, not necessarily physical forms: forms of thought, forms of movement. It is the conception of something which is beyond not only what can be thought or conceived or seen even with the most subtle eyes, but all that has any kind of perceptible form whatever, even vibrations more subtle than those which infinitely overpass all human perceptions, even in the highest states of being, something which is beyond all manifestation of any order whateverusually thats how we define the impersonal God. He has nothing, none of the qualities we can conceive of, He is beyond all qualification. It is obviously the quest of something which is the opposite of the creation, and that is why some religions have introduced the idea of what they call Nirvana, that is, of something which is nothing; it is the same quest, the same attempt to find something which would be the opposite of all that we can conceive. So finally we define It, because how can we speak of It? But in experience one tries to go beyond all that belongs to the manifested world, and that is what we call the impersonal Divine.
  Well, it happensand this is very interesting that there is a region like that, a region which how to put it? which is the negation of all that exists. Behind all the planes of being, even behind the physical, there is a Nirvana. We use the word Nirvana because it is easier, but we can say, There is an impersonal Divine behind the physical, behind the mind, behind the vital, behind all the regions of being; behind, beyond. (We are obliged to express ourselves in some sort of way.) It is not necessarily more subtle, its something else, something absolutely different; that is, in a meditation, for example, if you meditate on Nirvana you can remain in a region of your mind and by a certain concentration produce a kind of reversal of your consciousness and find yourself suddenly in something which is Nirvana, non-existence; and yet in the ascent of your consciousness you have not gone beyond the mind.

1955-10-26 - The Divine and the universal Teacher - The power of the Word - The Creative Word, the mantra - Sound, music in other worlds - The domains of pure form, colour and ideas, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The human voice when absolutely pure is of all instruments the one which expresses it best; but it is still it has a sound which seems so harsh, so gross compared with that. When one has been in that region, one truly knows what music is. And it has so perfect a clarity that at the same time as the sound one has the full understanding of what is said. That is, one has the principle of the idea, without words, simply with the sound and all the inflexions of the one cant call it sensations, nor feelings what seems to be closest would be some kind of soul-states or states of consciousness. All these inflexions are clearly perceptible through the nuances of the sound. And certainly, those who were great musicians, geniuses from the point of view of music, must have been more or less consciously in contact with that. The physical world as we have it today is an absolutely gross world; it looks like a caricature.
  Its the same thing with painting: all the pictures we know today look like daubings when one has seen the domain of form and colour, the source of the things expressed through the painting.

1956-01-25 - The divine way of life - Divine, Overmind, Supermind - Material body for discovery of the Divine - Five psychological perfections, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  And it is so true that even the great cosmic Individualities, when they want to be converted or to unite with the Origin, take a physical body for that, because it is more convenient for them, for it can be done faster and better than if they had to progress through all the states of being, from any one of the states of being in the universe to the supreme Origin.
  It is easier to come down into a human body and find the divine Presence there, it is quicker. Imagine the serpent biting its tail, it makes a circle, doesnt it? So, if something wants to be united with the Divine, it is easier to enter the tail than to go the whole round of the body! As the head bites the tail, well, if you enter the tail you are immediately in contact with the head, otherwise you have to go all the way round to reach the head.

1956-03-07 - Sacrifice, Animals, hostile forces, receive in proportion to consciousness - To be luminously open - Integral transformation - Pain of rejection, delight of progress - Spirit behind intention - Spirit, matter, over-simplified, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  I think one of the greatest difficulties in understanding things comes from an arbitrary simplification which puts spirit on one side and matter on the other. It is this foolishness that makes you incapable of understanding anything. There is spirit and matterthis is very convenient. So if one does not belong to spirit, one belongs to matter; if one does not belong to matter, one belongs to spirit. But what do you call spirit and what do you call matter? It is a countless crowd of things, an interminable ladder. The universe is a seemingly infinite gradation of worlds and states of consciousness, and in this increasingly subtle gradation, where does your matter come to an end? Where does your spirit begin? You speak of spirit where does this spirit begin? With what you dont see? Is that it? So you include in spirit all the beings of the vital world, for instance, because you dont see them in your normal stateall that belongs to spiritand they may indeed be the spirit which is behind your intention and it isnt up to much! Thats it.
  It is like those people who say, When you are alive you are in matter; when you are dead, you enter the spirit. There, then! So, liberate the spirit from matter, die, and you liberate your spirit from matter. It is these stupidities which prevent you from understanding anything at all. But all this has nothing to do with the world as it really is.

1956-03-28 - The starting-point of spiritual experience - The boundless finite - The Timeless and Time - Mental explanation not enough - Changing knowledge into experience - Sat-Chit-Tapas-Ananda, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
    Sweet Mother, another thing I havent understood: At times these two states of his spirit [the consciousness of eternity and the consciousness of the world in time] seem to exist for him alternately according to his state of consciousness; at others they are there as two parts of his being, disparate and to be reconciled, two halves, an upper and a lower or an inner and an outer half of his existence. He finds soon that this separation in his consciousness has an immense liberative power, for by it he is no longer bound to the Ignorance, the Inconscience.
    The Synthesis of Yoga, p. 112

1956-08-22 - The heaven of the liberated mind - Trance or samadhi - Occult discipline for leaving consecutive bodies - To be greater than ones experience - Total self-giving to the Grace - The truth of the being - Unique relation with the Supreme, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  There are spontaneous and involuntary instances of a state which is not quite the same as this, but very similar: they are states of somnambulism, that is to say, when you are fast asleep and the vital has gone out of your body, the body automatically obeys the will and action of the part which has gone out, the vital part. Only, as this is not the effect of a willed action and a regulated, progressive education, this state is not desirable, for it may produce disorders in the being. But it is an illustration of what I have just said, of a body which while three-quarters asleep can obey the part of the being which has gone out and is itself fully awake and quite conscious. This is the real trance.
  I have already told you several times, I think, that when one undergoes this occult discipline, one is able to leave ones physical body, go out in the vital and move about quite consciously, acting quite consciously in this vital world; then to leave ones vital being asleep and go out mentally, acting and living in the mental world quite consciously and with similar relations for the mental world is in relation with the mental being, as the physical world is in relation with the physical being and so on, progressively and by a regular discipline. I knew a woman who had been trained in this way, who had quite remarkable personal faculties, who was conscious in all her states of being, and she used to be able to go out twelve times from her body, that is to say, from twelve consecutive bodies, until she reached the summit of the individual consciousness, which could be called the threshold of the Formless. She remembered everything and recounted everything in detail. She was an Englishwoman; I even translated from English a book in which there was a description of all she saw and did in these domains.
  It is obviously the sign of a great mastery of ones being, and the sign of having reached a high degree of conscious development. But it is almost the opposite of the other experience of going out of ones consciousness to enter a state in which one is no longer conscious; it is, so to say, the opposite.

1956-11-21 - Knowings and Knowledge - Reason, summit of mans mental activities - Willings and the true will - Personal effort - First step to have knowledge - Relativity of medical knowledge - Mental gymnastics make the mind supple, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Five paragraphs dealing with five modes of being or five states of being, and the same thing recurs in all the different domains:
    When we have passed beyond knowings, then we shall have Knowledge. Reason was the helper; Reason is the bar.

1956-12-19 - Preconceived mental ideas - Process of creation - Destructive power of bad thoughts - To be perfectly sincere, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Naturally, the principle of sincerity is the same everywhere, but its working is different according to the states of being. As for the first question, one could simply answer: No, not if man remains what he is. But he has the possibility of transforming himself sufficiently to become perfectly sincere.
  To begin with, it must be said that sincerity is progressive, and as the being progresses and develops, as the universe unfolds in the being, sincerity too must go on perfecting itself endlessly. Every halt in that development necessarily changes the sincerity of yesterday into the insincerity of tomorrow.

1957-01-09 - God is essentially Delight - God and Nature play at hide-and-seek - Why, and when, are you grave?, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Later I would like us to take up and read here the last chapters of The Life Divine. I think you are becoming old enough, mature enough, to be able to follow it. And then there are all kinds of things you will be able to understand and subjects we shall be able to take up, based on this text, which will help us to go one step further, a serious step towards realisation. He describes so precisely and marvellously the difference between these two states of consciousness, how all that seems to man almost the ultimate of perfection, at least of realisation, how all that still belongs to the lower hemisphere, including all the relations with the gods ass men have known them and still know themhow all these things are still far below and what is the true state, the one which he describes as the supramental state, when one passes beyond.
  And in fact, as long as one has not consciously passed beyond, there is a whole world of things one cannot understand.

1957-02-06 - Death, need of progress - Changing Natures methods, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  The fact is that everything is in a state of perpetual progressive development, that is, the whole creation, the whole universe is advancing towards a perfection which seems to recede as one goes forward towards it, for what seemed a perfection at a certain moment is no longer perfect after a time. The most subtle states of being in the consciousness follow this progression even as it is going on, and the higher up the scale one goes, the more closely does the rhythm of the advance resemble the rhythm of the universal development, and approach the rhythm of the divine development; but the material world is rigid by nature, transformation is slow, very slow, there, almost imperceptible for the measurement of time as human consciousness perceives it and so there is a constant disequilibrium between the inner and outer movement, and this lack of balance, this incapacity of the outer forms to follow the movement of the inner progress brings about the necessity of decomposition and the change of forms. But if, into this matter, one could infuse enough consciousness to obtain the same rhythm, if matter could become plastic enough to follow the inner progression, this rupture of balance would not occur, and death would no longer be necessary.
  So, according to what Sri Aurobindo tells us, Nature has found this rather radical means to awaken in the material consciousness the necessary aspiration and plasticity.

1957-03-06 - Freedom, servitude and love, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  At a superficial glance these two things appear absolutely contradictory and incompatible. Outwardly one cannot conceive how one can be at once in freedom and in servitude, but there is an attitude which reconciles the two and makes them one of the happiest states of material existence.
  Freedom is a sort of instinctive need, a necessity for the integral development of the being. In its essence it is a perfect realisation of the highest consciousness, it is the expression of Unity and of union with the Divine, it is the very sense of the Origin and the fulfilment. But because this Unity has manifested in the manyin the multiplicity something had to serve as a link between the Origin and the manifestation, and the most perfect link one can conceive of is love. And what is the first gesture of love? To give oneself, to serve. What is its spontaneous, immediate, inevitable movement? To serve. To serve in a joyous, complete, total self-giving.

1957-06-19 - Causes of illness Fear and illness - Minds working, faith and illness, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  We have often said that illnesses are always the result of a disturbance of equilibrium, but this disturbance can occur in completely different states of being. For the ordinary man whose consciousness is centred in the physical, outer life, it is a purely physical disturbance of equilibrium, of the functioning of the different organs. But when behind this purely superficial life, an inner life is being fashioned, the causes of illness change; they always become the expression of a disequilibrium between the different parts of the being: between the inner progress or effort and the outer resistances or conditions of ones life, ones body.
  Even from the ordinary external point of view, it has been recognised for a very long time that it is a fall in the resistance of the vitality due to immediate moral causes which is always at the origin of an illness. When one is in a normal state of equilibrium and lives in a normal physical harmony, the body has a capacity of resistance, it has within it an atmosphere strong enough to resist illnesses: its most material substance emanates subtle vibrations which have the strength to resist illnesses, even diseases which are called contagiousin fact, all vibrations are contagious, but still, certain diseases are considered as especially contagious. Well, a man who, even from the purely external point of view, is in a state in which his organs function harmoniously and an adequate psychological balance prevails, has at the same time enough resistance for the contagion not to affect him. But if for some reason or other he loses this equilibrium or is weakened by depression, dissatisfaction, moral difficulties or undue fatigue, for instance, this reduces the normal resistance of the body and he is open to the disease. But if we consider someone who is doing yoga, then it is altogether different, in the sense that the causes of disequilibrium are of a different nature and the illness usually becomes the expression of an inner difficulty which has to be overcome.

1958-02-19 - Experience of the supramental boat - The Censors - Absurdity of artificial means, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  And all the time the experience lasted, one hourone hour of that time is long I was in a state of extraordinary joyfulness, almost in an intoxicated state. The difference between the two states of consciousness is so great that when you are in one, the other seems unreal, like a dream. When I came back what struck me first of all was the futility of life here; our little conceptions down here seem so laughable, so comical. We say that some people are mad, but their madness is perhaps a great wisdom, from the supramental point of view, and their behaviour is perhaps nearer to the truth of things I am not speaking of the obscure mad men whose brains have been damaged, but of many other incomprehensible mad men, the luminous mad: they have wanted to cross the border too quickly and the rest has not followed.
  When one looks at the world of men from the supramental consciousness, the predominant feature is a feeling of strangeness, of artificialityof a world that is absurd because it is artificial. This world is false because its material appearance does not at all express the deeper truth of things. There is a kind of disconnection between the appearance and what is within. In this way, a man with a divine power in the depths of his being may find himself in the position of a slave on the external plane. It is absurd! In the supramental world, on the other hand, it is the will which acts directly on the substance and the substance is obedient to this will. You want to cover yourself: the substance you live in immediately takes the form of a garment to cover you. You want to go from one place to another: your will is enough to transport you without needing any conveyance, any artificial device. Thus, the boat in my experience had no need of any mechanism to move it; it was the will which modified the substance according to its needs. When it was time to land, the wharf took shape of itself. When I wanted to send the groups ashore, those who were to land knew it automatically without my having to say a word, and they came up in turn. Everything went on in silence, there was no need to speak to make oneself understood; but the silence itself on board the ship did not give that impression of artificiality it does here. Here, when one wants silence, one must stop talking; silence is the opposite of sound. There the silence was vibrant, living, active and comprehensive, comprehensible.

1958-09-17 - Power of formulating experience - Usefulness of mental development, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
  Everything that happens to us in the spiritual world we always have a tendency to translate mentally; we want to explain it to ourselves, draw conclusions from it, change the experience into a rule of action, profit mentally by what has happened in order to transform the experience into something practically useful. That is what Sri Aurobindo calls the minds possession of it. This is done automatically, so to say. Unfortunately, the best part of the experience always escapes; and besides, if one wants to keep it intact, one would have to remain in a state in which the experience is not mentalised, and if one lives in the outer world this is practically impossible. That is why those who wished to enjoy their spiritual experience without intervention from the mind used to remain in states of trance and to carefully avoid coming down to the level of action. But if one wants to transform life, if one wants the spiritual experience to have an effect on the mind, the vital and the body, on the daily activities, it is indispensable to try to express it mentally and accept the inevitable diminution, until the mind itself is transformed and capable of participating in the experience without deforming it.
  What we want to do is still more difficult, for we want the vital also to be transformed and capable of participating in the experience without deforming it, and finally the physical itself, the body, to be transformed by the spiritual action and no longer be an obstacle to the experience.

1960 11 13? - 50, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   Naturally, people who do not think deeply enough will say, Ah, but if we saw that everything is as it should be, nothing would move! No, you cannot prevent things from moving! Even for a fraction of a second they do not stop moving. It is a continuous, total transformation, a movement that never ceases. And because it is difficult for us to feel like this, it is possible for us to imagine that if we were to enter into certain states of consciousness, things would not change. But even if we were to enter into an apparently total inertia, things would continue to change and so would we!
   Basically, disgust, revolt, anger, all these movements of violence are necessarily movements of ignorance and limitation, with all the weakness that limitation represents. Revolt is a weaknessit is the feeling of an impotent will. You willor you think you willyou feel, you see that things are not as they should be and you revolt against whatever does not agree with what you see. But if you were all-powerful, if your will and your vision were all-powerful, there would be no occasion for you to revolt, you would always see that all things are as they should be. If we go to the highest level and unite with the consciousness of the supreme Will, we see, at every second, at every moment of the universe, that all is exactly as it should be, exactly as the Supreme wills it. That is omnipotence. And all movements of violence become not only unnecessary but utterly ridiculous.

1965 12 26?, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   When one is in this eternal Consciousness, to have a body or not to have a body, does not make much difference; but when one is what is called dead, does the perception of the material world remain clear and precise or does it become as vague and imprecise as the consciousness of the other worlds can be when one is on this side, in this world? Sri Aurobindo speaks of a game of hide-and-seek. But the game of hide-and-seek is interesting if one state of being does not preclude the consciousness of the other states of being.
   Yesterday or the day before, throughout the day, from morning till night, something was saying, I am I am or I have the consciousness of the dead on earth. I am translating it into words, but it was as if I was being told, This is what the consciousness of a dead person is like, relative to the earth and physical things I am a dead person living on earth. According to the position of the consciousness for the consciousness is always changing its positionaccording to the position of the consciousness, it was, This is how dead people are, relative to the earth; then, I am absolutely like a dead person relative to the earth; then, I am living as a dead person lives in the consciousness of the earth; then, I am exactly like a dead person living on earth and so on. I went on behaving, speaking, acting as usual. But it has been like this for a long time. For a long time, for more than two years, I have been seeing the world like this (upward gesture from one level to another) and now I see it like this (downward gesture). I do not know how to explain this because there is nothing mentalised about it, and non-mentalised sensations have something hazy about them which is hard to define. But the words and the thought were a certain distance away (gesture around the head), like something that watches and evaluates, that is to say, which says what it sees something that is all around. And today, two or three times, it was extremely strong I mean that this state dominated the whole consciousnessa kind of impression or sensation or perception but it is none of these: I am a dead person living on earth.

1970 03 25, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
   If Sri Aurobindo is speaking of moral pain, of any kind, I can say from experience that the four stages he mentions correspond to four states of consciousness which are the result of inner development and the degree of union with the divine consciousness which the individual consciousness has achieved. When the union is perfect, there only remains a fiercer form of delight.
   If it is the physical pain endured by the body, the experience does not follow such a clearly defined order; especially because union with the Divine most often causes the pain to disappear.

1.A - ANTHROPOLOGY, THE SOUL, #Philosophy of Mind, #unset, #Zen
  Ego of consciousness and as intelligent mind. The difficulty raised anent the distinction of the two states properly arises, only when we also take into account the dreams in sleep and describe these dreams, as well as the mental representations in the sober waking consciousness under one and the same title of mental representations. Thus superficially classified as states of mental representation the two coincide, because we have lost sight of the difference; and in the case of any assignable distinction of waking consciousness, we can always return to the trivial remark that all this is nothing more than mental idea. But the concrete theory of the waking soul in its realized being views it as consciousness and intellect: and the world of intelligent consciousness is something quite different from a picture of
   mere ideas and images. The latter are in the main only externally conjoined, in an unintelligent way, by the laws of the so-called Association of Ideas; though here and there of course logical principles may also be operative. But in the waking state man behaves essentially as a concrete ego, an intelligence: and because of this intelligence his sense-perception stands before him as a concrete totality of features in which each member, each point, takes up its place as at the same time determined through and with all the rest. Thus the facts embodied in his sensation are au thenticated, not by his mere subjective representation and distinction of the facts as something external from the person, but by virtue of the concrete interconnection in which each part stands with all parts of this complex. The waking state is the concrete consciousness of this mutual corroboration of each single factor of its content by all the others in the picture as perceived. The consciousness of this interdependence need not be explicit and distinct. Still this general setting to all sensations is implicitly present in the concrete feeling of self. In order to see the difference between dreaming and waking we need only keep in view the Kantian distinction between subjectivity and objectivity of mental representation (the latter depending upon determination through categories): remembering, as already noted, that what is actually present in mind need not be therefore explicitly realized in consciousness, just as little as the exaltation of the intellectual sense to God need stand before consciousness in the shape of proofs of God's existence, although, as before explained, these proofs only serve to express the net worth and content of that feeling.
  --
  By itself, this stage of mind is the stage of its darkness: its features are not developed to conscious and intelligent content: so far it is formal and only formal. It acquires a peculiar interest in cases where it is as a form and appears as a special state of mind ( 380), to which the soul, which has already advanced to consciousness and intelligence, may again sink down. But when a truer phase of mind thus exists in a more subordinate and abstract one, it implies a want of adaptation, which is disease. In the present stage we must treat, first, of the abstract psychical modifications by themselves, secondly, as morbid states of mind: the latter being only explicable by means of the former.
  (a) The feeling soul in its immediacy

1f.lovecraft - The Dreams in the Witch House, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
  evidently diverse states of injury. One of these things-which excited
  several Miskatonic professors profoundly-is a badly damaged monstrosity

1.jr - I Am Only The House Of Your Beloved, #Rumi - Poems, #Jalaluddin Rumi, #Poetry
  That one is the lord of states of feeling,
  dependent on none;

20.01 - Charyapada - Old Bengali Mystic Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The dowry being the supreme states of consciousness.
   The day and the night pass in the game of enjoyment,
  --
   You have to cross the three worldsphysical, vital and mental, pass through the three states of consciousness jgrat (waking), swapna (dreaming) and suupta (sleeping)-to enjoy the transcendent delight. It is the ecstasy of union with one's soul, the divine Beloved secreted within our inner heart. This divinity, this beloved deity is utter freedomno mental reservations or restrictions, no vital preferences or prejudices, no physical rules or regulations.
   Outcastebecause she is cast out of the normal human consciousness, which does not recognise the worth of such a status. Womanbecause it is Power, Shakti and Delight (ananda). Yoginisall the attendant powers that aid and vivify the game.

2.01 - Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There is more to perplex us; for we see the original indeterminate Energy throwing out general determinates of itself, - we might equally in their relation to the variety of their products call them generic indeterminates, - with their appropriate states of substance and determined forms of that substance: the latter are numerous, sometimes innumerable variations on the substance-energy which is their base: but none of these variations seems to be predetermined by anything in the nature of the general indeterminate. An electric Energy produces positive, negative, neutral forms of itself, forms that are at once waves and particles; a gaseous state of energy-substance produces a considerable number of different gases; a solid state of energysubstance from which results the earth principle develops into different forms of earth and rock of many kinds and numerous minerals and metals; a life principle produces its vegetable kingdom teeming with a countless foison of quite different plants, trees, flowers; a principle of animal life produces an enormous variety of genus, species, individual variations: so it proceeds into human life and mind and its mind-types towards the still unwritten end or perhaps the yet occult sequel of that unfinished evolutionary chapter. Throughout there is the constant rule of a general sameness in the original determinate and, subject to this substantial sameness of basic substance and nature, a profuse variation in the generic and individual determinates; an identical law obtains of sameness or similarity in the genus or species with numerous variations often meticulously minute in the individual. But we do not find anything in any general or generic determinate necessitating the variant determinations that result from it. A necessity of immutable sameness at the base, of free and unaccountable variations on the surface seems to be the law; but who or what necessitates or determines? What is the rationale of the determination, what is its original truth or its significance? What compels or impels this exuberant play of varying possibilities which seem to have no aim or meaning unless it be the beauty or delight of creation? A Mind, a seeking and curious inventive Thought, a hidden determining Will might be there, but there is no trace of it in the first and fundamental appearance of material Nature.
  A first possible explanation points to a self-organising dynamic Chance that is at work, - a paradox necessitated by the appearance of inevitable order on one side, of unaccountable freak and fantasy on the other side of the cosmic phenomenon we call Nature. An inconscient and inconsequent Force, we may say, that acts at random and creates this or that by a general chance without any determining principle, - determinations coming in only as the result of a persistent repetition of the same rhythm of action and succeeding because only this repetitive rhythm could succeed in keeping things in being, - this is the energy of Nature. But this implies that somewhere in the origin of things there is a boundless Possibility or a womb of innumerable possibilities that are manifested out of it by the original Energy, - an incalculable Inconscient which we find some embarrassment in calling either an Existence or a Non-Existence; for without some such origin and basis the appearance and the action of the Energy is unintelligible. Yet an opposite aspect of the nature of the cosmic phenomenon as we see it appears to forbid the theory of a random action generating a persistent order. There is too much of an iron insistence on order, on a law basing the possibilities. One would be justified rather in supposing that there is an inherent imperative Truth of things unseen by us, but a Truth capable of manifold manifestation, throwing out a multitude of possibilities and variants of itself which the creative Energy by its action turns into so many realised actualities. This brings us to a second explanation - a mechanical necessity in things, its workings recognisable by us as so many mechanical laws of Nature; - the necessity, we might say, of some such secret inherent Truth of things as we have supposed, governing automatically the processes we observe in action in the universe. But a theory of mechanical Necessity by itself does not elucidate the free play of the endless unaccountable variations which are visible in the evolution: there must be behind the Necessity or in it a law of unity associated with a coexistent but dependent law of multiplicity, both insisting on manifestation; but the unity of what, the multiplicity of what?

2.01 - Isha Upanishad All that is world in the Universe, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  really image three different states of soul & three different roads
  to the realisation of God. There is the intellectual state of soul

2.02 - Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This, then, is the logic of the way of universal being of Brahman and the basic working of the reason, the infinite intelligence of Maya. As with the being of Brahman, so with its consciousness, Maya: it is not bound to a finite restriction of itself or to one state or law of its action; it can be many things simultaneously, have many co-ordinated movements which to the finite reason may seem contradictory; it is one but innumerably manifold, infinitely plastic, inexhaustibly adaptable. Maya is the supreme and universal consciousness and force of the Eternal and Infinite and, being by its very nature unbound and illimitable, it can put forth many states of consciousness at a time, many dispositions of its Force, without ceasing to be the same consciousness-force for ever. It is at once transcendental, universal and individual; it is the supreme supracosmic Being that is aware of itself as AllBeing, as the Cosmic Self, as the Consciousness-force of cosmic Nature, and at the same time experiences itself as the individual being and consciousness in all existences. The individual consciousness can see itself as limited and separate, but can also put off its limitations and know itself as universal and again as transcendent of the universe; this is because there is in all these states or positions or underlying them the same triune consciousness in a triple status. There is then no difficulty in the One thus seeing or experiencing itself triply, whether from above in the Transcendent Existence or from between in the Cosmic Self or from below in the individual conscious being. All that is necessary for this to be accepted as natural and logical is to admit that there can be different real statuses of consciousness of the One Being, and that cannot be impossible for an Existence which is free and infinite and cannot be tied to a single condition; a free power of self-variation must be natural to a consciousness that is infinite. If the possibility of a manifold status of consciousness is admitted, no limit can be put to the ways of its variation of status, provided the One is aware of itself simultaneously in all of them; for the One and Infinite must be thus universally conscious. The only difficulty, which a further consideration may solve, is to understand the connections between a status of limited or constructed consciousness like ours, a status of ignorance, and the infinite self-knowledge and all-knowledge.
  A second possibility of the Infinite Consciousness that must be admitted is its power of self-limitation or secondary selfformation into a subordinate movement within the integral illimitable consciousness and knowledge; for that is a necessary consequence of the power of self-determination of the Infinite.
  --
  Yet it is now evident that to the Infinite Consciousness both the static and the dynamic are possible; these are two of its statuses and both can be present simultaneously in the universal awareness, the one witnessing the other and supporting it or not looking at it and yet automatically supporting it; or the silence and status may be there penetrating the activity or throwing it up like an ocean immobile below throwing up a mobility of waves on its surface. This is also the reason why it is possible for us in certain conditions of our being to be aware of several different states of consciousness at the same time. There is a state of being experienced in Yoga in which we become a double consciousness, one on the surface, small, active, ignorant, swayed by thoughts and feelings, grief and joy and all kinds of reactions, the other within calm, vast, equal, observing the surface being with an immovable detachment or indulgence or, it may be, acting upon its agitation to quiet, enlarge, transform it. So too we can rise to a consciousness above and observe the various parts of our being, inner and outer, mental, vital and physical and the subconscient below all, and act upon one or other or the whole from that higher status. It is possible also to go down from that height or from any height into any of these lower states and take its limited light or its obscurity as our place of working while the rest that we are is either temporarily put away or put behind or else kept as a field of reference from which we can get support, sanction or light and influence or as a status into which we can ascend or recede and from it observe the inferior movements. Or we can plunge into trance, get within ourselves and be conscious there while all outward things are excluded; or we can go beyond even this inner awareness and lose ourselves in some deeper other consciousness or some high superconscience. There is also a pervading equal consciousness into which we can enter and see all ourselves with one enveloping glance or omnipresent awareness one and indivisible. All this which looks strange and abnormal or may seem fantastic to the surface reason acquainted only with our normal status of limited ignorance and its movements divided from our inner higher and total reality, becomes easily intelligible and admissible in the light of the larger reason and logic of the Infinite or by the admission of the greater illimitable powers of the Self, the Spirit in us which is of one essence with the Infinite.
  Brahman the Reality is the self-existent Absolute and Maya is the Consciousness and Force of this self-existence; but with regard to the universe Brahman appears as the Self of all existence, Atman, the cosmic Self, but also as the Supreme Self transcendent of its own cosmicity and at the same time individual-universal in each being; Maya can then be seen as the self-power, Atma-Shakti, of the Atman. It is true that when we first become aware of this Aspect, it is usually in a silence of the whole being or at the least in a silence within which draws back or stands away from the surface action; this Self is then felt as a status in silence, an immobile immutable being, self-existent, pervading the whole universe, omnipresent in all, but not dynamic or active, aloof from the ever mobile energy of Maya. In the same way we can become aware of it as the Purusha, separate from Prakriti, the Conscious Being standing back from the activities of Nature. But this is an exclusive concentration which limits itself to a spiritual status and puts away from it all activity in order to realise the freedom of Brahman the self-existent Reality from all limitation by its own action and manifestation: it is an essential realisation, but not the total realisation. For we can see that the Conscious-Power, the Shakti that acts and creates, is not other than the Maya or all-knowledge of Brahman; it is the Power of the Self; Prakriti is the working of the Purusha, Conscious Being active by its own Nature: the duality then of Soul and WorldEnergy, silent Self and the creative Power of the Spirit, is not really something dual and separate, it is biune. As we cannot separate Fire and the power of Fire, it has been said, so we cannot separate the Divine Reality and its Consciousness-Force, Chit-Shakti. This first realisation of Self as something intensely silent and purely static is not the whole truth of it, there can also be a realisation of Self in its power, Self as the condition of world-activity and world-existence. However, the Self is a fundamental aspect of Brahman, but with a certain stress on its impersonality; therefore the Power of the Self has the appearance of a Force that acts automatically with the Self sustaining it, witness and support and originator and enjoyer of its activities but not involved in them for a moment. As soon as we become aware of the Self, we are conscious of it as eternal, unborn, unembodied, uninvolved in its workings: it can be felt within the form of being, but also as enveloping it, as above it, surveying its embodiment from above, adhyaks.a; it is omnipresent, the same in everything, infinite and pure and intangible for ever. This Self can be experienced as the Self of the individual, the Self of the thinker, doer, enjoyer, but even so it always has this greater character; its individuality is at the same time a vast universality or very readily passes into that, and the next step to that is a sheer transcendence or a complete and ineffable passing into the Absolute. The Self is that aspect of the Brahman in which it is intimately felt as at once individual, cosmic, transcendent of the universe. The realisation of the Self is the straight and swift way towards individual liberation, a static universality, a
  --
  The Being can have three different states of its consciousness with regard to its own eternity. The first is that in which there is the immobile status of the Self in its essential existence, self-absorbed or self-conscious, but in either case without development of consciousness in movement or happening; this is what we distinguish as its timeless eternity. The second is its whole-consciousness of the successive relations of all things belonging to a destined or an actually proceeding manifestation, in which what we call past, present and future stand together as if in a map or settled design or very much as an artist or painter or architect might hold all the detail of his work viewed as a whole, intended or reviewed in his mind or arranged in a plan for execution; this is the stable status or simultaneous integrality of Time. This seeing of Time is not at all part of our normal awareness of events as they happen, though our view of the past, because it is already known and can be regarded in the whole, may put on something of this character; but we know that this consciousness exists because it is possible in an exceptional state to enter into it and see things from the view-point of this simultaneity of Time-vision. The third status is that of a processive movement of Consciousness-Force and its successive working out of what has been seen by it in the static vision of the Eternal; this is the Time movement. But it is in one and the same Eternity that this triple status exists and the movement takes place; there are not really two eternities, one an eternity of status, another an eternity of movement, but there are different statuses or positions taken by Consciousness with regard to the one Eternity. For it can see the whole Time development from outside or from above the movement; it can take a stable position within the movement and see the before and the after in a fixed, determined or destined succession; or it can take instead a mobile position in the movement, itself move with it from moment to moment and see all that has happened receding back into the past and all that has to happen coming towards it from the future; or else it may concentrate on the moment it occupies and see nothing but what is in that moment and immediately around or behind it. All these positions can be taken by the being of the Infinite in a simultaneous vision or experience. It can see Time from above and inside Time, exceeding it and not within it; it can see the Timeless develop the Time-movement without ceasing to be timeless, it can embrace the whole movement in a static and a dynamic vision and put out at the same time something of itself into the moment-vision. This simultaneity may seem to the finite consciousness tied to the moment-vision a magic of the Infinite, a magic of Maya; to its own way of perception which needs to limit, to envisage one status only at a time in order to harmonise, it would give a sense of confused and inconsistent unreality. But to an infinite consciousness such an integral simultaneity of vision and experience would be perfectly logical and consistent; all could be elements of a whole-vision capable of being closely related together in a harmonious arrangement, a multiplicity of view bringing out the unity of the thing seen, a diverse presentation of concomitant aspects of the One Reality.
  If there can be this simultaneous multiplicity of selfpresentation of one Reality, we see that there is no impossibility in the coexistence of a Timeless Eternal and a Time Eternity.

2.02 - Evolutionary Creation and the Expectation of a Revelation, #Let Me Explain, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  able states of complexity. Now we see that this paradoxical
  movement is sustained by a prime mover ahead. The branch

2.02 - On Letters, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   According to its reference to Jagrata, Swapna, and Sushupti states of consciousness (the waking, the dream state and the state of condensed consciousness).
   Disciple: What is the Sushupti condition?

2.02 - The Ishavasyopanishad with a commentary in English, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  him. These states of split consciousness are only different states
  of one personality and not separate personalities. This will at
  --
  death we shall not be other. For there are three states of Maya,
  tamasic illusion, rajasic illusion, & sattwic illusion; and each in
  --
  in different aspects or states of universal & infinite consciousness. Why then is the Lord spoken of, unlike Parabrahman,
  in the masculine gender? Because he is now considered in His

2.03 - Karmayogin A Commentary on the Isha Upanishad, #Isha Upanishad, #unset, #Zen
  we shall not be other. There are three states of Maya, tamasic
  illusion, rajasic illusion, sattwic illusion, and each in succession
  --
  the three states of Sleep, Dream and Waking. But this evolution
  has been a downward evolution; he has descended spiritually
  --
  some to another of the three states of consciousness and its
  corresponding state of matter. His vital and physical functions
  --
  five general states of matter to which all its actual or substantial
  manifestations belong. It will also be clear that the names of
  --
  in the world of subtle matter. The five elemental states of gross
  matter are impure; they are formed out of subtle matter by the

2.03 - On Medicine, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   There will always remain different states of development of humanity. It is a fallacy to say that education will do everything. Our civilisation is not an unmixed good. You have only to look at civilised races in Europe. What is the state of affairs in Nazi Germany? It is terrible. It is extremely difficult for an individual to assert himself. All are living in a state of tension. In that tension either the whole structure will break down with a crash, or all life will be crushed out of the people. In both cases the result is a disaster.
   Society is after all reverting to the old system, only in a different form. There is a revival of the old system of monarchy with an aristocracy and the mass. There is the Fhrer or the leader, that is to say, the king. You have thus the sovereign man, his party the aristocracy, the chosen and the general mass. The same is the case with Fascism and Communism. Only the Brahmin class the intellectuals have no place.

2.05 - Renunciation, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  We must be prepared to leave behind on the path not only that which we stigmatise as evil, but that which seems to us to be good, yet is not the one good. There are things which were beneficial, helpful, which seemed perhaps at one time the one thing desirable, and yet once their work is done, once they are attained, they become obstacles and even hostile forces when we are called to advance beyond them. There are desirable states of the soul which it is dangerous to rest in after they have been mastered, because then we do not march on to the wider kingdoms of God beyond. Even divine realisations must not be clung to, if they are not the divine realisation in its utter essentiality and completeness. We must rest at nothing less than the All, nothing short of the utter transcendence. And if we can thus be free in the spirit, we shall find out all the wonder of God's workings; we .shall find that in inwardly renouncing everything we have lost nothing. "By all this abandoned thou shalt come to enjoy the All." For everything is kept for us and restored to us but with a wonderful change and transfiguration into the All-Good and the All-Beautiful, the All-Light and the All-Delight of Him who is for ever pure and infinite and the mystery and the miracle that ceases not through the ages.
  author class:Sri Aurobindo

2.05 - The Cosmic Illusion; Mind, Dream and Hallucination, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This Self is a self of Knowledge, an inner light in the heart; he is the conscious being common to all the states of being and moves in both worlds. He becomes a dream-self and passes beyond this world and its forms of death. . . . There are two planes of this conscious being, this and the other worlds; a third state is their place of joining, the state of dream, and when he stands in this place of their joining, he sees both planes of his existence, this world and the other world. When he sleeps, he takes the substance of this world in which all is and himself undoes and himself builds by his own illumination, his own light; when this conscious being sleeps, he becomes luminous with his self-light. . . . There are no roads nor chariots, nor joys nor pleasures, nor tanks nor ponds nor rivers, but he creates them by his own light, for he is the maker.
  By sleep he casts off his body and unsleeping sees those that sleep; he preserves by his life-breath this lower nest and goes forth, immortal, from his nest; immortal, he goes where he wills, the golden Purusha, the solitary Swan. They say, "the country of waking only is his, for the things which he sees when awake, these only he sees when asleep"; but there he is his own self-light.
  --
  Dream is felt to be unreal, first, because it ceases and has no farther validity when we pass from one status of consciousness to another which is our normal status. But this is not by itself a sufficient reason: for it may well be that there are different states of consciousness each with its own realities; if the consciousness of one state of things fades back and its contents are lost or, even when caught in memory, seem to be illusory as soon as we pass into another state, that would be perfectly normal, but it would not prove the reality of the state in which we now are and the unreality of the other which we have left behind us. If earth circumstances begin to seem unreal to a soul passing into a different world or another plane of consciousness, that would not prove their unreality; similarly, the fact that world-existence seems unreal to us when we pass into the spiritual silence or into some Nirvana, does not of itself prove that the cosmos was all the time an illusion. The world is real to the consciousness dwelling in it, an unconditioned existence is real to the consciousness absorbed in Nirvana; that is all that is established.
  But the second reason for refusing credit to our sleep experience
  --
  If our dreams wore like our waking life an aspect of coherence, each night taking up and carrying farther a past continuous and connected sleep experience as each day takes up again our waking world-experience, then dreams would assume to our mind quite another character. There is therefore no analogy between a dream and waking life; these are experiences quite different in their character, validity, order. Our life is accused of evanescence and often it is accused too, as a whole, of a lack of inner coherence and significance; but its lack of complete significance may be due to our lack or limitation of understanding: actually, when we go within and begin to see it from within, it assumes a complete connected significance; at the same time whatever lack of inner coherence was felt before disappears and we see that it was due to the incoherence of our own inner seeing and knowledge and was not at all a character of life. There is no surface incoherence in life, it rather appears to our minds as a chain of firm sequences, and, if that is a mental delusion, as is sometimes alleged, if the sequence is created by our minds and does not actually exist in life, that does not remove the difference of the two states of consciousness. For in dream the coherence given by an observing inner consciousness is absent, and whatever sense of sequence there is seems to be due to a vague and false imitation of the connections of waking life, a subconscious mimesis, but this imitative sequence is shadowy and imperfect, fails and breaks always and is often wholly absent. We see too that the dream-consciousness seems to be wholly devoid of that control which the waking consciousness exercises to a certain extent over life-circumstances; it has the Nature-automatism of a subconscient construction and nothing of the conscious will and organising force of the evolved mind of the human being.
  Again the evanescence of a dream is radical and one dream has no connection with another; but the evanescence of the waking life is of details, - there is no evidence of evanescence in the connected totality of world-experience. Our bodies perish but
  --
  Sleep like trance opens the gate of the subliminal to us; for in sleep, as in trance, we retire behind the veil of the limited waking personality and it is behind this veil that the subliminal has its existence. But we receive the records of our sleep experience through dream and in dream figures and not in that condition which might be called an inner waking and which is the most accessible form of the trance state, nor through the supernormal clarities of vision and other more luminous and concrete ways of communication developed by the inner subliminal cognition when it gets into habitual or occasional conscious connection with our waking self. The subliminal, with the subconscious as an annexe of itself, - for the subconscious is also part of the behind-the-veil entity, - is the seer of inner things and of supraphysical experiences; the surface subconscious is only a transcriber. It is for this reason that the Upanishad describes the subliminal being as the Dream Self because it is normally in dreams, visions, absorbed states of inner experience that we enter into and are part of its experiences, - just as it describes the superconscient as the Sleep Self because normally all mental or sensory experiences cease when we enter this superconscience.
  For in the deeper trance into which the touch of the superconscient plunges our mentality, no record from it or transcript of its contents can normally reach us; it is only by an especial or an unusual development, in a supernormal condition or through a break or rift in our confined normality, that we can be on the surface conscious of the contacts or messages of the Superconscience. But, in spite of these figurative names of dream-state and sleep-state, the field of both these states of consciousness was clearly regarded as a field of reality no less than that of the waking state in which our movements of perceptive
  444
  --
   consciousness are a record or transcript of physical things and of our contacts with the physical universe. No doubt, all the three states can be classed as parts of an illusion, our experiences of them can be ranked together as constructions of an illusory consciousness, our waking state no less illusory than our dream state or sleep state, since the only true truth or real reality is the incommunicable Self or One-Existence (Atman, Adwaita) which is the fourth state of the Self described by the Vedanta. But it is equally possible to regard and rank them together as three different orders of one Reality or as three states of consciousness in which is embodied our contact with three different grades of self-experience and world-experience.
  If this is a true account of dream experience, dreams can no longer be classed as a mere unreal figure of unreal things temporarily imposed upon our half-unconsciousness as a reality; the analogy therefore fails even as an illustrative support for the theory of the cosmic Illusion. It may be said, however, that our dreams are not themselves realities but only a transcript of reality, a system of symbol-images, and our waking experience of the universe is similarly not a reality but only a transcript of reality, a series or collection of symbol-images. It is quite true that primarily we see the physical universe only through a system of images impressed or imposed on our senses and so far the contention is justified; it may also be admitted that in a certain sense and from one view-point our experiences and activities can be considered as symbols of a truth which our lives are trying to express but at present only with a partial success and an imperfect coherence. If that were all, life might be described as a dream-experience of self and things in the consciousness of the Infinite. But although our primary evidence of the objects of the universe consists of a structure of sense images, these are completed, validated, set in order by an automatic intuition in the consciousness which immediately relates the image with the thing imaged and gets the tangible experience of the object, so that we are not merely regarding or reading a translation or sense-transcript of the reality but looking through the senseimage to the reality. This adequacy is amplified too by the action

2.05 - Universal Love and how it leads to Self-Surrender, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
  His body, His manifestation. How then may we hurt any one? How then may we not love anyone? With the love of God will come, as a sure effect, the love of everyone in the universe. The nearer we approach God, the more do we begin to see that all things are in Him. When the soul succeeds in appropriating the bliss of this supreme love, it also begins to see Him in everything. Our heart will thus become an eternal fountain of love. And when we reach even higher states of this love, all the little differences between the things of the world are entirely lost; man is seen no more as man, but only as God; the animal is seen no more as animal, but as God; even the tiger is no more a tiger but manifestation of God. Thus in this intense state of Bhakti, worship is offered to every one, to every life, and to every being.
  Knowing that Hari, the Lord, is in every being, the wise have thus to manifest unswerving love towards all beings.

2.06 - Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Self seen by the Self in four states of its being. In the pure selfstatus neither consciousness nor unconsciousness as we conceive it can be affirmed about Brahman; it is a state of superconscience absorbed in its self-existence, in a self-silence or a self-ecstasy, or else it is the status of a free Superconscient containing or basing everything but involved in nothing. But there is also a luminous status of sleep-self, a massed consciousness which is the origin of cosmic existence; this state of deep sleep in which yet there is the presence of an omnipotent Intelligence is the seed state or causal condition from which emerges the cosmos; - this and the dream-self which is the continent of all subtle, subjective or supraphysical experience, and the self of waking which is the
  Reality and the Cosmic Illusion
  --
  Being; there is no original dual consciousness implying a Will in the Uncreated to create illusory things out of non-existence, but there is One Being in states of superconscience and consciousness each with its own nature of self-experience. But the lower states, although they have a reality, are yet qualified by a building and seeing of subjective self-constructions which are not the Real.
  The One Self sees itself as many, but this multiple existence is subjective; it has a multiplicity of its states of consciousness, but this multiplicity also is subjective; there is a reality of subjective experience of a real Being, but no objective universe.
  It may be noted, however, that nowhere in the Upanishads is it actually laid down that the threefold status is a condition of illusion or the creation of an unreality; it is constantly affirmed that all this that is, - this universe we are now supposing to
  --
  The Brahman becomes all these beings; all beings must be seen in the Self, the Reality, and the Reality must be seen in them, the Reality must be seen as being actually all these beings; for not only the Self is Brahman, but all is the Self, all this that is is the Brahman, the Reality. That emphatic asseveration leaves no room for an illusory Maya; but still the insistent denial that there is anything other than or separate from the experiencing self, certain phrases used and the description of two of the states of consciousness as sleep and dream may be taken as if they annulled the emphasis on the universal Reality; these passages open the gates to the illusionist idea and have been made the foundation for an uncompromising system of that nature. If we take this fourfold status as a figure of the Self passing from its superconscient state, where there is no subject or object, into a luminous trance in which superconscience becomes a massed consciousness out of which the subjective status of being and the objective come into emergence, then we get according to our view of things either a possible process of illusionary creation or a process of creative Self-knowledge and All-knowledge.
  In fact, if we can judge from the description of the three lower states of Self as the all-wise Intelligence,5 the Seer of the subtle and the Seer of the gross material existence, this sleep state and this dream state seem to be figurative names for the superconscient and the subliminal which are behind and beyond our waking status; they are so named and figured because it is through dream and sleep - or trance which can be regarded
  5 Prajna. Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states very positively that
   there are two planes or states of the being which are two worlds, and that in the dream state one can see both worlds, for the dream state is intermediate between them, it is their joining-plane. This makes it clear that he is speaking of a subliminal condition of the consciousness which can carry in it communications between the physical and the supraphysical worlds. The description of the dreamless sleep state applies both to deep sleep and to the condition of trance in which one enters into a massed consciousness containing in it all the powers of being but all compressed within itself and concentrated solely on itself and, when active, then active in a consciousness where all is the self; this is, clearly, a state admitting us into the higher planes of the spirit normally now superconscient to our waking being.
  Reality and the Cosmic Illusion
  --
  Reality; there need be no perception of an illusionary Maya, there is only an experience of the passage from Mind to what is beyond it so that our mental structure of the universe ceases to be valid and another reality of it is substituted for the ignorant mental knowledge. In this transition it is possible to be awake to all the states of being together in a harmonised and unified experience and to see the Reality everywhere. But if we plunge by a trance of exclusive concentration into a mystic sleep state or pass abruptly in waking Mind into a state belonging to the
  Superconscient, then the mind can be seized in the passage by a sense of the unreality of the cosmic Force and its creations; it passes by a subjective abolition of them into the supreme superconscience. This sense of unreality and this sublimating passage are the spiritual justification for the idea of a world created by Maya; but this consequence is not conclusive, since a larger and more complete conclusion superseding it is possible to spiritual experience.
  --
  It is our first premiss that the Absolute is the supreme reality; but the issue is whether all else that we experience is real or unreal. A distinction is sometimes made between being and existence, and it is supposed that being is real but existence or what manifests as such is unreal. But this can stand only if there is a rigid distinction, a cut and separation between the uncreated Eternal and created existences; the uncreated Being can then be taken as alone real. This conclusion does not follow if what exists is form of Being and substance of Being; it would be unreal only if it were a form of Non-Being, asat, created out of the Void, sunya. The states of existence through which we approach and enter into the Absolute must have their truth, for the untrue and unreal cannot lead into the Real: but also what issues from the Absolute, what the Eternal supports and informs and manifests in itself, must have a reality. There is the unmanifest and there is the manifestation, but a manifestation of the Real must itself be real; there is the Timeless and there is the process of things in Time, but nothing can appear in Time unless it has a basis in the timeless Reality. If my self and spirit are real, my thoughts, feelings, powers of all kinds, which are its expressions, cannot be unreal; my body, which is the form it puts out in itself and which at the same time it inhabits, cannot be a
  Reality and the Cosmic Illusion

2.06 - WITH VARIOUS DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  (To Mahimacharan) "In the light of Vedantic reasoning the world is illusory, unreal as a dream. The Supreme Soul is the Witness-the witness of the three states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. These things are in your line of thought. The waking state is only as real as the dream. Let me tell you a story that agrees with your attitude.
  "There was a farmer who lived in the countryside. He was a real Jnni. He earned his living by farming. He was married, and after many years a son was born to him, whom he named Haru. The parents loved the boy dearly. This was natural, since he was the one precious gem in the family. On account of his religious nature the farmer was loved by the villagers. One day he was working in the field when a neighbour came and told him that Haru had had an attack of cholera. The farmer at once returned home and arranged for treatment for the boy. But Haru died. The other members of the family were grief-stricken, but the farmer acted as if nothing had happened. He consoled his family and told them that grieving was futile. Then he went back to his field. On returning home he found his wife weeping even more bitterly. She said to him: "How heartless you are! You haven't shed one tear for the child.' The farmer replied quietly: 'Shall I tell you why I haven't wept? I had a very vivid dream last night. I dreamt I had become a king; I was the father of eight sons and was very happy with them. Then I woke up. Now I am greatly perplexed. Should I weep for those eight sons or for this one Haru?'
  --
  "But for my part I accept everything: Turiya and also the three states of waking, dream; and deep sleep. I accept all three states. I accept all-Brahman and also my, the universe, and its living beings. If I accepted less I should not get the full weight."
  A DEVOTEE: "The full weight? How is that?" (All laugh.) Qualified Advaita
  --
  MASTER: "But I give the illustration of the sound of a gong: 'tom', t-o-m. It is the merging of the Lila in the Nitya: the gross, the subtle, and the causal merge in the Great Cause; waking, dream, and deep sleep merge in Turiya. The striking of the gong is like the falling of a heavy weight into a big ocean. Waves begin to rise: the Relative rises from the Absolute; the causal, subtle, and gross bodies appear out of the Great Cause; from Turiya emerge the states of deep sleep, dream, and waking. These waves arising from the Great Ocean merge again in the Great Ocean. From the Absolute to the Relative, and from the Relative to the Absolute. Therefore I give the illustration of the gong's sound, 'tom'. I have clearly perceived all these things. It has been revealed to me that there exists an Ocean of Consciousness without limit. From It come all things of the relative plane, and in It they merge again. Millions of Brahmandas rise in that Chidakasa and merge in It again. All this has been revealed to me; I don't know, much about what your books say."
  MAHlMA: "Those to whom such things were revealed did not write the scriptures. They were rapt in their own experiences; when would they write? One needs a somewhat calculating mind to write. Others learnt these things from the seers and wrote the books."

2.07 - I Also Try to Tell My Tale, #The Castle of Crossed Destinies, #Italo Calvino, #Fiction
  And all those cups are nothing but dried-up inkwells waiting for the demons to rise to the surface from the darkness of the ink, the infernal powers, the bogeymen, the hymns to the night, the flowers of evil, the hearts of darkness, or else for the melancholy angel to glide by that distills the humors of the soul and decants states of grace and epiphanies. But no. The Page of Cups depicts me as I bend to peer into the envelope of myself; and I do not look content: it is futile to shake and squeeze, the soul is a dry inkwell. What Devil would accept it in payment to guarantee me the success of my work?
  The Devil should be the card that, in my profession, is most often encountered: is not the raw material of writing all a rising to the surface of hairy claws, cur-like scratching, goat's goring, repressed violences that grope in the darkness? But the thing can be seen in two ways: this demoniacal teeming inside single and plural persons, in deeds done or thought to have been done, in words said or thought to have been said, can be a way of doing and saying that is wrong, and it is best to press everything down below; or else it may instead be what counts most and since it exists it is advisable to allow it to come out; two ways of seeing the thing which then, in turn, are variously mingled, because it could be, for example, that the negative is negative but necessary because without it the positive is not positive, or else the negative may not be negative at all, and the only negative, if anything, is what we believe positive.

2.09 - Memory, Ego and Self-Experience, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Thus the mind has over and above its direct self-consciousness a more or less indirect mutable self-experience which it divides into two parts, its subjective experience of the ever-modified mental states of its personality and its objective experience of the ever-changing environment which seems partly or wholly to cause and is yet at the same time itself affected by the workings of that personality. But all this experience is at bottom subjective; for even the objective and external is only known to mind in the form of subjective impressions.
  Here the part played by Memory increases greatly in importance; for while all that it can do for the mind with regard to its direct self-consciousness is to remind it that it existed and was the same in the past as in the present, it becomes in our differentiated or surface self-experience an important power linking together past and present experiences, past and present personality, preventing chaos and dissociation and assuring the continuity of the stream in the surface mind. Still even here we must not exaggerate the function of memory or ascribe to it that part of the operations of consciousness which really belongs to the activity of other power-aspects of the mental being. It is not the memory alone which constitutes the ego-sense; memory is only a mediator between the sense-mind and the co-ordinating intelligence: it offers to the intelligence the past data of experience which the mind holds somewhere within but cannot carry with it in its running from moment to moment on the surface.
  --
  The importance of Memory becomes apparent in the wellobserved phenomenon of double personality or dissociation of personality in which the same man has two successive or alternating states of his mind and in each remembers and coordinates perfectly only what he was or did in that state of mind and not what he was or did in the other. This can be associated with an organised idea of different personality, for he thinks in one state that he is one person and in the other that he is quite another with a different name, life and feelings. Here it would seem that memory is the whole substance of personality. But, on the other side, we must see that dissociation of memory occurs also without dissociation of personality, as when a man in the state of hypnosis takes up a range of memories and experiences to which his waking mind is a stranger but does not therefore think himself another person, or as when one who has forgotten the past events of his life and perhaps even his name, still does not change his ego-sense and personality. And there is possible too a state of consciousness in which, although there is no gap of memory, yet by a rapid development the whole being feels itself changed in every mental circumstance and the man feels born into a new personality, so that, if it were not for the co-ordinating mind, he would not at all accept his past as belonging to the person he now is, although he remembers perfectly well that it was in the same form of body and same field of mind-substance that it occurred. Mind-sense is the basis, memory the thread on which experiences are strung by the self-experiencing mind: but it is the co-ordinating faculty of mind which, relating together all the material that memory provides and all its linkings of past, present and future, relates them also to an "I" who is the same in all the moments of Time and in spite of all the changes of experience and personality.
  The ego-sense is only a preparatory device and a first basis for the development of real self-knowledge in the mental being.

2.09 - On Sadhana, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
   Disciple: Do they exist really, these states of experience?
   Sri Aurobindo: Why not? If you ask whether they exist on the physical plane it is absurd, because by their very nature they are supraphysical. But they are real.
   Disciple: What I mean is: Do these states of consciousness exist?
   Sri Aurobindo: Of course. The truth is that the mental Purusha can take up any number of positions towards the ultimate Reality and in each position find a certain truth which is as absolute as the truths of the others. Each is thus complete, final. There is, for instance, a plane of Ananda which is self-existent; you remain in that state, you dont care whether the house is falling or your head is breaking, or what is happening to your friends.

2.09 - THE MASTERS BIRTHDAY, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  MASTER: "Man experiences three states of consciousness: waking, dream, and deep sleep. Those who follow the path of knowledge explain away the three states. According to them, Brahman is beyond the three states. It is also beyond the gross, the subtle, and the causal bodies, and beyond the three Guns-sattva, rajas, and tamas. All these are my, like a reflection in a mirror. The reflection is by no means the real substance.
  Brahman alone is the Substance and all else is illusory.
  --
  "Since one cannot easily get rid of the ego, a bhakta does not explain away the states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. He accepts all the states. Further, he accepts the three Guns-sattva, rajas, and tamas. A bhakta sees that God alone has become the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. He also sees that God reveals Himself to His devotees in a tangible form, which is the embodiment of Spirit.
  "The bhakta takes shelter under Vidy-my. He seeks holy company, goes on pilgrimage, and practises discrimination, devotion, and renunciation. He says that, since a man cannot easily get rid of his ego, he should let the rascal remain as the servant of God, the devotee of God.

2.0 - THE ANTICHRIST, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
  unpleasant general feelings; for instance of the states of the _nervus
  sympathicus,_ with the help of the sign language of a religio-moral
  --
  interests; its very existence depended on states of distress; it
  created states of distress in order to make itself immortal.... The
  cancer germ of sin, for instance: the Church was the first to enrich

2.1.02 - Nature The World-Manifestation, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   consciousness and being, itself in its nature modification of consciousness or of being or of both. It cannot be a modification of nothing, it must be a modification of something. If consciousness and being are the first fact, real, eternal, is it not a modification of conscious being, of this real, this eternal something, and itself therefore real? Is it not itself eternal, an eternal continuity of modification, uninterrupted continual or else interrupted and recurringly continual? Must we not then suppose two states of the Brahman, a primary state of eternal unmodified being, a secondary state of eternal continuity of modifications of being, becomings of the Brahman? Does not the Vedantic statement that all comes from the Brahman, exists by it, returns to it, imply that all is eternally contained in it and all are modifications of it?
  In that case, we cannot say that the Eternal Being is absolutely unmodifiable. No, says the Illusionist, the supreme eternal self is not only unmodified, but unmodifiable and nothing else but the eternal unmodifiable self exists really: all else is seeming. How then do all these modifications come about? What is the clue to this mystery, the cause of this magic of illusion?

2.1.03 - Man and Superman, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There are two states of being, two levels or limits between which all existence stands or moves, a highest limit of supreme consciousness, an omniscient Superconscience, a nethermost limit of supreme unconsciousness, an omnipotent Inconscience.
  The secret of consciousness reveals itself only when we perceive these two limits and the movement between them which we call the universe.
  --
  We have then at one end of things a supreme superconscient existence and [at the other] a supreme inconscient existence and between them we have consciousness in the universe; but both are two states of one Being; what is between also is movement of that one Being between its two ends, its two highest and lowest levels of self-manifestation. Ekam evadvitiyam.
  236

2.11 - The Modes of the Self, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The place of the divine Personality in our synthesis will best be considered when we come to speak of the Yoga of devotion; it is enough here to indicate that it has its place and keeps it in the integral Yoga even when liberation has been attained. There are practically three grades of the approach to the personal Deity; the first in which He is conceived with a particular form or particular qualities as the name and form of the Godhead which our nature and personality prefers365; a second in which He is the one real Person, the All-Personality, the Ananta-guna; a third in which we get back to the ultimate source of all idea and fact of personality in that which the Upanishad indicates by the single word Lie without fixing any attributes. It is there that our realisations of the personal and the impersonal Divine meet and become one in the utter Godhead. For the impersonal Divine is not ultimately an abstraction or a mere principle or a mere state or power and degree of being any more than we ourselves are really such abstractions. The intellect first approaches it through such conceptions, but realisation ends by exceeding them. Through the realisation of higher and higher principles of being and states of conscious existence we arrive not at the annullation of all in a sort of positive zero or even an inexpressible state of existence, but at the transcendent Existence itself which is also the Existent who transcends all definition by personality and yet is always that which is the essence of personality.
  When in That we live and have our being, we can possess it in both its modes, the Impersonal in a supreme state of being and consciousness, in an infinite impersonality of self-possessing power and bliss, the Personal by the divine nature acting through the individual soul-form and by the relation between that and its transcendent and universal Self. We may keep even our relation with the personal Deity in His forms and names; if, for instance, our work is predominantly a work of Love it is as the Lord of Love that we can seek to serve and express Him, but we shall have at the same time an integral realisation of Him in all His names and forms and qualities and not mistake the front of Him which is prominent in our attitude to the world for all the infinite Godhead.

2.15 - CAR FESTIVAL AT BALARMS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
  "iva experiences two states of mind. When He is completely absorbed in His own Self, He feels, 'I am He.' In that union neither body nor mind functions. But when He is conscious of His separate ego, He dances, exclaiming, 'Rma! Rma!'
  "That which is unmoving also moves. Just now you are still, but a few moments later the same you will be engaged in action.

2.16 - The Integral Knowledge and the Aim of Life; Four Theories of Existence, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The manifestation of the Being in our universe takes the shape of an involution which is the starting-point of an evolution, - Matter the nethermost stage, Spirit the summit. In the descent into involution there can be distinguished seven principles of manifested being, seven gradations of the manifesting Consciousness of which we can get a perception or a concrete realisation of their presence and immanence here or a reflected experience. The first three are the original and fundamental principles and they form universal states of consciousness to which we can rise; when we do so, we can become aware of supreme planes or levels of fundamental manifestation or selfformulation of the spiritual reality in which is put in front the unity of the Divine Existence, the power of the Divine Consciousness, the bliss of the Divine Delight of existence, - not concealed or disguised as here, for we can possess them in their full independent reality. A fourth principle of supramental truth-consciousness is associated with them; manifesting unity in infinite multiplicity, it is the characteristic power of selfdetermination of the Infinite. This quadruple power of the supreme existence, consciousness and delight constitutes an upper hemisphere of manifestation based on the Spirit's eternal self-knowledge. If we enter into these principles or into any plane of being in which there is the pure presence of the Reality, we find in them a complete freedom and knowledge. The other three powers and planes of being, of which we are even at present aware, form a lower hemisphere of the manifestation, a hemisphere of Mind, Life and Matter. These are in themselves powers of the superior principles; but wherever they manifest in a separation from their spiritual sources, they undergo as a result a phenomenal lapse into a divided in place of the true undivided existence: this lapse, this separation creates a state of limited knowledge exclusively concentrated on its own limited worldorder and oblivious of all that is behind it and of the underlying unity, a state therefore of cosmic and individual Ignorance.
  In the descent into the material plane of which our natural life is a product, the lapse culminates in a total Inconscience out of which an involved Being and Consciousness have to emerge by a gradual evolution. This inevitable evolution first develops, as it is bound to develop, Matter and a material universe; in Matter, Life appears and living physical beings; in Life, Mind manifests and embodied thinking and living beings; in Mind, ever increasing its powers and activities in forms of Matter, the Supermind or Truth-Consciousness must appear, inevitably, by the very force of what is contained in the Inconscience and the necessity in Nature to bring it into manifestation. Supermind appearing manifests the Spirit's self-knowledge and whole knowledge in a supramental living being and must bring about by the same law, by an inherent necessity and inevitability, the dynamic manifestation here of the divine Existence, Consciousness and Delight of existence. It is this that is the significance of the plan and order of the terrestrial evolution; it is this necessity that must determine all its steps and degrees, its principle and its process. Mind, Life and Matter are the realised powers of the evolution and well-known to us; Supermind and the triune aspects of Sachchidananda are the secret principles which are not yet put in front and have still to be realised in the forms of the manifestation, and we know them only by hints and a partial and fragmentary action still not disengaged from the lower movement and therefore not easily recognisable. But their evolution too is part of the destiny of the soul in the Becoming, - there must be a realisation and dynamisation in earth-life and in Matter not only of Mind but of all that is above it, all that has descended indeed but is still concealed in earth-life and Matter.

2.20 - The Infancy and Maturity of ZO, Father and Mother, Israel The Ancient and Understanding, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
  mature or immature, or in states of elevation, refers
  to the differing quantities of Light which are combined

2.20 - The Lower Triple Purusha, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  But because he is a soul and not merely a living body, man can never for long remain satisfied that this first view of his existence, the sole view justified by the external and objective facts of life, is the real truth or the whole knowledge: his subjective being is full of hints and inklings of realities beyond, it is open to the sense of infinity and immortality, it is easily convinced of other worlds, higher possibilities of being, larger fields of experience for the soul. Science gives us the objective truth of existence and the superficial knowledge of our physical and vital being; but we feel that there are truths beyond which possibly through the cultivation of our subjective being and the enlargement of its powers may come to lie more and more open to us. When the knowledge of this world is ours, we are irresistibly impelled to seek for the knowledge of other states of existence beyond, and that is the reason why an age of strong materialism and scepticism is always followed by an age of occultism, of mystical creeds, of new religions and profounder seekings after the Infinite and the Divine. The knowledge of our superficial mentality and the laws of our bodily life is not enough; it brings us always to all that mysterious and hidden depth of subjective existence below and behind of which our surface consciousness is only a fringe or an outer court. We come to see that what is present to our physical senses is only the material shell of cosmic existence and what is obvious in our superficial mentality is only the margin of immense continents which lie behind unexplored. To explore them must be the work of another knowledge than that of physical science or of a superficial psychology.
  Religion is the first attempt of man to get beyond himself and beyond the obvious and material facts of his existence. Its first essential work is to confirm and make real to him his subjective sense of an Infinite on which his material and mental being depends and the aspiration of his soul to come into its presence and live in contact with it. Its function is to assure him too of that possibility of which he has always dreamed, but of which his ordinary life gives him no assurance, the possibility of transcending himself and growing out of bodily life and mortality into the joy of immortal life and spiritual existence. It also confirms in him the sense that there are worlds or planes of existence other than that in which his lot iii now cast, worlds in which this mortality and this subjection to evil and suffering are not the natural state, but rather bliss of immortality is the eternal condition. Incidentally, it gives him a rule of mortal life by which he shall prepare himself for immortality. He is a soul and not a body and his earthly life is a means by which he determines the future conditions of his spiritual being. So much is common to all religions; beyond this we get from them no assured certainty. Their voices vary; some tell us that one life on earth is all we have in which to determine our future existence, deny the past immortality of the soul and assert only its future immortality, threaten it even with the incredible dogma of a future of eternal suffering for those who miss the right path, while others more large and rational affirm successive existences by which the soul grows into the knowledge of the Infinite with a complete assurance for all of ultimate arrival and perfection. Some present the Infinite to us as a Being other than ourselves with whom we can have personal relations, others as an impersonal existence into which our separate being has to merge; some therefore give us as our goal worlds beyond in which we dwell in the presence of the Divine, others a cessation of world-existence by immergence in the Infinite. Most invite us to bear or to abandon earthly life as a trial or a temporary affliction or a vanity and fix our hopes beyond; in some we find a vague hint of a future triumph of the Spirit, the Divine in the body upon this earth, in the collective life of man, and so justify not only the separate hope and aspiration of the individual but the united and sympathetic hope and aspiration of the race. Religion in fact is not knowledge, but a faith and aspiration; it is justified indeed both by an imprecise intuitive knowledge of large spiritual truths and by the subjective experience of souls that have risen beyond the ordinary life, but in itself it only gives us the hope and faith by which we may be induced to aspire to the intimate possession of the hidden tracts and larger realities of the Spirit. That we turn always the few distinct truths and the symbols or the particular discipline of a religion into hard and fast dogmas, is a sign that as yet we are only infants in the spiritual knowledge and are yet far from the science of the Infinite.

2.20 - The Philosophy of Rebirth, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This would happen by the force of a sudden growth of mental consciousness, and at the same time a sheath of subtle mindsubstance might develop and help to individualise this mental consciousness and would then function as an inner body, just as the gross physical form by its organisation at once individualises and houses the animal mind and life. On the former supposition, we must admit that the animal too survives the dissolution of the physical body and has some kind of soul formation which after death occupies other animal forms on earth and finally a human body. For there is little likelihood that the animal soul passes beyond earth and enters other planes of life than the physical and constantly returns here until it is ready for the human incarnation; the animal's conscious individualisation does not seem sufficient to bear such a transfer or to adapt itself to an other-worldly existence. On the second supposition, the power thus to survive the death of the physical body in other states of existence would only arrive with the human stage of the evolution. If, indeed, the soul is not such a constructed personality evolved by Life, but a persistent unevolving reality with a terrestrial life and body as its necessary field, the theory of rebirth in the sense of Pythagorean transmigration would have to be admitted. But if it is a persistent evolving entity capable of passing beyond the terrestrial stage, then the Indian idea of a passage to other worlds and a return to terrestrial birth would become possible and highly probable. But it would not be inevitable; for it might be supposed that the human personality, once capable of attaining to other planes, need not return from them: it would naturally, in the absence of some greater compelling reason, pursue its existence upon the higher plane to which it had arisen; it would have finished with the terrestrial life-evolution. Only if faced with actual evidence of a return to earth, would a larger supposition be compulsory and the admission of a repeated rebirth in human forms become inevitable.
  But even then the developing vitalistic theory need not spiritualise itself, need not admit the real existence of a soul or its immortality or eternity. It might regard the personality still as a phenomenal creation of the universal Life by the interaction of life consciousness and physical form and force, but with a wider, more variable and subtler action of both upon each other and another history than it had at first seen to be possible. It might even arrive at a sort of vitalistic Buddhism, admitting Karma, but admitting it only as the action of a universal Life-force; it would admit as one of its results the continuity of the stream of personality in rebirth by mental association, but might deny any real self for the individual or any eternal being other than this ever-active vital Becoming. On the other hand, it might, obeying a turn of thought which is now beginning to gain a little in strength, admit a universal Self or cosmic Spirit as the primal reality and Life as its power or agent and so arrive at a form of spiritualised vital Monism. In this theory too a law of rebirth would be possible but not inevitable; it might be a phenomenal fact, an actual law of life, but it would not be a logical result of the theory of being and its inevitable consequence.
  --
  If there were no need of self-finding but only an eternal enjoyment of this play of the being of Sachchidananda, - and such an eternal enjoyment is the nature of certain supreme states of conscious existence, - then evolution and rebirth need not have come into operation. But there has been an involution of this unity into the dividing Mind, a plunge into self-oblivion by which the ever-present sense of the complete oneness is lost, and the play of separative difference - phenomenal, because the real unity in difference remains unabridged behind, - comes into the forefront as a dominant reality. This play of difference has found its utmost term of the sense of division by the precipitation of the dividing Mind into a form of body in which it becomes conscious of itself as a separate ego. A dense and solid basis has been laid for this play of division in a world of separative forms of Matter by an involution of the active self-conscience of Sachchidananda into a phenomenal Nescience. It is this foundation in Nescience that makes the division secure because it imperatively opposes a return to the consciousness of unity; but still, though effectively obstructive, it is phenomenal and terminable because within it, above it, supporting it is the all-conscient Spirit and the apparent Nescience turns out to be only a concentration, an exclusive action of consciousness tranced into self-forgetfulness by an abysmal plunge into the absorption of the formative and creative material process. In a phenomenal universe so created, the separative form becomes the foundation and the startingpoint of all its life action; therefore the individual Purusha in working out its cosmic relations with the One has in this physical world to base himself upon the form, to assume a body; it is the body that he must make his own foundation and the startingpoint for his development of the life and mind and spirit in the physical existence. That assumption of body we call birth, and in it only can take place here the development of self and the play of relations between the individual and the universal and all other individuals; in it only can there be the growth by a progressive development of our conscious being towards a supreme recovery of unity with God and with all in God: all the sum of what we call Life in the physical world is a progress of the soul and proceeds by birth into the body and has that for its fulcrum, its condition of action and its condition of evolutionary persistence.
  Birth then is a necessity of the manifestation of the Purusha on the physical plane; but his birth, whether the human or any other, cannot be in this world-order an isolated accident or a sudden excursion of a soul into physicality without any preparing past to it or any fulfilling hereafter. In a world of involution and evolution, not of physical form only, but of conscious being through life and mind to spirit, such an isolated assumption of life in the human body could not be the rule of the individual soul's existence; it would be a quite meaningless and inconsequential arrangement, a freak for which the nature and system of things here have no place, a contrary violence which would break the rhythm of the Spirit's self-manifestation. The intrusion of such a rule of individual soul-life into an evolutionary spiritual progression would make it an effect without cause and a cause without effect; it would be a fragmentary present without a past or a future. The life of the individual must have the same rhythm of significance, the same law of progression as the cosmic life; its place in that rhythm cannot be a stray purposeless intervention, it must be an abiding instrumentation of the cosmic purpose.

2.21 - The Ladder of Self-transcendence, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The character of these higher states of the soul and their greater worlds of spiritual Nature is necessarily difficult to seize. Even the Upanishads and the Veda only shadow them out by figures, hints and symbols. Yet it is necessary to attempt some account of their principles and practical effect so far as they can be grasped by the mind that stands on the border of the two hemispheres. The passage beyond that border would be the culmination, the completeness of the Yoga of self-transcendence by self-knowledge. The soul that aspires to perfection, draws back arid upward, says the Upanishad, from the physical into the vital and from the vital into the mental Purusha, -- from the mental into the knowledge-soul and from that self of knowledge into the bliss Purusha. This self of bliss is the conscious foundation of perfect Sachchidananda and to pass into it completes the soul's ascension. The mind therefore must try to give to itself some account of this decisive transformation of the embodied consciousness, this radiant transfiguration and self-exceeding of our ever-aspiring nature. The description mind can arrive at, can never be adequate to the thing itself, but it may point at least to some indicative shadow of it or perhaps some half-luminous image.
  author class:Sri Aurobindo

2.21 - The Order of the Worlds, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  It should be evident that this demand for physically valid proof of a supraphysical fact is irrational and illogical; it is an irrelevant attitude of the physical mind which assumes that only the objective and physical is fundamentally real and puts aside all else as merely subjective. A supraphysical fact may impinge on the physical world and produce physical results; it may even produce an effect on our physical senses and become manifest to them, but that cannot be its invariable action and most normal character or process. Ordinarily, it must produce a direct effect or a tangible impression on our mind and our life-being, which are the parts of us that are of the same order as itself, and can only indirectly and through them, if at all, influence the physical world and physical life. If it objectivises itself, it must be to a subtler sense in us and only derivatively to the outward physical sense. This derivative objectivisation is certainly possible; if there is an association of the action of the subtle body and its sense-organisation with the action of the material body and its physical organs, then the supraphysical can become outwardly sensible to us. This is what happens, for example, with the faculty called second sight; it is the process of all those psychic phenomena which seem to be seen and heard by the outer senses and are not sensed inwardly through representative or interpretative or symbolic images which bear the stamp of an inner experience or have an evident character of formations in a subtle substance. There can, then, be various kinds of evidence of the existence of other planes of being and communication with them; objectivisation to the outer sense, subtle-sense contacts, mind contacts, life contacts, contacts through the subliminal in special states of consciousness exceeding our ordinary range.
  Our physical mind is not the whole of us nor, even though it dominates almost the whole of our surface consciousness, the best or greatest part of us; reality cannot be restricted to a sole field of this narrowness or to the dimensions known within its rigid circle.
  --
  As contact with the supraphysical is possible, a contact can also take place subjective or objective - or at least objectivised - between our own consciousness and the consciousness of other once embodied beings who have passed into a supraphysical status in these other regions of existence. It is possible also to pass beyond a subjective contact or a subtle-sense perception and, in certain subliminal states of consciousness, to enter actually into other worlds and know something of their secrets. It is the more objective order of other-worldly experience that seized most the imagination of mankind in the past, but it was put by popular belief into a gross-objective statement which unduly assimilated these phenomena to those of the physical world with which we are familiar; for it is the normal tendency of our mind to turn everything into forms or symbols proper to its own kind and terms of experience.
  This has always been, put into its most generalised terms, the normal range and character of other-worldly belief and experience in all periods of the past of the race; names and forms differ, but the general features have been strikingly similar in all countries and ages. What exact value are we to put upon these persistent beliefs or upon this mass of supernormal experience?
  --
  These accounts are evidently built largely by imagination, but there is an element also of intuition and divination, a feeling of what life can be and surely is in some domain of its manifested or its realisable nature; there is also an element of true subliminal contact and experience. But the mind of man translates what he sees or receives or contacts from other-nature into figures proper to his own consciousness; they are his translations of supraphysical realities into his own significant forms and images and through these forms and images he enters into communication with the realities and can make them to a certain degree present and effective. The experience of an after-death continuance of a modified earth-life may be explained as due to this kind of translation; but it is also explainable partly as the creation of a subjective post-mortal state in which he still lives in figures of habitual experience before he enters into otherworldly realities, partly as a passage through life-worlds where the type of things expresses itself in formations originative of those to which he was attached in his earthly body or akin to them and therefore exercises a natural attraction on the vital being after its exit from the body. But, apart from these subtler life-states, the traditional accounts of other-worldly existence contain, though as a rarer more elevated element not included in the popular notion of these things, a higher grade of states of existence which are clearly of a mental and not a vital character and others founded on some spiritual-mental principle; these higher principles are formulated in states of being into which our inner experience can rise or the soul enter. The principle of gradation we have accepted is therefore justified provided we recognise that it is one way of organising our experience and that other ways proceeding from other view-points are possible.
  For a classification can always be valid from the principle and view-point adopted by it while from other principles and viewpoints another classification of the same things can be equally valid. But for our purpose the system we have chosen is of the greatest value because it is fundamental and answers to a truth of the manifestation which is of the utmost practical importance; it helps us to understand our own constituted existence and the course of the involution and the evolutionary motion of Nature.

2.24 - The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  But at first this consciousness may confine itself to a status of being separate from the action of our ignorant surface nature, observing it, limiting itself to knowledge, to a seeing of things with a spiritual sense and vision of existence. For action it may still depend upon the mental, vital, bodily instruments, or it may allow them to act according to their own nature and itself remain satisfied with self-experience and self-knowledge, with an inner liberation, an eventual freedom: but it may also and usually does exercise a certain authority, governance, influence on thought, life movement, physical action, a purifying uplifting control compelling them to move in a higher and purer truth of themselves, to obey or be an instrumentation of an influx of some diviner Power or a luminous direction which is not mental but spiritual and can be recognised as having a certain divine character, - the inspiration of a greater Self or the comm and of the Ruler of all being, the Ishwara. Or the nature may obey the psychic entity's intimations, move in an inner light, follow an inner guidance. This is already a considerable evolution and amounts to a beginning at least of a psychic and spiritual transformation. But it is possible to go farther; for the spiritual being, once inwardly liberated, can develop in mind the higher states of being that are its own natural atmosphere and bring down a supramental energy and action which are proper to the Truth-consciousness; the ordinary mental instrumentation, lifeinstrumentation, physical instrumentation even, could then be entirely transformed and become parts no longer of an ignorance however much illumined, but of a supramental creation which would be the true action of a spiritual truth-consciousness and knowledge.
  At first this truth of the spirit and of spirituality is not selfevident to the mind; man becomes mentally aware of his soul as something other than his body, superior to his normal mind and life, but he has no clear sense of it, only a feeling of some of its effects on his nature. As these effects take a mental form or a life form, the difference is not firmly and trenchantly drawn, the soul perception does not acquire a distinct and assured independence.

2.24 - The Message of the Gita, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  "There are always these three eternal states of the Divine
  Being. There is always and for ever this one eternal immutable self-existence which is the basis and support of existent things.
  --
  "This conscient soul in us can adopt either of these three states of the Spirit. Man can live here in the mutability of Nature and in that alone. Ignorant of his real self, ignorant of the Godhead within him, he knows only Nature: he sees her as a mechanical executive and creative Force and sees himself and others as her creations, - egos, separated existences in her universe. It is thus, superficially, that he now lives and, while it is so and until he exceeds this outer consciousness and knows what is within him, all his thought and science can only be a shadow of light thrown upon screens and surfaces. This ignorance is possible, is even imposed, because the Godhead within is hidden by the veil of his own power. His greater reality is lost to our view by the completeness with which he has identified himself in a partial appearance with his creations and images and absorbed
  580

2.26 - Samadhi, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Intimately connected with the aim of the Yoga of Knowledge which must always be the growth, the ascent or the withdrawal into a higher or a divine consciousness not now normal to us, is the importance attached to the phenomenon of Yogic trance, to Samadhi. It is supposed that there are states of being which can only be gained in trance; that especially is to be desired in which all action of awareness is abolished and there is no consciousness at all except the pure supramental immersion in immobile, timeless and infinite being. By passing away in this trance the soul departs into the silence of the highest Nirvana without possibility of return into any illusory or inferior state of existence. Samadhi is not so all-important in the Yoga of devotion, but it still has its place there as the swoon of being into which the ecstasy of divine love casts the soul. To enter into it is the supreme step of the ladder of Yogic practice in Rajayoga and Hathayoga. What then is the nature of Samadhi or the utility of its trance in an integral Yoga? It is evident that where our objective includes the possession of the Divine in life, a state of cessation of life cannot be the last consummating step or the highest desirable condition: Yogic trance cannot be an aim, as in so many Yogic systems, but only a means, and a means not of escape from the waking existence, but to enlarge and raise the whole seeing, living and active consciousness.
  The importance of Samadhi rests upon the truth which modern knowledge is rediscovering, but which has never been lost in Indian psychology, that only a small part whether of world-being or of our own being comes into our ken or into our action. The rest is hidden behind in subliminal reaches of being which descend into the profoundest depths of the subconscient and rise to highest peaks of superconscience, or which surround the little field of our waking self with a wide circumconscient existence of which our mind and sense catch only a few indications. The old Indian psychology expressed this fact by dividing consciousness into three provinces, waking state, dream-state, sleep-state, jagrat, svarna, susupti; and it supposed in the human being a waking self, a dream-self, a sleep-self, with the supreme or absolute self of being, the fourth or Turiya, beyond, of which all these are derivations for the enjoyment of relative experience in the world.
  --
  Samadhi or Yogic trance retires to increasing depths according as it draws farther and farther away from the normal or waking state and enters Into degrees of consciousness less and less communicable to the waking mind, less and less ready to receive a summons from the waking world. Beyond a certain point the trance becomes complete and it is then almost or quite impossible to awaken or call back the soul that has receded into them; it can only come back by its own will or at most by a violent shock of physical appeal dangerous to the system owing to the abrupt upheaval of return. There are said to be supreme states of trance ill which the soul persisting for too long a time cannot return; for it loses its hold on the cord which binds it to the consciousness of life, and the body is left, maintained indeed in its set position, not dead by dissolution, but incapable of recovering the ensouled life which had inhabited it. Finally, the Yogin acquires at a certain stage of development the power of abandoning his body definitively without the ordinary phenomena of death, by an act of will,500 or by a process of withdrawing the pranic life-force through the gate of the upward life-current (udana), opening for it a way through the mystic brahmaradhra in the head. By departure from life in the state of Samadhi he attains directly to that higher status of being to which he aspires.
  In the dream-state itself there are an infinite series of depths, from the lighter recall is easy and the world of the physical senses is at the doors, though for the moment shut out; in the deeper it becomes remote and less able to break in upon the inner absorption, the mind has entered into secure depths of trance. There is a complete difference between Samadhi and normal sleep, between the dream-state of Yoga and the physical state of dream. The latter belongs to the physical mind; in the former the mind proper and subtle is at work liberated from the immixture of the physical mentality. The dreams of the physical mind are an incoherent jumble made up partly of responses to vague touches from the physical world round which the lower mind-faculties disconnected from the will and reason, the buddhi, weave a web of wandering phantasy, partly of disordered associations from the brain-memory, partly of reflections from the soul travelling on the mental plane, reflections which are, ordinarily, received without intelligence or coordination, wildly distorted in the reception and mixed up confusedly with the other dream elements, with brain-memories and fantastic responses to any sensory touch from the physical world. In the Yogic dream-state, on the other hand, the mind is in clear possession of itself, though not of the physical world, works coherently and is able to use either its ordinary will and intelligence with a concentrated power or else the higher will and intelligence of the more exalted planes of mind. It withdraws from experience of the outer world, it puts its seals upon the physical senses and their doors of communication with material things; but everything that is proper to itself, thought, reasoning, reflection, vision, it can continue to execute with an increased purity and power of sovereign concentration free from the distractions and unsteadiness of the waking mind. It can use too its will and produce upon itself or upon its environment mental, moral and even physical effects which may continue and have their after-consequences on the waking state subsequent to the cessation of the trance.

2.26 - The Ascent towards Supermind, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  A supramental change of the whole substance of the being and therefore necessarily of all its characters, powers, movements takes place when the involved supermind in Nature emerges to meet and join with the supramental light and power descending from Supernature. The individual must be the instrument and first field of the transformation; but an isolated individual transformation is not enough and may not be wholly feasible. Even when achieved, the individual change will have a permanent and cosmic significance only if the individual becomes a centre and a sign for the establishment of the supramental Consciousness-Force as an overtly operative power in the terrestrial workings of Nature, - in the same way in which thinking Mind has been established through the human evolution as an overtly operative power in Life and Matter. This would mean the appearance in the evolution of a gnostic being or Purusha and a gnostic Prakriti, a gnostic Nature. There must be an emergent supramental Consciousness-Force liberated and active within the terrestrial whole and an organised supramental instrumentation of the Spirit in the life and the body, - for the body consciousness also must become sufficiently awake to be a fit instrument of the workings of the new supramental Force and its new order. Till then any intermediate change could be only partial or insecure; an overmind or intuitive instrumentation of Nature could be developed, but it would be a luminous formation imposed on a fundamental and environmental Inconscience. A supramental principle and its cosmic operation once established permanently on its own basis, the intervening powers of Overmind and spiritual Mind could found themselves securely upon it and reach their own perfection; they would become in the earth-existence a hierarchy of states of consciousness rising out of Mind and physical life to the supreme spiritual level. Mind and mental humanity would remain as one step in the spiritual evolution; but other degrees above it would be there formed and accessible by which the embodied mental being, as it became ready, could climb into the gnosis and change into an embodied supramental and spiritual being. On this basis the principle of a divine life in terrestrial Nature would be manifested; even the world of ignorance and inconscience might discover its own submerged secret and begin to realise in each lower degree its divine significance.

2.28 - Rajayoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This arrangement of the psychic body is reproduced in the physical with the spinal column as a rod and the ganglionic centres as the Chakras which rise up from the bottom of the column, where the lowest is attached, to the brain and find their summit in the brahmarandhra at the top of the skull. These Chakras or lotuses, however, are in physical man closed or only partly open, with the consequence that only such powers and only so much of them are active in him as are sufficient for his ordinary physical life, and so much mind and soul only is at play as will accord with its needs. This is the real reason, looked at from the mechanical point of view, why the embodied soul seems so dependent on the bodily and nervous life, -- though the dependence is neither so complete nor so real as it seems. The whole energy of the soul is not at play in the physical body and life, the secret powers of mind are not awake in it, the bodily and nervous energies predominate. But all the while the supreme energy is there, asleep; it is said to be coiled up and slumbering like a snake, -- therefore it is called the kundalini sakti, -- in the lowest of the Chakras, in the muladhara. When by Pranayama the division between the upper and lower Prana currents in the body is dissolved, this Kundalini is struck and awakened, it uncoils itself and begins to rise upward like a fiery serpent breaking open each lotus as it ascends until the shakti meets Put less symbolically, in more philosophical though perhaps less profound language, this means that the real energy of our being is lying asleep and inconscient in the depths of our vital system, and is awakened by the practice of Pranayama. In its expansion it opens up all the centres of our psychological being in which reside the powers and the consciousness of what would now be called perhaps our subliminal self; therefore as each centre of power and consciousness is opened up, we get access to successive psychological planes and are able to put ourselves in communication with the worlds or cosmic states of being which correspond to them; all the psychic powers abnormal to physical man, but natural to the soul develop in us. Finally, at the summit of the ascension, this arising and expanding' energy meets with the superconscient self which sits concealed behind and above our physical and mental existence; this meeting leads to a profound Samadhi of union in which our waking consciousness loses itself in the superconscient. Thus by the thorough and unremitting practice of Pranayama the Hathayogin attains in his own way the psychic and spiritual results which are pursued through more directly psychical and spiritual methods in other Yogas. The one mental aid which he conjoins with it, is the use of the Mantra, sacred syllable, name or mystic formula which is of so much importance in the Indian systems of Yoga and common to them all. This secret of the power of the Mantra, the six Chakras and the Kundalini shakti is one of the central truths of all that complex psycho-physical science and practice of which the Tantric philosophy claims to give us a rationale and the most complete compendium of methods. All religions and disciplines in India which use largely the psycho-physical method, depend more or less upon it for their practices.
  Rajayoga also uses the Pranayama and for the same principal psychic purposes as the Hathayoga, but being in its whole principle a psychical system, it employs it only as one stage in the series of its practices and to a very limited extent, for three or four large utilities. It does not start with Asana and Pranayarna, but insists first on a moral purification of the mentality. This preliminary is of supreme importance; without it the course of the rest of the Rajayoga is likely to be troubled, marred and full of unexpected mental, moral and physical perils.517 This moral purification is divided in the established system under two heads, five Yamas and five Niyamas. The first are rules of moral self-control in conduct such as truth-speaking, abstinence from injury or killing, from theft, etc.; but in reality these must be regarded as merely certain main indications of the general need of moral self-control and purity. Yama is, more largely, any self-discipline by which the rajasic egoism and its passions and desires in the human being are conquered and quieted into perfect cessation. The object is to create a moral calm, a void of the passions, and so prepare for the death of egoism in the rajasic human being. The Niyamas are equally a discipline of the mind by regular practices of which the highest is meditation on the divine Being, and their object is to create a sattwic calm, purity and preparation for concentration upon which the secure pursuance of the rest of the Yoga can be founded.
  --
  Here, it might be supposed, the whole action and aim of Rajayoga must end. For its action is the stilling of the waves of consciousness, its manifold activities, cittavrtti, first, through a habitual replacing of the turbid rajasic activities by the quiet and luminous sattwic, then, by the stilling of all activities; and its object is to enter into silent communion of soul and unity with the Divine. As a matter of fact we find that the system of Rajayoga includes other objects, -- such as the practice and use of occult powers, -- some of which seem to be unconnected with and even inconsistent with its main purpose. These powers or Siddhis are indeed frequently condemned as dangers and distractions which draw away the Yogin from his sole legitimate aim of divine union. On the way, therefore, it would naturally seem as if they ought to be avoided; and once the goal is reached, it would seem that they are then frivolous and superfluous. But Rajayoga is a psychic science and it includes the attainment of all the higher states of consciousness and their powers by which the mental being rises towards the superconscient as well as its ultimate and supreme possibility of union with the Highest. Moreover, the Yogin, while in the body, is not always mentally inactive and sunk in Samadhi, and an account of the powers and states which are possible to him on the higher planes of his being is necessary to the completeness of the science.
  These powers and experiences belong, first, to the vital and mental planes above this physical in which we live, and are natural to the soul in the subtle body; as the dependence on the physical body decreases, these abnormal activities become possible and even manifest themselves without being sought for. They can be acquired and fixed by processes which the science gives, and their use then becomes subject to the will; or they can be allowed to develop of themselves and used only when they come, or when the Divine within moves us to use them; or else, even though thus naturally developing and acting, they may be rejected in a single-minded devotion to the one supreme goal of the Yoga. Secondly, there are fuller, greater powers belonging to the supramental planes which are the very powers of the Divine in his spiritual and supramentally ideative being. These cannot be acquired at all securely or integrally by personal effort, but can only come from above, or else can become natural to the man if and when he ascends beyond mind arid lives in the spiritual being, power, consciousness and ideation. They then become, not abnormal and laboriously acquired Siddhis, but simply the very nature and method of his action, if he still continues to be active in the world-existence.

2.3.02 - Mantra and Japa, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There is not necessarily any difference of Force.1 Usually the Mothers name has the full power in it; but in certain states of consciousness the double Name may have a special effect.
    The correspondent asked whether there is any difference of Force when one repeats only the Mother's name and when one repeats both the names of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother together.Ed.

2.3.02 - The Supermind or Supramental, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  (5) If we regard Vaikuntha or Goloka each as the world of a Divinity, Vishnu or Krishna, we would be naturally led to seek its place or its origin in the Overmind plane. The Overmind is the plane of the highest worlds of the Gods. But Vaikuntha and Goloka are human conceptions of states of being that are beyond humanity. Goloka is evidently a world of Love, Beauty and Ananda full of spiritual radiances (the cow is the symbol of spiritual light) of which the souls there are the keepers or possessors, Gopas and Gopis. It is not necessary to assign any single plane to this manifestation - in fact there can be a reflection or possession of it or of its conditions on any plane of consciousness - the mental, vital or even the subtle physical plane. The explanation of it which you mention is not therefore excluded, it is quite feasible.
  (6) It is not possible to situate Nirvana as a world or plane, for the Nirvana push is to a withdrawal from world and worldvalues; it is therefore a state of consciousness or rather of superconsciousness without habitation or level. There is more than one kind of Nirvana (extinction or dissolution) possible. Man being a mental being in a body, manomaya purus.a, makes this attempt at retreat from the cosmos through the spiritualised mind, he cannot do otherwise and it is this that gives it the appearance of an extinction or dissolution, laya, nirvan.a; for extinction of the mind and all that depends on it including the separative ego in something Beyond is the natural way, almost the indispensable way for such a withdrawal. In a more affirmative Yoga seeking transcendence but not withdrawal there would not be this indispensability, for there would be the way already alluded to of self-exceeding or transformation of the mental being. But it is possible also to pass to that through a certain experience of Nirvana, an absolute silence of mind and cessation of its activities, constructions, representations which can be so complete that not only to the silent mind but also to the passive senses the whole world is emptied of its solidity and reality and things appear only as unsubstantial forms without

2.3.03 - The Overmind, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Person, but a state. The Person is the Existent, the Conscious, the Blissful; consciousness, existence, bliss taken as separate things are only states of his being. But in fact the two (personal being and eternal state) are inseparable and are one reality.
  The Overmind and the World

23.12 - A Note On The Mother of Dreams, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   The Rishis spoke of three worlds, three states of being and consciousness. The waking state, the dream state and the sleep state. The waking state means the physical consciousness, the material reality, earth. The dream state means the inner consciousness, the world of subtler formations. It is called the mid-world. Further beyond is the sleep-world, where all outer formations and movements are stilled into their fundamental essences. These are the three stages of the manifestation or evolution of a transcendent Fourth beyond (Turiya). The Transcendent first throws itself out into essential types, original norms of creation, the generic pattern. It is concentrated being and consciousness (Prajna). It is the matrix of creation out of which sprout forth seedlings of an infinite variety. The seeds burst forth and scatter themselves in multiple forms and in multiple directions, pursuing all lines and possibilities of growth and fruition; it is called Hiranyagarbha, the golden embryo. Last comes the actuality; the physical reality into which all the possibilities embody themselves one by one, become earthly facts and figures. It has been named Virat, the Vast, the Concrete.
   The Mother of Dreams then is the divine intermediary, the supreme creative Force, the' Mother of Energy. The mighty dynamo fabricating and throwing out endless streams of possible and impossible things. Worlds and gods and men and creatures are all her children - built with her flesh and blood, inspired by her breath, moved by her gesture. But she is the Mother not only of the Shining Ones, but also of the Dark Ones. Calamity and prosperity, rise and fall are cadences in her enchanting symphony. She holds them all in her bosom and carries them forward through a variegated play, a chequered progressive evolution towards their highest and supreme Destiny upon this earth.

2.4.02.08 - Contact with the Divine, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  parts of the being that are still unconscious or perhaps states of
  unconsciousness come. For instance, people write letters to each

2.4.02 - Bhakti, Devotion, Worship, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  It is no part of this Yoga to dry up the heart; but the emotions must be turned towards the Divine. There may be short periods in which the heart is quiescent, turned away from the ordinary feelings and waiting for the inflow from above; but such states are not states of dryness but of silence and peace. The heart in this Yoga should in fact be the main centre of concentration until the consciousness rises above.
  ***
  --
  As for not having it [contact] always, it is because there are parts of the being that are still unconscious or perhaps states of unconsciousness come. For instance, people write letters to each other, but they are quite unconscious that they are exchanging forces in doing so. You have become conscious of it, because of the development of your inner consciousness by Yogaand yet there are likely to be times when you still write from the external awareness only, and then you will see the words only without being aware of what is behind. So owing to the development of the inner consciousness, you are able to understand what contacts are and get the true contact, but at times the external consciousness may be stronger than the inner one, then you are no longer (for the time being) able to get the contact.
  ***

3.00.2 - Introduction, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  are by no means always serious cases, i.e., grave states of illness. There
  are of course such cases among them, but there are also mild neuroses, or

3.02 - The Psychology of Rebirth, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  I refer to states of possession in which the possession is caused
  by something that could perhaps most fitly be described as an

3.03 - The Four Foundational Practices, #The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, #Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, #Buddhism
  There is an infinite variety of stimuli to which you may react: attraction may arise at the sight of a beautiful man or woman, anger at a driver that cuts in front of you, disgust or sorrow at a ruined environment, anxiety and worry about a situation or person, and so on. Every situation and reaction should be recognized as a dream. Do not just slap the sentence onto a piece of your experience; try to actually feel the dream-like quality of your inner life. When this assertion is actually felt, not just thought, the relationship to the situation changes, and the tight, emotional grip on phenomena relaxes. The situation becomes clearer and more spacious, and grasping and aversion are directly recognized as the uncomfortable constrictions that they truly are. This is a powerful antidote to the state of near possession and obsession that negative emotional states create. Direct and certain experience of using this practice to untie the knot of negative emotion is the beginning of the real practice of lucidity and flexibility that leads to consequent freedom. With consistent practice, even strong states of anger, depression, and other states of unhappiness can be released. When they are, they dissolve.
  The teachings generally refer to this particular practice as a method to give up attachments.

3.09 - Of Silence and Secrecy, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
  At a nigger camp meeting in United states of America, these
  pseudo-human brutesmany of them scarcely superior to their

3.0 - THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE, #Twilight of the Idols, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
  An incalculable number of complete states of energy have existed,
  but these have not been infinitely different: for if they had been,
  --
  recurs: activity is eternal, the number of the products and states of
  energy is limited.
  --
  We must not strive after distant and unknown states of bliss and
  blessings and acts of grace, but we must live so that we would fain

31.08 - The Unity of India, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
   On the other hand, if we look at India we find that the whole of India possesses a well-defined and distinct geographical outline. But the boundaries of the separate states of India are not so well-marked; their geographical features do not look well-built and complete wholes. No doubt, each of them has its own speciality, but their collective beings do not stand out prominently in contrast to one another. If we think of Asia in connection with India, then the difference between India and Europe will be clearly noticed. In the case of India the visualisation of a single indivisible state is easy and natural, but the same cannot be said of the whole of Asia; the countries of Asia like those of Europe have their different ways of life and modes of being. Europe has a similarity to Asia, but not to India.
   If India is to be compared at all then the object of comparison cannot be Europe but a country of Europe which is called a 'nation'. India cannot be classed with Europe, but Great Britain, for example, can be mentioned for comparison. Britain is a homogeneous country or nation. Its collective being has a separate living individuality. As in Great Britain there are Scotland, Wales and England, so in India the separate states like Bengal, Maharashtra and the Punjab are the different limbs of the collective being of India. But the thing is that just as Asia is far larger than Europe, the states of India are larger than the European states. To European eyes China and India appear like continents. Not only is India larger in size but from the point of diversity also India displays a greater profusion that is almost endless. Those very differences and diversities that are to be found on a smaller scale within any European country are there in India on a larger scale. The divisions which are considered insignificant and therefore overlooked in a nation of Europe stand prominently here because of their amplitude, their immensity in size; such divisions too are accepted as somehow useful.
   So it comes to this that the unity of India is vaster and more complex than the unity of any of the nations of Europe. But for that reason it cannot be concluded that this unity is no unity. Rather we know that science is proving the fact that the higher the being rises in the scale of evolution the greater complexity does its individuality acquire. Such diversity and variety are visible in India because a higher and greater synthesis is thus worked out or about to be wrought in a distinct manner and on a larger scale.
   The collective union of Europe, its living truth, is not the unity that exists among the countries or nations of Europe. Of course an attempt is being made to bring about a sort of oneness through the length and breadth of Europe; but that oneness is still a conception, still an ideal, not even a living ideal yet. The inner being has not as yet become conscious and alert about its own personality. But in the case of India the awakening of her inner being has stood by far the first. India's personality of collective existence is indeed a living truth. The unity of the whole of India is, as it were, axiomatic and God-given. The oneness that is trying to become awake and conscious in India is not the unity and the personality of the whole of India, but rather, the oneness of the different personalities of the states of India. Therefore we notice contrary ways of life-manifestation in India and in Europe. In Europe the collective personality has awakened and the sense of unity has been established first within the limited areas of different countries. Having established these two things Europe is progressing towards the larger unity in its totality. The trend of Europe is the gradual ascension to the total consciousness of the inner being from the consciousness of the external physical parts. But in India what happened is the gradual descent to the external physical parts from the total consciousness of the inner subtle being. India first discovered her own inner being. This being of India is ever awake, so in India the manifestation of that being and the descent of her power are making the different states gradually become conscious and discover their own individualities. Perhaps Europe has had to start from a political union or oneness in order gradually and finally to attain to the unity-of the soul, and achieve her own individuality. India has long acquired the unity of the soul and this self-conscious individuality is the last word of India's oneness.
   ***

3.2.02 - The Veda and the Upanishads, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  One thing must be said that an incarnation is not the object of this Yoga; it is only a condition or means towards the object. The one and only aim we have before us is to bring down the supramental consciousness and the supramental Truth into the world; the Truth and nothing but the Truth is our aim, and if we cannot embody this Truth, a hundred incarnations do not matter. But to bring down the true supramental and nothing but the true supramental, to escape from all mental mixture is not an easy matter. The mere descent of the suns into the centres, even of all the seven suns into all the seven centres is only the seed; it is not the thing itself done and finished. One may feel the descent of suns, one may have the attempt, the beginning of an incarnation, and yet in the end one may fail if there is a flaw in the nature or a failure to pass through all the ordeals and satisfy all the hard conditions of the perfect spiritual success. Not only the whole mental, vital and physical nature of the ignorant human being has to be overcome and transformed, but also the three states of mental consciousness which intervene between the human and the supramental and like all mind are capable of admitting great and capital errors. Till then there may be descents of supramental influence, light, power, Ananda, but the supramental Truth cannot be possessed, organised, put in possession of the whole nature. One must not think before that that one possesses the supermind; for that is a delusion which would prevent the fulfilment.
  One thing more. The more intense the experiences that come, the higher the forces that descend, the greater become the possibilities of deviation and error. For the very intensity and the very height of the force excites and aggrandises the movements of the lower nature and raises up in it all the opposing elements in their full force, but often in the disguise of truth, wearing a mask of plausible justification. There is needed a great patience, calm, sobriety, balance, an impersonal detachment and sincerity free from all taint of ego or personal human desire. There must be no attachment to any idea of ones own, to any experience, to any kind of imagination, mental building or vital demand; the light of discrimination must always play to detect these things, however fair or plausible they may seem. Otherwise the Truth will have no chance of establishing itself in its purity in the nature.
  --
  It is quite probable that the sloka [Katha Upanishad 2.3.4] refers to a going up into higher worlds of felicity and light and this can be called a liberation or release. In later times the idea grew strong that from all these higher worlds return is inevitable and it is only release from all cosmic existence that gives mukti. The Vedic Rishis seem to have looked to an ascent into a divine luminous world or state above the falsehood and ignorance. In the Upanishad the sun is the symbol of the supramental Truth and it is said that those who pass into it may return but those who pass through the gates of the Sun itself do not; possibly this means that an ascent into the supermind itself above the golden lid of overmind was the definitive liberation. The Veda speaks of the Truth hidden by a Truth where the Sun looses his horses from his car and there all the myriad rays are drawn together into One and that was considered the goal. The Isha Upanishad also speaks of the golden lid hiding the face of the Truth by removing which the Law of the Truth is seen and the highest knowledge in which the One Purusha is known (soham asmi) is described as the kalyatama form of the Sun. All this seems to refer to the supramental states of which the Sun is the symbol.
  ***

3.2.07 - Tantra, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  I am afraid the attempt to apply scientific analogies to spiritual or Yogic things leads more often to confusion than to anything else,just as it creates confusion if thrust upon philosophy also. Kundalini coiled in the Muladhara is asleep, plunged in the inconscience, supporting the play of the Ignorance. Naturally if she heaves up from there, there may be a disturbance or disruption of the states of the Ignorance, but that would be rather a salutary upheaval and helpful to the purpose of Yoga. Kundalini becoming conscious rises up to meet the Brahman in the thousand-petalled lotus. A mere ejection from her uniting with the higher consciousness would hardly lead to a radical change. Of course she need not abandon connection with the physical centre altogether; but she is no longer coiled there: if she were, the great occult force residing there would not be liberated. The usual image of her risen and awake is, I believe, that of a serpent standing erect, the tail touching the lowest centre, the head the highest at the Brahmarandhra. Thus with all the centres open and active she unites the two poles, superior and inferior, of the being, the spirit with Matter.
  ***

3.2.2 - Sleep, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  A long unbroken sleep is necessary because there are just ten minutes of the whole into which one enters into a true resta sort of Sachchidananda immobility of the consciousness and that it is which really restores the system. The rest of the time is spent first in travelling through various states of consciousness towards that and then coming out of it back towards the waking state. This fact of the ten minutes true rest has been noted by medical men, but of course they know nothing about Sachchidananda!
  ***
  --
  According to a recent medical theory one passes in sleep through many phases until one arrives at a state in which there is absolute rest and silenceit lasts only for ten minutes, the rest of the time is taken up by travelling to that and travelling back again to the waking state. I suppose the ten minutes sleep can be called suupti in the Brahman or Brahmaloka, the rest is svapna or passage through other worlds (planes or states of conscious existence). It is these ten minutes that restore the energies of the being, and without it sleep is not refreshing.
  According to the Mothers experience and knowledge one passes from waking through a succession of states of sleep consciousness which are in fact an entry and passage into so many worlds and arrives at a pure Sachchidananda state of complete rest, light and silence; afterwards one retraces ones way till one reaches the waking physical state. It is this Sachchidananda period that gives sleep all its restorative value. These two accounts, the scientific and the occult-spiritual, are practically identical with each other. But the former is only a recent discovery of what the occult-spiritual knowledge knew long ago.
  Peoples ideas of sound sleep are absolutely erroneous. What they call sound sleep is merely a plunge of the outer consciousness into a complete subconscience. They call that a dreamless sleep; but it is only a state in which the surface sleep consciousness which is a subtle prolongation of the outer still left active in sleep itself is unable to record the dreams and transmit them to the physical mind. As a matter of fact the whole sleep is full of dreams. It is only during the brief time in which one is in the Brahmaloka that the dreams cease.

3.2.3 - Dreams, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  It [remembering ones dreams] depends on the connection between the two states of consciousness at the time of waking. Usually there is a turnover of the consciousness in which the dream state disappears more or less abruptly, effacing the fugitive impression made by the dream events (or rather their transcription) on the physical sheath. If the waking is more composed (less abrupt) or, if the impression is very strong, then the memory remains at least of the last dream. In the last case one may remember the dream for a long time, but usually after getting up the dream memories fade away. Those who want to remember their dreams sometimes make a practice of lying quiet and tracing backwards, recovering the dreams one by one. When the dream state is very light, one can remember more dreams than when it is heavy.
  ***

37.06 - Indra - Virochana and Prajapati, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08, #unset, #Zen
   Thereafter, Indra was initiated by Prajapati into the last secret, he was told about the All-Conscious Self or Reality that stands as on a peak above the states of waking, dream or deep sleep. This fourth or supreme status of the Self is the Reality that abides beyond all Ignorance, on the other shore of Darkness; for our waking, dream and deep sleep are no other than states of Ignorance and Darkness. It is this state of superconscient Being that is the true Immortality and Fearlessness.
   The Asura had remained contented with the first steps of the true Knowledge. Their strength is the strength of the body, to them the strength of arms is the one source of strength. Quick is their gain and early their victory. The effort of the gods is long. Their desire is for the true Truth, the integral Truth, not any half-truths or anything that masquerades as the Truth. Their victory is in the end, they have to wait for it long. What they have to acquire is not the mere strength of body, but the power of the Self in its integrity. And why this insistence on a hundred and one years? A hundred denotes perfection; one added to it makes the perfection perfect. The mystery of the other figures remains still a mystery.

3.7.1.04 - Rebirth and Soul Evolution, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There is too the kindred idea, behind which a truth obscurely glimmers, that the soul of man is something high, pure and great which has fallen into the material existence and by its use of its nature and its acts in the body must redeem itself, must return to its own celestial nature. But it is evident that this one earthly life is not sufficient for all to effect that difficult return, but rather most may and do miss it entirely; and we have then either to suppose that an immortal soul can perish or be doomed to eternal perdition or else that it has more existences than this poor precarious one apparently given to it, lives or states of being which intervene between its fall and the final working out of a sure redemption. But the first supposition is subject to all the difficulties of that other paradox. Apart from the problem of the reason of the descent, it is difficult to see how straight from celestial being these different souls should have lapsed immediately to such immense differences of gradation in their fall and in such a way that each is responsible for the otherwise cruel and unequal conditions under which he has to determine so summarily his eternal future. Each must surely have had a past which made him responsible for his present conditions, if he is to be held thus strictly to account for all their results and the use he makes of his often too scanty, grudging and sometimes quite hopeless opportunity. The very nature of our humanity supposes a varying constituent past for the soul as well as a resultant future.
  More reasonable therefore is a recent theory which suggests that a spirit or mental being has descended from another and greater plane and taken up the material existence when the physical and the animal evolution had proceeded far enough for a human embodiment upon earth to be possible. He looks back to a long series of human lives, beginning from that point, which has brought each of us to his present condition, and forward to a still continuing series which will carry all by their own degrees and in their own time to whatever completion, transfiguration, return awaits the self-embodying human soul and is the crown of its long endeavour. But here again, what is it that brings about this connection of a spiritual being and higher mental nature and a physical being and lower animal nature? what necessitates this taking up of the lower life by the spirit which here becomes man? It would seem surely that there must have been some previous connection; the possessing mental or spiritual being must all the time have been preparing this lower life it thus occupies for a human manifestation. The whole evolution would then be an ordered continuity from the beginning and the intervention of mind and spirit would be no sudden inexplicable miracle, but a coming forward of that which was always there behind, an open taking up of the manifested life by a power which was always secretly presiding over the life evolution.

3.8.1.02 - Arya - Its Significance, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The Aryan perfected is the Arhat. There is a transcendent Consciousness which surpasses the universe and of which all these worlds are only a side-issue and a by-play. To that consciousness he aspires and attains. There is a Consciousness which, being transcendent, is yet the universe and all that the universe contains. Into that consciousness he enlarges his limited ego; he becomes one with all beings and all inanimate objects in a single self-awareness, love, delight, all-embracing energy. There is a consciousness which, being both transcendental and universal, yet accepts the apparent limitations of individuality for work, for various standpoints of knowledge, for the play of the Lord with His creations; for the ego is there that it may finally convert itself into a free centre of the divine work and the divine play. That consciousness too he has sufficient love, joy and knowledge to accept; he is puissant enough to effect that conversion. To embrace individuality after transcending it is the last and divine sacrifice. The perfect Arhat is he who is able to live simultaneously in all these three apparent states of existence, elevate the lower into the higher, receive the higher into the lower, so that he may represent perfectly in the symbols of the world that with which he is identified in all parts of his being,the triple and triune Brahman.
    the word "rya" printed in Devanagari script on the cover of the review.

3.8.1.03 - Meditation, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  In Yoga concentration is used also for another object, - to retire from the waking state, which is a limited and superficial condition of our consciousness, into the depths of our being measured by various states of Samadhi. For this process contemplation of the single object, idea or name is more powerful than the succession of concentrated thoughts. The latter, however, is capable, by bringing us into indirect but waking communion with the deeper states of being, of preparing an integral Samadhi. Its characteristic utility, however, is the luminous activity of formative thought brought under the control of the Purusha by which the rest of the consciousness is governed, filled with higher and wider ideas, changed rapidly into the mould of those ideas and so perfected. Other and greater utilities lie beyond, but they belong to a later stage of selfdevelopment.
  In the Yoga of Devotion, both processes are equally used to concentrate the whole being or to saturate the whole nature with thoughts of the object of devotion, its forms, its essence, its attributes and the joys of adoration and union.

3.8.1.06 - The Universal Consciousness, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   and in other Hindu books as one whose occupation is beneficence to all creatures. But this vast spirit of beneficence does not necessarily exercise itself by the outward forms of emotional sympathy or active charity. We must not bind down all natures or all states of the divine consciousness in man to the one form of helpfulness which seems to us the most attractive, the most beautiful or the most beneficent. There is a higher sympathy than that of the easily touched emotions, a greater beneficence than that of an obvious utility to particular individuals in their particular sufferings.
  The egoistic consciousness passes through many stages in its emotional expansion. At first it is bound within itself, callous therefore to the experiences of others. Afterwards it is sympathetic only with those who are identified in some measure with itself, indifferent to the indifferent, malignant to the hostile.

3 - Commentaries and Annotated Translations, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  it. There are two states of being in consciousness, the divine
  Brahmi sthiti of blissful unity, from which we descend, and the
  --
  higher states of consciousness is possible. Man is that fit body,
  sukritam eva, well indeed and beautifully made as a habitation
  --
  are seven distinct states of consciousness, there must equally
  be seven conditions of the Atman, seven distinct worlds with
  --
  are the worlds of the lower hemisphere and of these states of
  consciousness we can have some conception, we can imagine
  --
  three supreme states of consciousness? what of the three worlds
  of the higher hemisphere? It is more difficult to conceive of them
  --
  symbols of the dark and illumined states of the human mind; the
  former is our ordinary consciousness, the latter that on which
  --
  pAEs. Meanwhile he shines in the Nights, the states of human
  ignorance, - the Rishi goes on to say, - because he has Mitra's
  --
  into the human; he shines illumining with it our dark states of
  ignorance and for the sacrificer who makes him his envoy to the
  --
  sisters, the seven states of our consciousness which begin from
  Sat the pure state of conscious being & descend to Bhuh, its
  --
  van of the days, the great increasing states of illuminated force &
  being, - for that is the image of ahan, - which are the eternal
  --
  including all those states of existence in which the mind and the
  life are interblended as the double medium through which the

4.01 - Sweetness in Prayer, #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
  6.: My own experience of this delight and sweetness in meditation was that when I began to weep over the Passion I could not stop until I had a severe headache;9' the same thing occurred when I grieved over my sins: this was a great grace from our Lord. I do not intend to inquire now which of these states of prayer is the better, but I wish I knew how to explain the difference between the two. In that of which I speak, the tears and good desires are often partly caused by the natural disposition, but although this may be the case, yet, as I said, these feelings terminate in God. Sensible devotion is very desirable if the soul is humble enough to understand that it is not more holy on account of these sentiments, which cannot always with certainty be ascribed to charity, and even then are still the gift of God.
  7.: These feelings of devotion are most common with souls in the first three mansions, who are nearly always using their understanding and reason in making meditations. This is good for them, for they have not been given grace for more; they should, however, try occasionally to elicit some acts such as praising God, rejoicing in His goodness and that He is what He is: let them desire that He may be honoured and glorified. They must do this as best they can, for it greatly inflames the will. Let them be very careful, when God gives these sentiments, not to set them aside in order to finish their accustomed meditation. But, having spoken fully on this subject elsewhere,10' I will say no more now. I only wish to warn you that to make rapid progress and to reach the mansions we wish to enter, it is not so essential to think much as to love much: therefore you must practise whatever most excites you to this. Perhaps we do not know what love is, nor does this greatly surprise me. Love does not consist in great sweetness of devotion, but in a fervent determination to strive to please God in all things, in avoiding, as far as possible, all that would offend Him, and in praying for the increase of the glory and honour of His Son and for the growth of the Catholic Church. These are the signs of love; do not imagine that it consists in never thinking of anything but God, and that if your thoughts wander a little all is lost.11

4.05 - The Instruments of the Spirit, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Manas, the sense mind, depends in our ordinary consciousness on the physical organs of receptive sense for knowledge and on the organs of the body for action directed towards the objects of sense. The superficial and outward action of the senses is physical and nervous in its character, and they may easily be thought to be merely results of nerve-action; they are sometimes called in the old books pranas, nervous or life activities. But still the essential thing in them is not the nervous excitation, but the consciousness, the action of the Chitta, which makes use of the organ and of the nervous impact of which it is the channel. Manas, sense-mind, is the activity, emerging from the basic consciousness, which makes up the whole essentiality of what we call sense. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch are really properties of the mind, not of the body; but the physical mind which we ordinarily use, limits itself to a translation into sense of so much of the outer impacts as it receives through the nervous system and the physical organs. But the inner Manas has also a subtle sight, hearing, power of contact of its own which is not dependent on the physical organs. And it has, moreover, a power not only of direct communication of mind with object, -- leading even at a high pitch of action to a sense of the contents of an object within or beyond the physical range, -- but direct communication also of mind with mind. Mind is able too to alter, modify, inhibit the incidence, values, intensities of sense impacts. These powers of the mind we do not ordinarily use or develop; they remain subliminal and emerge sometimes in an irregular and fitful action, more readily in some minds than in others, or come to the surface in abnormal states of the being. They are the basis of clairvoyance, clairaudience, transference of thought and impulse, telepathy, most of the more ordinary kinds of occult powers, -- so called, though these are better described less mystically as powers of the now subliminal action of the Manas. The phenomena of hypnotism and many others depend upon the action of this subliminal sense-mind; not that it alone constitutes all the elements of the phenomena, but it is the first supporting means of intercourse, communication and response, though much of the actual operation belongs to an inner Buddhi. Mind physical, mind supraphysical, -- we have and can use this double sense mentality.
  Buddhi is a construction of conscious being which quite exceeds its beginnings in the basic Chitta; it is the intelligence with its power of knowledge and will. Buddhi takes up and deals with all the rest of the action of the mind and life and body. It is in its nature thought-power and will-power of the Spirit turned into the lower form of a mental activity. We may distinguish three successive gradations of the action of this intelligence. There is first an inferior perceptive understanding which simply takes up, records, understands and responds to the communications of the sense-mind, memory, heart and sensational mentality. It creates by their means an elementary thinking mind which does not go beyond their data, but subjects itself to their mould and rings out their repetitions, runs round and round in the habitual circle of thought and will suggested by them or follows, with an obedient subservience of the reason to the suggestions of life, any fresh determinations which may be offered to its perception and conception. Beyond this elementary understanding, which we all use to an enormous extent, there is a power of arranging or selecting reason and will-force of the Intelligence which has for its action and aim an attempt to arrive at a plausible, sufficient, settled ordering of knowledge and will for the use of an intellectual conception of life.

4.1.2 - The Difficulties of Human Nature, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  It very often happens that when there is an exceptional power like this in the nature, there is found in the exterior being some contrary element which opens it to a quite opposite influence. It is this that makes the endeavour after a spiritual life so often a difficult struggle: but the existence of this kind of contradiction even in an intense form does not make that life impossible. Doubt, struggle, efforts and failures, lapses, alternations of happy and unhappy or good and bad conditions, states of light and states of darkness are the common lot of human beings. They are not created by Yoga or by the effort after perfection; only in Yoga one becomes conscious of their movements and their causes instead of feeling them blindly, and in the end one makes ones way out of them into a clearer and happier consciousness. The ordinary life remains to the last a series of troubles and struggles, but the sadhak of the Yoga comes out of the trouble and struggle to a ground of fundamental serenity which superficial disturbances may still touch but cannot destroy, and, finally, all disturbance ceases altogether.
  Even the experience which so alarms you, of states of consciousness in which you say and do things contrary to your true will, is not a reason for despair. It is a common experience in one form or another of all who try to rise above their ordinary nature. Not only those who practise Yoga, but religious men and even those who seek only a moral control and self-improvement are confronted with this difficulty. And here again it is not the Yoga or the effort after perfection that creates this condition; there are contradictory elements in human nature and in every human being through which he is made to act in a way which his better mind disapproves. This happens to everybody, to the most ordinary men in the most ordinary life. It only becomes marked and obvious to our minds when we try to rise above our ordinary external selves, because then we can see that it is the lower elements which are being made to revolt consciously against the higher will. There then seems to be for a time a division in the nature, because the true being and all that supports it stand back and separate from these lower elements. At one time the true being occupies the field of the nature, at another the lower nature used by some contrary Force pushes it back and seizes the ground, and this we now see, while formerly the thing happened but the nature of the happening was not clear to us. If there is the firm will to progress, this division is overpassed and in the unified nature, unified around that will, there may be other difficulties, but this kind of discord and struggle will disappear. I have written so much on this point because I think you have been given the wrong idea that it is the Yoga which creates this struggle and also that this contradiction or division in the nature is the sign of an unfitness or impossibility to go through to the end. Both ideas are quite incorrect and things will be easier if you cast them out of your consciousness altogether.
  But it is true that in your case as in others this contradiction has been given a special and very discomforting kind of intensity by a hereditary weakness of the nervous parts which has always shown itself in you by fits of despondency, gloom, unrest and self-tormenting darkness and spoiled for you the savour of life. Your mistake is to think that this is something to which you are bound and from which you cannot escape, a fate which makes a spiritual change of your nature impossible. I have seen other families afflicted by this kind of hereditary nervous weakness accompanying very often exceptional gifts of intelligence or artistic capacity or spiritual possibilities. One or two may have succumbed to it, like X, but others, sometimes after a period of acute disturbance, overcame the perturbations caused by this weakness; either it disappeared or it took some minor and innocuous form which did not interfere with the development of the life and its capacities. Why then despair of yourself or fix without any true cause the conviction that you cannot change and this thing will always be there? This despondency, this adverse conviction is the real danger for you; it prevents you from making a quiet and settled resolution and a permanent effective effort; because of it the return of this darker condition makes you quickly yield and allow the adverse external Force which uses this defect to play and do its will with you. It is this false idea that makes more than half the trouble.

4.18 - Faith and shakti, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Moreover, not only a faith in the fundamental principle, ideas, way of the Yoga is needed, but a day to day working faith m the power in us to achieve, in the steps we have taken on the way, in the spiritual experiences that come to us, in the intuitions, the guiding movements of will and impulsion, the moved intensities of the heart and aspirations and fulfilments of the life that are the aids, the circumstances and the stages of the enlarging of the nature and the stimuli or the steps of the soul's evolution. At the same time it has always to be remembered that we are moving from imperfections and ignorance towards light and perfection, and the faith in us must be free from attachment to the forms of our endeavour and the successive stages of our realisation. There is not only much that will be strongly raised in us in order to be cast out and rejected, a battle between the powers of ignorance and the lower nature and the higher powers that have to replace them, but experiences, states of thought and feeling, forms of realisation that are helpful and have to be accepted on the way and may seem to us for the time to be spiritual finalities, are found afterwards to be steps of transition, have to be exceeded and the working faith that supported them withdrawn in favour of other and greater things or of more full and comprehensive realisations and experiences, which replace them or into which they are taken up in a completing transformation. There can be for the seeker of the integral Yoga no clinging to resting-places on the road or to half-way houses; he cannot be satisfied till he has laid down all the great enduring bases of his perfection and broken out into its large and free infinities, and even there he has to be constantly filling himself with more experiences of the Infinite. His progress is an ascent from level to level and each new height brings in other vistas and revelations of the much that has still to be done, bhuri kartvam, till the divine shakti has at last taken up all his endeavour and he has only to assent and participate gladly by a consenting oneness in her luminous workings. That which will support him through these changes, struggles, transformations which might otherwise dishearten and baffle, -- for the intellect and life and emotion always grasp too much at things, fasten on premature certitudes and are apt to be afflicted and unwilling when forced to abandon that on which they rested, --is a firm faith in the shakti that is at work and reliance on the guidance of the Master of the Yoga whose wisdom is not in haste and whose steps through all the perplexities of the mind are assured and just and sound, because they are founded on a perfectly comprehending transaction with the necessities of our nature.
  The progress of the Yoga is a procession from the mental ignorance through imperfect formations to a perfect foundation and increasing of knowledge and in its more satisfyingly positive parts a movement from light to greater light, and it cannot cease till we have the greatest light of the supramental knowledge. The motions of the mind in its progress must necessarily be mixed with a greater or lesser proportion of error, and we should not allow our faith to be disconcerted by the discovery of its errors or imagine that because the beliefs of the intellect which aided us were too hasty and positive, therefore the fundamental faith in the soul was invalid. The human intellect is too much afraid of error precisely because it is too much attached to a premature sense of certitude and a too hasty eagerness for positive finality in what it seems to seize of knowledge. As our self-experience increases, we shall find that our errors even were necessary movements, brought with them and left their element or suggestion of truth and helped towards discovery or supported a necessary effort and that the certitudes we have now to abandon had yet their temporary validity in the progress of our knowledge. The intellect cannot be a sufficient guide in the search for spiritual truth and realisation and yet it has to be utilised in the integral movement of our nature. And while, therefore, we have to reject paralysing doubt or mere intellectual scepticism, the seeking intelligence has to be trained to admit a certain large questioning, an intellectual rectitude not satisfied with half-truths, mixtures of error or approximations and, most positive and helpful, a perfect readiness always to move forward from truths already held and accepted to the greater corrective, completing or transcending truths which at first it was unable or, it may be, disinclined to envisage. A working faith of the intellect is indispensable, not a superstitious, dogmatic or limiting credence attached to every temporary support or formula, but a large assent to the successive suggestions and steps of the shakti, a faith fixed on realities, moving from the lesser to the completer realities and ready to throw down all scaffolding and keep only the large and growing structure.

4.24 - The supramental Sense, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The supramental sense can act in its own power and is independent of the body and the physical life and outer mind and it is above too the inner mind and its experiences. It can be aware of all things in whatever world, on whatever plane, in whatever formation of universal consciousness. It can be aware of the things of the material universe even in the trance of Samadhi, aware of them as they are or appear to the physical sense, even as it is of other states of experience, of the pure vital, the mental, the psychical, the supramental presentation of things. It can in the waking state of the physical consciousness present to us the things concealed from the limited receptivity or beyond the range of the physical organs, distant forms, scenes and happenings, things that have passed out of physical existence or that are not yet in physical existence, scenes, forms, happenings, symbols of the vital, psychical, mental, supramental, spiritual worlds and all these in their real or significant truth as well as their appearance. It can use all the other states of sense consciousness and their appropriate senses and organs adding to them what they have not, setting right their errors and supplying their deficiencies: for it is the source of the others and they are only inferior derivations from this higher sense, this true and illimitable samijnana.
  -- 2 --

4.25 - Towards the supramental Time Vision, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  A completer opening of the psychical consciousness leads us far beyond this faculty of vision by images and admits us not indeed to a new time consciousness, but to many ways of the triple time knowledge. The subliminal or psychic self can bring back or project itself into past states of consciousness and experience and anticipate or even, though this is less common, strongly project itself into future states of consciousness and experience. It does this by a temporary entering into or identification of its being or its power of experiencing knowledge with either permanences or representations of the past and the future that are maintained in an eternal time consciousness behind our mentality or thrown up by the eternity of supermind into an indivisible continuity of time vision. Or it may receive the impress of these things and construct a transcriptive experience of them in the subtle ether of psychical being. Or it may call up the past from the subconscious memory where it is always latent and give it in itself a living form and a kind of renewed memorative existence, and equally it may call up from the depths of latency, where it is already shaped in the being, and similarly form to itself and experience the future. It may by a kind of psychical thought vision or soul intuition -- not the same thing as the subtler and less concrete thought vision of the luminous intuitive intelligence -- foresee or foreknow the future or flash this soul intuition into the past that has gone behind the veil and recover it for present knowledge. It can develop a symbolic seeing which conveys the past and the future through a vision of the powers and significances that belong to supraphysical planes but are powerful for creation in the material universe. It can feel the intention of the Divine, the mind of the gods, all things and their signs and indices that descend upon the soul and determine the complex movement of forces. It can feel too the movement of forces that represent or respond to the pressure -- as it can perceive the presence and tile action -- of the beings of the mental, vital and other worlds who concern themselves with our lives. It can gather on all hands all kinds of indications of happenings in past, present and future time. It can receive before its sight the etheric writing, akasa-lipi, that keeps the record of all things past, transcribes all that is in process in the present, writes out the future.
  All these and a multitude of other powers are concealed in our subliminal being and with the waking of the psychical consciousness can be brought to the surface. The knowledge of our past lives, -- whether of past soul states or personalities or scenes, occurrences, relations with others, -- of the past lives of others, of the past of the world, of the future, of present things that are beyond the range of our physical senses or the reach of any means of knowledge open to the surface intelligence, the intuition and impressions not only of physical things, but of the working of a past and present and future mind and life and soul in ourselves and others, the knowledge not only of this world but of other worlds or planes of consciousness and their manifestations in time and of their intervention and workings and effects on the earth and its embodied souls and their destinies, lies open to our psychical being, because it is close to the intimations of the universal, not engrossed only or mainly with the immediate and not shut up into the narrow circle of the purely personal and physical experience.

4.4.2.08 - Fixing the Consciousness Above, #Letters On Yoga III, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  There are various states of experience in which the expression
  "taken up out of the body" would be applicable. There is one in which one goes up from the centres in the body to a centre of consciousness extending above the physical head and takes up
  --
  It is not altogether clear from the description whether this is what happened. Again, there are phenomena of the breathing which accompany states of release or of ascension. But the breath here perhaps stands, generally, for the Life Principle.

5.01 - EPILOGUE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  is to say, of states of greater and greater improbability, even
  though closely linked together) does not operate in the universe

5.04 - Supermind and the Life Divine, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  DIVINE life upon earth, the ideal we have placed before us, can only come about by a spiritual change of our being and a radical and fundamental change, an evolution or revolution of our nature. The embodied being upon earth would have to rise out of the domination over it of its veils of mind, life and body into the full consciousness and possession of its spiritual reality, and its nature also would have to be lifted out of the consciousness and power of consciousness proper to a mental, vital and physical being into the greater consciousness and greater power of being and the larger and freer life of the spirit. It would not lose these former veils but they would no longer be veils or imperfect expressions but true manifestations; they would be changed into states of light, powers of spiritual life, vehicles of a spiritual existence. But this again could not be if mind, life and body were not taken up and transformed by a state of being and a force of being superior to them, a power of
  Supermind as much above our incomplete mental nature as that is above the nature of animal life and animated Matter, as it is immeasurably above the mere material nature.

6.05 - THE PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE PROCEDURE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  [696] All projections are unconscious identifications with the object. Every projection is simply there as an uncriticized datum of experience, and is recognized for what it is only very much later, if ever. Everything that we today would call mind and insight was, in earlier centuries, projected into things, and even today individual idiosyncrasies are presupposed by many people to be generally valid. The original, half-animal state of unconsciousness was known to the adept as the nigredo, the chaos, the massa confusa, an inextricable interweaving of the soul with the body, which together formed a dark unity (the unio naturalis). From this enchainment he had to free the soul by means of the separatio, and establish a spiritual-psychic counter-positionconscious and rational insightwhich would prove immune to the influences of the body. But such insight, as we have seen, is possible only if the delusory projections that veil the reality of things can be withdrawn. The unconscious identity with the object then ceases and the soul is freed from its fetters in the things of sense. The psychologist is well acquainted with this process, for a very important part of his psycho therapeutic work consists in making conscious and dissolving the projections that falsify the patients view of the world and impede his self-knowledge. He does this in order to bring anomalous psychic states of an affective nature, i.e., neurotic symptoms, under the control of consciousness. The declared aim of the treatment is to set up a rational, spiritual-psychic position over against the turbulence of the emotions.
  [697] Projections can be withdrawn only when they come within the possible scope of consciousness. Outside that, nothing can be corrected. Thus, in spite of all his efforts, Dorn was unable to recognize the for usblatant projection of psychic contents into chemical substances and thereby dissolve it. Evidently his understanding in this respect still moved within the confines of the contemporary consciousness, even though in other respects it plumbed to greater depths than did the collective consciousness of that age. Thus it is that the psychic sphere representing the body miraculously appeared to the adept to be identical with chemical preparation in the retort. Hence he could believe that any changes he effected in the latter would happen to the former as well. Significantly enough, one seldom hears of the panacea or lapis being applied to the human body. As a rule the carrying out of the chemical procedure seemed sufficient in itself. At any rate it was for Dorn, and that is why his chemical caelum coincided with the heavenly substance in the body, the truth. For him this was not a duality but an identity; for us they are incommensurables that cannot be reconciled because, owing to our knowledge of chemical processes, we are able to distinguish them from psychic ones. In other words, our consciousness enables us to withdraw this projection.

6.0 - Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
  not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling,
  but only from experiencing them to the full.
  --
  appear in connection with chaotic psychic states of disorienta-
  tion or panic. They then have the purpose of reducing the
  --
  in certain states of conflict, and in cases of schizophrenia. Very
  frequently they contain a quaternity or a multiple of four, in

7 - Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  there is the other fact that there are different states of con-
  sciousness one following another. Each state faithfully
  --
  of training is necessary. The different states of the being
  in which you roam at night are, as you have seen, usually

WORDNET












--- Grep of noun states_of
confederate states of america
federated states of micronesia
united states of america



IN WEBGEN [10000/1244]

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Wikipedia - Guadalupe Mountains -- Mountain range in the US states of Texas and New Mexico
Wikipedia - Gulf of Venezuela -- A gulf of the Caribbean Sea bounded by the Venezuelan states of Zulia and Falcon and by Guajira Department, Colombia
Wikipedia - Gwinnett County Airport -- Airport in Lawrenceville, Georgia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hachita Valley -- Valley in New Mexico, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hagerstown Regional Airport -- Airport in Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hanscom Field -- Airport in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hardenburg, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Hart Lake (Oregon) -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hartwig Cassel -- Chess journalist, editor and promoter in Great Britain and the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hathaway Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Heart of America Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Helena, Texas -- Human settlement in Texas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Henderson City-County Airport -- Airport in Kentucky, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hermann Park -- Park in Texas, United States of America, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hickman Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - High Knob -- Mountain in Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hillsborough River (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hill States of India -- Former country
Wikipedia - Hinkhouse Peak -- Mountain in Washington, United States of America
Wikipedia - Historical rankings of presidents of the United States -- Rankings of the presidents of the United States of America
Wikipedia - History of the Federated States of Micronesia -- Historical development of the Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - History of the flags of the United States -- The evolutionary process of the flag of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hiwassee River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hoby Wolf Airport -- Airport in Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Holland Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Homosassa River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hoover Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hopewell, Boone County, Arkansas -- Human settlement in Arkansas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Hopewell, Red River County, Texas -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Horno Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Houlton-Woodstock Border Crossing -- International land border crossing between the United States of America and Canada
Wikipedia - Houston Municipal Airport -- Airport in Mississippi, United States of America
Wikipedia - Howard Covered Bridge -- bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Hudson Canyon (Texas) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Hughes River (West Virginia) -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Humboldt, Ohio -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Idaho Senate -- Upper state chamber of a state of the United-States of America
Wikipedia - Idaho -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Igo, California -- Human settlement in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Illinois -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Income in the United States -- Overview of the income in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Index of Federated States of Micronesia-related articles -- Wikipedia index
Wikipedia - Indian Rocks Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - India-United States relations -- Diplomatic relations between the Republic of India and the United States of America
Wikipedia - Inhibition theory -- Alternating latent states of distraction during the performance of a mental task
Wikipedia - Integrated Ocean Observing System -- An organization of systems that routinely and continuously provides quality controlled data and information on current and future states of the oceans and Great Lakes
Wikipedia - International rankings of the United States -- Overview of international rankings of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Internet in the United States -- Overview of the Internet in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Interstate 182 Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Interstate 24 Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Interstate 295 (Delaware-Pennsylvania) -- Interstate Highway in the U.S. states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
Wikipedia - Interstate 470 Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Interstate 91 -- Interstate Highway in the U.S. states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont
Wikipedia - Interstate 93 -- Interstate Highway in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont
Wikipedia - Iowa -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Ironspot, Ohio -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Irreligion in the United States -- Overview of irreligion in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Isle Royale -- Island in Lake Superior in Michigan, United States of America
Wikipedia - Israel-United States relations -- Diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the United States of America
Wikipedia - Isunigu -- Human settlement in South Carolina, United States of America
Wikipedia - Jacks Fork -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Jamesville, Missouri -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - J. E. B. Stuart -- Cavalry general of the Confederate States of America
Wikipedia - Jessup Covered Bridge -- bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Jewfish Creek Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - John Gorrie Memorial Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - John Hillerman -- Actor from United States of America
Wikipedia - John Muir Trail -- Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Johnny Reb -- National personification of the Southern states of the United States, or less generally, the Confederacy during the American Civil War
Wikipedia - Johnson, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Johnson County Executive Airport -- Airport in Kansas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Judith River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Junction, Mendocino County, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Juniper Island (Lake Champlain) -- island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - KaM-JM-;ala -- Mountain in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Kanawha Subdivision -- Railroad line between the U.S. states of West Virginia and Kentucky.
Wikipedia - Kansas -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Katharine Jefferts Schori -- Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Keese Mill, New York -- Human settlement in New York, United States of America
Wikipedia - Kellum Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Kentucky -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Keowee River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - King Peak (Nevada) -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Kingsley Lake -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Kings Pinnacle -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Kitty (song) -- 1995 single by The Presidents of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Knox Hill -- Human settlement in "Washington, D.C.", District of Columbia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Knox Memorial Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Labor unions in the United States -- Overview of labor unions in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Byrd -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Cliff -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Conway -- Lake in Arkansas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Fork Creek -- River in Texas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Gleneida -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Harris Campground -- Human settlement in New York, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Monroe Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lake Washington (Le Sueur and Blue Earth counties, Minnesota) -- Lake in Le Sueur and Blue Earth counties, Minnesota, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lane River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Languages of the European Union -- Overview of the languages used by people within the member states of the European Union
Wikipedia - La Plata River (San Juan River tributary) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Laurinburg-Maxton Airport -- Airport in North Carolina, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lawrence J. Timmerman Airport -- Airport in Wisconsin, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lawrence Sullivan Ross -- Governor of Texas, Confederate States of America general, Texas A&M University president
Wikipedia - Lemah Mountain -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Leon Springs, Texas -- Community in Bexar County, Texas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Levelock Airport -- Public airport in Alaska, United States of America
Wikipedia - LGBT rights in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Rights of LGBT people in the Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - Library of Congress -- (de facto) national library of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Lick Branch (South Grand River tributary) -- River in Missouri, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lignite, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Limedale, Arkansas -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Lindbergh, Atlanta -- Human settlement in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Linderman Creek -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Liquid -- One of the four fundamental states of matter
Wikipedia - List of 2013 Games of the Small States of Europe medal winners -- Wikimedia list article
Wikipedia - List of airlines of the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of airports in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of birds of the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of butterflies of the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of capitals in the United States -- List of capital cities in the United States of America
Wikipedia - List of chairmen of the Estates of Suriname -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of diplomatic missions in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of diplomatic missions of the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of estates of the nobility in Derbyshire -- List of aristocratic estates in Derbyshire, England
Wikipedia - List of Federated States of Micronesia records in athletics -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of fictional states of the United States -- List
Wikipedia - List of flag bearers for the Federated States of Micronesia at the Olympics -- Wikimedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Games of the Small States of Europe records in athletics -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Games of the Small States of Europe records in swimming -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of historical states of Georgia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of historic states of Germany -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of historic states of Italy -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of libraries in the Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - List of lighthouses in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations by population -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of monument and memorial controversies in the United States -- Excluding monuments or memorials dealing with the Confederate States of America
Wikipedia - List of museums in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of oxidation states of the elements
Wikipedia - List of presidents of the Estates of Aruba -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Presidents of the First Chamber of the Estates of Wurttemberg -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Presidents of the First Chamber of the States of the Grand Duchy of Hesse -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Presidents of the Second Chamber of the Estates of Wurttemberg -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of Presidents of the Second Chamber of the States of the Grand Duchy of Hesse -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of princely states of British India (alphabetical) -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of princely states of British India (by region) -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of proposed states of Australia -- Wikimedia list article
Wikipedia - List of radio stations in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of railroads of the Confederate States of America -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of states of matter -- List of states of matter
Wikipedia - List of states of Mexico -- Wikimedia list article
Wikipedia - List of states of the United States
Wikipedia - List of treaties of the Confederate States of America -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of tributary states of China -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Little Applegate River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Little Miami River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Little River (Canadian River tributary) -- Tributary of the Canadian River in Oklahoma, United States of America
Wikipedia - Little Salmon Creek (Mendocino County) -- Stream in Mendocino County, California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Little Salt Spring -- Lake in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Little Tennessee River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Lochloosa Lake -- Lake in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Logan metropolitan area -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Lomaland -- Theosophical community in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Londonderry, New Hampshire -- Town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States of America
Wikipedia - Longboat Pass Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Long Key Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Louisiana Purchase -- Acquisition by the United States of America of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana
Wikipedia - Louisiana Territory -- Territory of the United States of America from 1805 to 1812
Wikipedia - Louisiana -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Louse Creek (Alaska) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Lower West Side, Buffalo -- Human settlement in Buffalo, New York, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lowgap, North Carolina -- Human settlement in North Carolina, United States of America
Wikipedia - Low Gap, Washington -- Human settlement in Washington, United States of America
Wikipedia - Lurgan Subdivision -- Railroad line between the U.S. states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia.
Wikipedia - Lusk Covered Bridge -- bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - MacArthur Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Macedonia Neighborhood, Missouri -- Human settlement in Missouri, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mach-O Acres Airport -- Airport in Oregon, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mahala Flat, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Maiden Peak (Oregon) -- Mountain in Oregon, United States of America
Wikipedia - Maine -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Main Street Bridge (Jacksonville) -- Bridge in Jacksonville, United States of America
Wikipedia - Manasquan River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mansfield Road-Michigamme River Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Marias River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Marietta Subdivision -- Railroad line between in the U.S. states of Ohio and West Virginia.
Wikipedia - Maritime Hotel -- Luxury boutique hotel in New York, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mark and space -- States of a communications signal
Wikipedia - Maryland -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mason-Dixon line -- Surveyed border line between U.S. states of Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania
Wikipedia - Massachusetts -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mass media in the United States -- Types of media in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Matagorda Bay -- Bay on the Texas coast, United States of America
Wikipedia - Matanzas Pass Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mathers Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mathews Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Matlacha Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mattole River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - McElroy Creek -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - McKees Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Meade River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Melbourne Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Member states of NATO -- Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Wikipedia - Member states of the Council of Europe
Wikipedia - Member states of the International Labour Organization -- Sovereign states that are members of the International Labour Organization
Wikipedia - Member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie
Wikipedia - Member states of the Organization of American States -- Wikimedia list article
Wikipedia - Member states of the United Nations -- Sovereign states that are members of the United Nations
Wikipedia - Member states of the World Trade Organization -- Wikimedia list article
Wikipedia - Menauhant, Massachusetts -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Merrimack Valley -- Region in the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts
Wikipedia - Merritt Island Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mica Mountain -- Mountain in Pima County, Arizona, United States of America
Wikipedia - Miccosukee Plantation -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Michigan -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mid-Bay Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Midpoint Memorial Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Midwestern United States -- One of the four census regions of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mile Creek (Black River tributary) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Minear, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Minnesota -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Miranda, South Dakota -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mission River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mississippi -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Missouri Territory -- Territory of the United States of America from 1812 to 1821
Wikipedia - Missouri -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mitchell Creek (Tunitas Creek tributary) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mitchell Map -- Historic map of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Moab, Utah -- City in Utah, United States of America
Wikipedia - Moclips River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Modern display of the Confederate battle flag -- Display of flags used by the Confederate States of America since 1865
Wikipedia - Monocacy Aqueduct -- Canal in Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Monponsett Pond -- Lake in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Montana -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Monte Vista, Alameda County, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Moores Creek Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Morgan Center, Ohio -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Morning Star Lake (Nebraska) -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mossmain, Montana -- Town in Montana, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mother Brook -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Adams (Colorado) -- Mountain in Colorado, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Adams (New Hampshire) -- Mountain in New Hampshire, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mountain Subdivision -- Railroad line between in the U.S. states of Maryland and West Virginia.
Wikipedia - Mount Cardigan -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Curwood -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Desert Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Desor -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Disappointment (California) -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Doody -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Hale (New Hampshire) -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Kephart -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Kimball (Alaska) -- Mountain in the eastern Alaskan Range of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Octopus -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Price (California) -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Redington -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Rosa (Colorado) -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Rosebrook -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Shasta -- Stratovolcano in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Mount Skylight -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Mulberry, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Murrell's Row -- Human settlement in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Music of the Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - Mysticism -- Practice of religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness
Wikipedia - Naches River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Nacimiento River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Nan Madol -- Ruined city in Federated States of Micronesesia
Wikipedia - Napoleon, Arkansas -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - NASA Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Native American civil rights -- civil rights of Native Americans in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Native American tribes in Maryland -- Indigenous tribes who currently live or historically lived in what is now Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Naud Junction (Los Angeles) -- Human settlement in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Naushon Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Naval Academy Chapel -- Church building in Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Navarro River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Nebraska -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Neil Armstrong Airport -- Airport in Ohio, United States of America
Wikipedia - Neo-Confederate -- Modern groups and individuals who view the American Civil War's Confederate States of America positively
Wikipedia - Nevada -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - New Century AirCenter -- Airport in Kansas, United States of America
Wikipedia - New England town -- Basic unit of local government in the six New England states of the United States
Wikipedia - New Hampshire -- State in the United States of America
Wikipedia - New Holland, Georgia -- Unincorporated community in Hall County, Georgia, United States of America
Wikipedia - New Jersey -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - New Jerusalem Airport -- Airport in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - New Mexico Territory -- Territory of the United States of America, 1850-1912
Wikipedia - New Mexico -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Newton Lake (Lake County, Minnesota) -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - New York (state) -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Niawiakum River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - North Branch Dead River -- River in Maine, United States of America
Wikipedia - North Buckhead -- Human settlement in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
Wikipedia - North Captiva Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - North Carolina -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - North Dakota -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Northeastern United States -- One of the four census regions of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Northgate Forest, Texas -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Nuevo Leon -- One of the 32 states of Mexico
Wikipedia - Oakford, Pennsylvania -- Human settlement in Pennsylvania, United States of America
Wikipedia - Ocklawaha River -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Oconaluftee River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge -- Park in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Ohio Valley in Kentucky -- Valley in Kentucky, United States of America
Wikipedia - Ohio -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Oklahoma -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Old Donation Episcopal Church -- Church building in Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Old Fitzhugh, Virginia -- Settlement in Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Old Rancheria, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Old Roosevelt Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Old San Antonio Road -- Historic roadway in the U.S. states of Texas and Louisiana
Wikipedia - Old Sartell Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Olentangy River -- River in Ohio, United States of America
Wikipedia - Oleta River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Olokui -- Mountain in Hawaii, United States of America
Wikipedia - Omelek Island -- Island of the Republic of the Marshall Islands leased by the United States of America
Wikipedia - Omit Bar, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Oneida Community -- Human settlement in New York, United States of America
Wikipedia - Oneirogen -- That which produces or enhances dream-like states of consciousness
Wikipedia - Ono, California -- Human settlement in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Onset Island (Massachusetts) -- island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Optimo, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Oquomock, Virginia -- Human settlement in Richmond County, Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Orangefield, Texas -- Human settlement in Orange County, Texas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Orange Lake (Florida) -- Lake in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Orange River (Florida) -- River in United States of America
Wikipedia - Oregon Bar, Butte County, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Oregon Bar, Calaveras County, California -- Former settlement in Calaveras County, California. United States of America
Wikipedia - Oregon -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Orient, Texas -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Orion Pictures -- Film production company in United States of America
Wikipedia - Orloff, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Oroville Municipal Airport -- Airport in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Osteen Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Our Saviour New York -- Francis H. Kimball designed church building in Manhattan, United States of America
Wikipedia - Outer Islands High School -- Secondary school in Ulithi, Yap State, Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - Oxoboxo River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Palatlakaha River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Palestine-United States relations -- Diplomatic relations between the State of Palestine and the United States of America
Wikipedia - Palm Valley Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Paoha Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Park Boulevard Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Partition of India -- Partition of British India into the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947
Wikipedia - Pauls Valley Municipal Airport -- Airport in Oklahoma, United States of America
Wikipedia - Payne Creek (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Peace River (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Peach Creek (Grindstone Creek tributary) -- Stream in Missouri, United States of America
Wikipedia - Peaches (The Presidents of the United States of America song) -- 1996 single by The Presidents of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pea River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pennsylvania -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pensacola Bay Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - People's Representative Council of the United States of Indonesia -- Legislative assembly in the United States of Indonesia
Wikipedia - Perico, Florida -- Island in Manatee County, United States of America
Wikipedia - Perquimans River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Peter O. Knight Airport -- Airport in Tampa, United States of America
Wikipedia - Phase transition -- Physical process of transition between basic states of matter
Wikipedia - Phillips Corner, California -- Human settlement in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Pikes Peak -- Mountain in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, United States of America...Nicknamed: America's Mountain
Wikipedia - Pimple Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pine Island (Lee County, Florida) -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pinellas Bayway -- Highway in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Pinnacles National Park -- National park in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Pin Oak Community, Missouri -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Piscataqua River (Presumpscot River tributary) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pithlachascotee River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport -- Airport in Pennsylvania, United States of America
Wikipedia - Plasma (physics) -- One of the four fundamental states of matter
Wikipedia - Platts, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Pleasant Island (Alaska) -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pleasant Street Congregational Church -- Church building in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Pocantico River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pocasset River (Rhode Island) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Politics of the Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - Politics of the United States -- Political system of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pollution in the United States -- Overview of pollution in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pomegranate, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Pomme de Terre, Minnesota -- Ghost town in United States of America
Wikipedia - Poplar Airport -- Airport in Montana, United States of America
Wikipedia - Port Orange Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Postal voting in the United States -- Overview of postal voting in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Pottsburg Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Poverty Bar, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Powellton Meadow, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Prairie Chapel Ranch -- Human settlement in Texas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Pre-conception counseling in the United States -- Overview of pre-conception counseling in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Prenatal care in the United States -- Overview of the prenatal care system in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Presbyterian Church in the United States of America -- Historical Presbyterian organization
Wikipedia - President of the Confederate States of America -- Head of state and of government of the Confederate States
Wikipedia - Presumpscot River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Primrose, Ohio -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Princely states of Pakistan
Wikipedia - Prince of Wales Island (Alaska) -- island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America
Wikipedia - Psychedelic therapy -- Medical treatment using altered states of consciousness induced by psychedelic substances to treat mental disorders
Wikipedia - Public holidays in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Puerto Rico statistical areas -- Defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget
Wikipedia - Puerto Rico -- Caribbean island unincorporated territory of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Punchbowl Crater -- Extinct tuff cone in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of America
Wikipedia - Punkin Center, Arizona -- Human settlement in Arizona, United States of America
Wikipedia - Purdue University Airport -- Airport in Indiana, United States of America
Wikipedia - Putah Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Quantum phases -- Quantum states of matter at zero temperature
Wikipedia - Quassaick Creek -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Quinault River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Rahway Township, New Jersey -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Railroad Valley (Nevada) -- Valley in Nye County, United States of America
Wikipedia - Rail transportation in the United States -- Overview of rail transportation in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Ranlett, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Raritan Bay -- The southern portion of Lower New York Bay between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey
Wikipedia - Ray, Ohio -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Redox -- chemical reaction in which oxidation states of atoms are changed
Wikipedia - Red Wing Regional Airport -- Airport in Wisconsin, United States of America
Wikipedia - Reform Party of the United States of America -- American political party
Wikipedia - Regar -- Social group found in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in India
Wikipedia - Rhode Island -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Ribault River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Rice Creek (Mississippi River tributary) -- River in Minnesota, United States of America
Wikipedia - Richmond Parkway (California) -- Road in Richmond, California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Rifle Creek -- Stream in Garfield County, United States of America
Wikipedia - Risner, Kentucky -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Riss Lake -- Small reservoir in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Roach River (Maine) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Roaring River (Colorado) -- River in Larimer County, Colorado, United States of America
Wikipedia - Robert S. Kerr Airport -- Airport in Oklahoma, United States of America
Wikipedia - Rock Branch (Camp Creek tributary) -- River in Missouri, United States of America
Wikipedia - Rockcastle Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Rock Creek, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Rockefeller Chapel -- Church building in Illinois, United States of America
Wikipedia - Rocky Comfort Creek (Florida) -- Stream in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Rocky Nook, Massachusetts -- Human settlement in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Roe River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Roosevelt Boulevard (Philadelphia) -- Street in Pennsylvania, United States of America
Wikipedia - Roosevelt Bridge (Florida) -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Rosecrans Memorial Airport -- Airport in Missouri, United States of America
Wikipedia - Rosemont, Virginia -- Human settlement in Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Roseville Covered Bridge -- bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Russia-United States relations -- Diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States of America
Wikipedia - Sabine Pass -- Watercourse in United States of America
Wikipedia - Sabula Rail Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Saddleback Mountain (Rangeley, Maine) -- Mountain in Maine, United States of America
Wikipedia - Sagavanirktok River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Salem River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Salt Fork Red River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Same-sex marriage in the United States -- Marriage between members of the same gender within the United States of America
Wikipedia - Sam Jones Memorial United Methodist Church -- Church building in Cartersville, United States of America
Wikipedia - San Carlos River (United States) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Sand Key Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Sanford Lake -- Lake in Midland County, Michigan, United States of America
Wikipedia - Sanibel Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - San Luis Valley Regional Airport -- Airport in Colorado, United States of America
Wikipedia - San Ramon Valley -- Valley in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Santa Fe Lake -- Lake in Arizona, United States of America
Wikipedia - Santa Fe River (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Sartell Bridge -- Bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Savona, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Schunemunk Mountain -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Schuyler Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Screen Gems -- Film studio of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Scuppernong River (Wisconsin) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Seneca River (South Carolina) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Sentinel Peak (Arizona) -- Mountain in Arizona, United States of America
Wikipedia - Seven Mile Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Seward Mountain (Montana) -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Shamanism -- Practice of seeking altered states of consciousness in order to interact with a spirit world
Wikipedia - Shands Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Shannon Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Shark River (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Shelter Island (Alaska) -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Shenandoah Subdivision -- Railroad line between U.S. states of West Virginia and Virginia.
Wikipedia - Sherman, Kentucky -- Unincorporated community in United States of America
Wikipedia - Shingle Creek (Florida) -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Shooting at the 2015 Games of the Small States of Europe -- Sports
Wikipedia - Sideling Hill Tunnel -- Abandoned highway tunnel in Pennsylvania, United States of America
Wikipedia - Silverbell Lake -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Silver Creek (Arizona) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Silver River (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Skokie River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Skydive Houston Airport -- Airport in Texas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Slagle Creek (Little Sac River tributary) -- Stream in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Slate Creek (Pescadero Creek tributary) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Slide Mountain (Nevada) -- Mountain in Nevada, United States of America
Wikipedia - Sligo Creek -- Stream in Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Smerd -- Serf in the medieval Slavic states of Central and East Europe
Wikipedia - Smyrna, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Snake Creek Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Snapper Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Snow-Reed Swing Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Society of the United States -- Overview of the society of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Solar power in the United States -- Overview of solar power in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Soldiers Annex Lake -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Solid -- One of the four fundamental states of matter
Wikipedia - Southampton Heliport -- Airport in New York, United States of America
Wikipedia - South Bass Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - South Carolina -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - South Crocker Mountain -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - South Dakota -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Southern Unionist -- White Southerners living in the Confederate States of America, opposed to secession, and against the Civil War
Wikipedia - Southern United States -- One of the four census regions of the United States of America
Wikipedia - South Pond, Massachusetts -- Human settlement in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Southwest Hunter Mountain -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - South Yeocomico River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Space Coast Regional Airport -- Airport in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Spanish River (Florida) -- River in United States of America
Wikipedia - Spaulding Mountain -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Spectacle Pond (Wareham, Massachusetts) -- Lake in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Spenard, Anchorage -- Human settlement in Anchorage, Alaska, United States of America
Wikipedia - Spirit Mountain (Montana) -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport -- Airport in Ohio, United States of America
Wikipedia - Stand Watie -- Confederate States of America Army general and Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Wikipedia - Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America Volume One: The Early Years -- Album by Stan Freberg
Wikipedia - Stanwood, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - State governments of the United States -- State-level governments of the 50 states which comprise the United States of America
Wikipedia - States of affairs
Wikipedia - States of Austria
Wikipedia - States of Brabant -- Representation of the three estates to the court of the Duke of Brabant
Wikipedia - States of Brazil
Wikipedia - States of consciousness
Wikipedia - States of Germany -- First-level administrative subdivisions of the Federal Republic of Germany
Wikipedia - States of India by Gujarati speakers -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - States of Jersey Police -- Official police service of Jersey
Wikipedia - States of Mexico
Wikipedia - States of Mind I:The Farewells -- Painting by Umberto Boccioni
Wikipedia - States of Nature -- Book by Tina Loo
Wikipedia - States of Nigeria
Wikipedia - States of Palau
Wikipedia - States of South Sudan
Wikipedia - States of Sudan -- Highest level administrative sub-division of Sudan
Wikipedia - States of the German Confederation -- Listing of the states of the German Confederation
Wikipedia - States of the Holy Roman Empire
Wikipedia - States of Venezuela
Wikipedia - Steele Indian School Park Pond -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Steinhatchee River -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Stevens Branch -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Stevens Field -- Airport in Colorado, United States of America
Wikipedia - Stevens Village Airport -- Airport in Alaska, United States of America
Wikipedia - Stillaguamish River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Still River, Massachusetts -- Human settlement in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Stingaree, San Diego -- Human settlement in San Diego, California, United States of America
Wikipedia - St. James Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - St. Johns River Veterans Memorial Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - St. Lucie River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Stones Crossing, Indiana -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Stony Run (Buffalo Creek tributary) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Storyville, New Orleans -- Human settlement in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America
Wikipedia - Stoufferstown, Pennsylvania -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Manhattan) -- Church building in Manhattan, United States of America
Wikipedia - Straight Creek (Ohio River tributary) -- Stream in Brown County, Ohio, United States of America
Wikipedia - St. Sebastian Church (New York City) -- Church building in Manhattan, United States of America
Wikipedia - St. Sebastian River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Sulphide Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Summit, Butte County, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Sundale, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Surprise, Arizona -- City in Arizona, United States of America
Wikipedia - Suttle Lake (Oregon) -- Lake in Oregon, United States of America
Wikipedia - Swayne, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Swift Creek (Washington) -- River in Washington, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tacoma Narrows Airport -- Airport in Gig Harbor, Washington, United States of America
Wikipedia - Talbot, Oregon -- Unincorporated community in Marion County, Oregon, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tallery Mountain -- Mountain in West Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tampa Bypass Canal -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Taos Regional Airport -- Airport in New Mexico, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tappan Zee Bridge (2017-present) -- Bridge across the Hudson River, New York, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tarr's Ranch, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Telephone numbers in the Federated States of Micronesia -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Tellico River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Telogia Creek -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Template talk:Member states of the European Union
Wikipedia - Temple Sinai (Oakland, California) -- Reform Jewish synagogue in California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tennessee-Georgia water dispute -- Territorial dispute between the U.S. states of Tennessee and Georgia
Wikipedia - Tennessee -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Territorial evolution of the United States -- Evolution of the borders of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Texas annexation -- Annexation of the Republic of Texas into the United States of America
Wikipedia - Texas -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - The Block, Baltimore -- Human settlement in Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Thermodynamic diagrams -- Diagram showing the thermodynamic states of a material
Wikipedia - Thrall, Kansas -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Three Forks, Wyoming -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Tiger Creek (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Tilden, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Timeline of women's suffrage in the United States -- Timeline of the history of women's suffrage in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Timuquana Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tinian -- Island belonging to the United States of America
Wikipedia - Tobico Marsh -- Marsh in Bay County, Michigan, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tol (island) -- Island in Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - Tomoka River -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tooley Lake -- Lake in Lincoln County, Montana, United States of America
Wikipedia - Trammell Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Transportation in the United States -- Overview of the transportation in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Treasure Island Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tresidder Peak -- Mountain in Yosemite National Park, California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tressider Peak -- Mountain in Alaska, 13315 feet high United States of America
Wikipedia - Trevat, Texas -- Human settlement in Texas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Tri-City Airport (Kansas) -- Airport in Kansas, United States of America
Wikipedia - Trout Creek Mountains -- Mountain in United States of America
Wikipedia - Trout River Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Trout River (Florida) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Tuckasegee River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Tugaloo River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Turkey Creek (Econlockhatchee River tributary) -- Creek in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Turkey Creek (Indian River tributary) -- Stream in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Twymans Mill, Virginia -- Human settlement in Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Uncle Sam Plantation -- Human settlement in Louisiana, United States of America
Wikipedia - Unification Church of the United States -- Religious movement in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Union Flat, Amador County, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Union Township Covered Bridge -- bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America -- Historical Presbyterian organization
Wikipedia - United States and the United Nations -- Overview of the relationship between the United States of America and the United Nations
Wikipedia - United States dollar -- Currency of the United States of America
Wikipedia - United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment -- Committee of the Congress of the United States of America.
Wikipedia - United States in World War I -- Overview of the role of the United States of America during World War I
Wikipedia - United States Numbered Highway System -- Highway system of the United States of America
Wikipedia - United States occupation of Haiti -- Overview of the occupation of Haiti by the United States of America
Wikipedia - United States of Africa
Wikipedia - United States of America Mathematical Talent Search -- Mathematics competition in the United States
Wikipedia - United States of America
Wikipedia - United States of Banana -- Post-9/11 dramatic novel by Giannina Braschi
Wikipedia - United States of Colombia
Wikipedia - United States of Europe
Wikipedia - United States Office of Personnel Management -- United States federal government agency
Wikipedia - United States Office of Research Integrity
Wikipedia - United States Office of Science and Technology Policy
Wikipedia - United States Office of War Information -- United States government agency created during World War II
Wikipedia - United States of Indonesia -- Former country (1949-1950)
Wikipedia - United States of Latin Africa -- Proposed union of Romance-language-speaking Central African countries
Wikipedia - United States of Love -- 2016 film
Wikipedia - United States of Tara -- American television comedy-drama
Wikipedia - United States regulation of point source water pollution -- Overview of the regulation of point source water pollution in the United States of America
Wikipedia - University of Massachusetts -- Public university system in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport -- Airport in Oklahoma, United States of America
Wikipedia - U.S. National Whitewater Center -- Sports venue in North Carolina, United States of America
Wikipedia - U.S.-South Korea Status of Forces Agreement -- Agreement under Article 4 of the Mutual Defence Treaty between the Republic of Korea and the United States of America, Regarding Facilities and Areas and the Status of United States Armed Forces in the Republic of Korea
Wikipedia - Utah -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Vaccination policy in the United States -- Overview of the vaccination policy in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Vallerville, Massachusetts -- Human settlement in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Valley Lee, Maryland -- Unincorporated community in Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Van Loan Hill -- Mountain in New York state, United States of America
Wikipedia - Vasa Park, New Jersey -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Vaughan, West Virginia -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Vehicle registration plates of the Federated States of Micronesia -- Federated States of Micronesia vehicle license plates
Wikipedia - Venetian Causeway -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Vermont -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Veterans Memorial Bridge (Daytona Beach) -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Vine Street (Philadelphia) -- Street in Philadelphia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Virginia Mills, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Virginia Peak (Yosemite) -- Mountain in Yosemite National Park, California, United States of America
Wikipedia - Virginia -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Vonda N. McIntyre -- Science fiction writer from United States of America (1948-2019)
Wikipedia - Waban, Massachusetts -- Human settlement in Massachusetts, United States of America
Wikipedia - Wabasso Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Waccasassa River -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Wacissa River -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Wakulla River -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Walker Lake (Pennsylvania) -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Wallops Island -- Island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Ward, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Washington, D.C. -- Capital district of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Washington Executive Airport -- Airport in Maryland, United States of America
Wikipedia - Washington (state) -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Washita River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Watauga River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Water pollution in the United States -- Overview of water pollution in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Water Ranch Lake -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Watertown Regional Airport -- Airport in South Dakota, United States of America
Wikipedia - Waterville Robert LaFleur Airport -- Airport in Maine, United States of America
Wikipedia - Watkins Bar, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Weal, Virginia -- Human settlement in Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Weeki Wachee River -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Wee Wee Hill -- Hill in United States of America
Wikipedia - Weisner Covered Bridge -- bridge in United States of America
Wikipedia - Wekiva River -- River in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - West Branch Unadilla River -- Watercourse in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Western United States -- One of the four census regions of the United States of America
Wikipedia - West Virginia -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - West Woodward Airport -- Airport in Oklahoma, United States of America
Wikipedia - Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger -- 2014 documentary film directed by Joe Berlinger
Wikipedia - Wickets Island -- island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Wieland, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Willstown (Cherokee town) -- Human settlement in Alabama, United States of America
Wikipedia - Wilmont, Roanoke, Virginia -- Human settlement in Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
Wikipedia - Wilson Pigott Bridge -- Bridge in Florida, United States of America
Wikipedia - Windmill Island -- Island in Michigan, United States of America
Wikipedia - Wine of the United States -- Alcoholic beverage made from grapes grown in United States of America
Wikipedia - Withlacoochee River (Suwannee River tributary) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Women in the Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - Women's suffrage in states of the United States -- Women's right to vote in individual states of the United States
Wikipedia - Wreck Pond -- Lake of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Wyoming -- State of the United States of America
Wikipedia - Yakobi Island -- island in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Yankee Flat, California -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Yap -- Island group in the Federated States of Micronesia
Wikipedia - Yellow Bank River -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Yellow House Draw -- river in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Yellow River (Pensacola Bay) -- River in the United States of America
Wikipedia - Yellowstone National Park -- First national park in the world, located in the US states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho
Wikipedia - Zoe, Oklahoma -- Human settlement in United States of America
Wikipedia - Zonal Council -- States of India that have been grouped into five zones to foster cooperation among them
Wikipedia - Zwang Peak -- Mountain in United States of America
Jefferson Davis ::: Born: June 3, 1808; Died: December 6, 1889; Occupation: Former President of the Confederate States of America;
Jim Nussle ::: Born: June 27, 1960; Occupation: Former Director, United States Office of Management and Budget;
Franklin Raines ::: Born: January 14, 1949; Occupation: Former Director, United States Office of Management and Budget;
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https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Member_states_of_the_Commonwealth_of_Nations
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Member_states_of_the_Council_of_Europe
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Member_states_of_the_Dutch_Language_Union
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Member_states_of_the_European_Union
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Member_states_of_the_Union_for_the_Mediterranean
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Member_states_of_the_United_Nations
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:States_of_the_East_Coast_of_the_United_States
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Category:States_of_the_United_States
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Template:Sovereign_states_of_Europe
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/United_States_of_America
https://liberapedia.wikia.org/wiki/United_States_of_America
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/United_States_of_America
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https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Media_Workers_in_the_United_States_of_America_Photos
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Category:United_States_of_America
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_in_the_United_States_of_America
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_in_the_United_States_of_America#Homosexuality
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Federated_States_of_Micronesia
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Eastern_Orthodox_Church#Orthodoxy_in_other_Muslim-majority_states_of_the_Middle_East_and_Central_Asia
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/List_of_presiding_bishops_in_the_Episcopal_Church_in_the_United_States_of_America
Kheper - states_of_consciousness -- 36
auromere - states-of-self-realization-defined-in-the-gita
Integral World - States of Consciousness and the Structure of the Kosmos, Joe Corbett
Allergies and Addictions: States of Consciousness
http://integraltransformation.blogspot.com/2006/08/meta-states-of-consciousness.html
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2012/09/altered-states-of-conciousness.html
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2014/09/brain-mind-and-altered-states-of.html
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2015/05/mapping-altered-states-of-consciousness.html
https://esotericotherworlds.blogspot.com/2012/11/altered-states-of-conciousness.html
Dharmapedia - Liberal_Catholic_Church,_Province_of_the_United_States_of_America
Psychology Wiki - Altered_states_of_consciousness
Psychology Wiki - Consciousness#States_of_consciousness
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - states-of-affairs
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:Confederate_States_of_America
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States_of_America
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:States_of_India
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:States_of_the_United_States
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America_(1863%E2%80%931865).svg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America_(1865).svg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_the_United_States_of_America_(1861%E2%80%931863).svg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Naval_jack_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America_(1863%E2%80%931865).svg
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Seal_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America.svg
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Flight 29 Down (2005 - 2007) - The show follows a group of teens stranded on a South Pacific island in the Federated States of Micronesia after they crash their plane (a De Havilland Heron) in a tropical storm while flying to an eco-adventure camping trip in Palau.[3] A plot device of a video diary powered by a solar battery char...
Altered States(1980) - Research scientist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) believes other states of consciousness are as real as everyday reality. Using sensory deprivation, then adding powerful, hallucinogenic drugs, he explores these altered states...and endures experiences that make madness seem a blessing.
The Mouse That Roared(1959) - An impoverished backward nation declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose, but things don't go according to plan.
The Legend of Zorro(2005) - In 1850 (9 years after the events of the first film), California is voting on whether to join the United States of America as a state. A wild gunman, Jacob McGivens, attempts to steal some ballots, but Zorro chases after him and recaptures the votes. In their scuffle, McGivens pulls off Zorro's mask...
Phar Lap(1983) - Biographical drama of the titular race horse, who arrived in Australia from New Zealand in 1927 and became the racing champion only to die in mysterious not to mention suspicious circumstances in the United States of America in 1932.
Candy (2006) ::: 7.2/10 -- R | 1h 48min | Drama, Romance | 25 May 2006 (Australia) -- A poet falls in love with an art student who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair. Director: Neil Armfield Writers:
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) ::: 6.4/10 -- PG-13 | 1h 29min | Comedy, Drama, War | 24 June 2005 (Spain) -- Through the eyes of a British "documentary", this film takes a satirically humorous, and sometimes frightening, look at the history of an America where the South won the Civil War. Director: Kevin Willmott Writer:
The Mouse That Roared (1959) ::: 7.0/10 -- Approved | 1h 23min | Comedy | November 1959 (USA) -- An impoverished backward nation declares a war on the United States of America, hoping to lose, but things don't go according to plan. Director: Jack Arnold Writers: Roger MacDougall (screenplay) (as Roger Macdougall), Stanley Mann
The United States of Leland (2003) ::: 7.1/10 -- R | 1h 48min | Drama | 25 March 2005 (Italy) -- A young man's experience in a juvenile detention center that touches on the tumultuous changes that befall his family and the community in which he lives. Director: Matthew Ryan Hoge Writer:
United States of Tara ::: TV-MA | 30min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | TV Series (20092011) -- A woman struggles to find a balance between her dissociative identity disorder and raising a dysfunctional family. Creator: Diablo Cody
Z Nation ::: TV-14 | 44min | Action, Comedy, Drama | TV Series (20142018) -- Three years after the zombie virus has gutted the United States of America a team of everyday heroes must transport the only known survivor of the plague from New York to California, where the last functioning viral lab waits for his blood. Creators:
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ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka -- -- Madhouse -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Mystery Police Drama Fantasy Seinen -- ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka -- ACCA—a national body of the kingdom of Dowa that provides public services to the citizens of the country—was established as part of the peace settlement between the king of Dowa and the 13 states of the country during a revolt. One hundred years later, Dowa is in a period of unprecedented peace, due in part to the ACCA system. However, rumors of a coup d'état start to surface. Jean Otus, the second-in-command of the inspection department of ACCA, is charged with inspecting all 13 state branches. What will he discover as he performs his audit? -- -- Intriguing and mysterious, ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka is a politically-themed mystery that reveals a world of diverse cultures and lifestyles, with intricate connections between its characters, as the truth of the coup d'état slowly unfolds. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 126,432 7.68
Kingdom 3rd Season -- -- Studio Signpost -- ? eps -- Manga -- Action Historical Military Seinen -- Kingdom 3rd Season Kingdom 3rd Season -- Following the successful Sanyou campaign, the Qin army, including 1,000-Man Commander Li Xin, inches ever closer to fulfilling King Ying Zheng's dream of unifying China. With a major geographical foothold in the state of Wei now under its control, Qin sets its sights eastward toward the remaining warring states. -- -- Meanwhile Li Mu—an unparalleled strategist and the newly appointed prime minister of the state of Zhao—has taken advantage of Zhao's temporary truce with Qin to negotiate with the other states without interruption. Seemingly without warning, Ying Zheng receives news that armies from the states of Chu, Zhao, Wei, Han, Yan, and Qi have crossed into Qin territory. Realizing too late the purpose behind Li Mu's truce with Qin, Zheng quickly gathers his advisors to devise a plan to address the six-state coalition army on their doorstep. For the first time in history, the state of Qin faces complete destruction and must use every resource and strategy at their disposal to prevent themselves from being wiped off the map. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 42,809 8.38
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen -- -- 8bit -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Action Sci-Fi Supernatural Magic Romance School -- Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen -- Following the events of "Scorched Halloween," the world is introduced to a terrifyingly powerful Strategic class magician. In an effort to uncover the identity of this person, the United States of the North American Continent (USNA) dispatches the most powerful asset in its arsenal to Japan on a covert mission—the elite magician unit "Stars" and its commander, Angie Sirius. -- -- At First High School, Tatsuya Shiba and his friends are having a farewell party for Shizuku Kitayama, who is leaving to study abroad in the USNA as part of an exchange program. In her place, the group welcomes the beautiful Angelina "Lina" Kudou Shields. Around the same time, Tatsuya is informed about the USNA's plan to uncover his true identity. -- -- Elsewhere in Tokyo, numerous reports arise of seemingly random bodies found drained of blood. Dubbed as the works of a vampire, it does not take long for Tatsuya to connect the dots and realize that it is almost impossible for the timing of these events to be mere coincidences. -- -- 219,123 7.28
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen -- -- 8bit -- 13 eps -- Light novel -- Action Sci-Fi Supernatural Magic Romance School -- Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen -- Following the events of "Scorched Halloween," the world is introduced to a terrifyingly powerful Strategic class magician. In an effort to uncover the identity of this person, the United States of the North American Continent (USNA) dispatches the most powerful asset in its arsenal to Japan on a covert mission—the elite magician unit "Stars" and its commander, Angie Sirius. -- -- At First High School, Tatsuya Shiba and his friends are having a farewell party for Shizuku Kitayama, who is leaving to study abroad in the USNA as part of an exchange program. In her place, the group welcomes the beautiful Angelina "Lina" Kudou Shields. Around the same time, Tatsuya is informed about the USNA's plan to uncover his true identity. -- -- Elsewhere in Tokyo, numerous reports arise of seemingly random bodies found drained of blood. Dubbed as the works of a vampire, it does not take long for Tatsuya to connect the dots and realize that it is almost impossible for the timing of these events to be mere coincidences. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Aniplex of America -- 219,123 7.28
Psycho-Pass 3 -- -- Production I.G -- 8 eps -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi Police Psychological -- Psycho-Pass 3 Psycho-Pass 3 -- Thanks to the Sibyl System, the mental states of society can now be measured on a numerical scale. Using these "crime coefficients," a culprit can be apprehended before they ever commit a crime. But is it a perfect system? For Inspectors Kei Mikhail Ignatov and Arata Shindou, that remains to be seen, as their career with the Public Safety Bureau's Crime Investigation Department has only just begun. -- -- Shindou and Ignatov are assigned to investigate the crash of a ship carrying immigrants, but they begin to suspect that it was no mere accident. Meanwhile, a mysterious group called Bifrost is observing them from the shadows, but they aren't the only ones who have taken an interest in the two new Inspectors... -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 185,748 7.52
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