New-Age-Center

Special Guardian Angel Tattoos and their genuine meaning

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:51:16 +0000

By: alishatelshan

Guardian Angels are truly extraordinary but do you have any idea who yours is? If you want to get the right Guardian Angel tattoo that means something to you first find out who your angel is. After you figure out the day of the week you were born on, you will be able to figure out who your angel is.

Be positive to choose a tattoo that is distinctive that encompasses your angel. Most people just choose generic tattoos and conclusion up regretting them since they leave the tattoo parlor not realizing that they will most likely see that similar tattoo on others. Here are the days of the week and their chosen angels.

1) Monday’s Guardian Angel is St. Gabriel. Holding God’s restricted messages, he was the one who told Daniel the close of the world and annouced to the Virgin Mary how she would bear and become the mother of Jesus son of God.

2) Tuesday’s Guardian Angel is St. Raphael. He is the Seraph of a Christian’s trip onto heaven and guides us in our search for true happiness. He provides us with the light to protect us from dangers that fall upon us on our expedition to heaven. His name means good wellbeing and wealth which he brings to us on our voyage.

3) Wednesday’s Guardian Angel is St. Uriel. He stands for divine justice with the weighing scale in his hand examining all the good and bad we do in relation to God.

4) Thursday’s Guardian Angel is St. Sealtiel. The Guardian angel of thought and devotion giving us the tools to conquer the evils of hedonism. Some of these may inclu

de drug dependence and taking life.

5) Friday’s Guardian Angel is St. Jhudiel. God’s vessel of compassion. mercy is God’s love so we can make it through temptations and gain forgiveness within life. This gives us grace for the mind and body.

6) Saturday’s Guardian Angel is St. Barachiel. Barachiel is assigned to watch over God’s adopted children. He was instructed to care for them alongside the choir of angels.

7) Sunday’s Guardian Angel is St. Michael. Michael is the commander and chief of all the hierarchies of the spiritual hosts. He vanquished Lucifer and his followers in the first rebellion against God. He is connected with miracles and the almighty influence of God.

These are your days of the week and their selected Guardian Angels. Now find out the day of the week your birth date falls on and you can get that Guardian Angel tattoo. Now that step is taken care of it is time to find distinctive tattoos, print them out and take them to your preferred tattoo artist to duplicate.

Guardian Angel Tattoos are available at this site that shows tons of Guardian Angel tattoos.

Alissa Atlas is the writer of this piece of writing and is on the HorizonTattoos team at HorizonTattoos.net, which features the best 5 star exclusive tattoo site on the net.

Discover and Learn your Love Astrology

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:51:07 +0000

By: Jacinthe Milton

A lot of people whether they admit it or not they tend to have this unstoppable curiosity when it comes to their horoscope readings. They tend to wish if who are those people who are compatible with their horoscope signs. Cancerians would probably want to know if their cancer horoscopes are compatible with Leo horoscopes or Pisces horoscopes. A lot of people consider that all the answers to their love questions are written in the stars. Love astrology is what they tend to avail to learn about their love relationships and the potential partner. According to the ancient history Babylonian astrologers were the first one who created the infamous Astrology Love Guide. It was well thought-out as their “Magic Bullet” in throwing love spells to their potential lovers and makes them fall in love. Their full of meaning astrological wisdom and methods are not acknowledged by the conventional astrologers during their time. Love astrology is somewhat a good motivation to someone, especially to those who have a lot of problems in mind and doesn’t have any inspiration at all. If she or he had a love astrology reading and said that someday she or he might find the true love and that someone out there is waiting just only for him or her. This idea would certainly adds up a lot of courage to this person to continue the life and live as happy and with full of hopes. However since there are many websites that offer horoscope reading and love astrology reading and compatibility you need to be more extra careful in finding the most accurate and honest one. Read

and review the policy and privacy including the terms and conditions. Read all the testimonials that have been posted by the previous satisfied customers. This way you will get the assurance of having the perfect astrologer. Sites like Psychics.com.au where they promote a great deal Horoscope Readings and Psychic Readings. People can browse all the site services that can give enough information regarding with their inquiry. They have a team of dedicated advanced Psychic souls that are here to assist in the spiritual development of advancing souls. Harnessed with the knowledge of life’s miracles, these Psychics will provide uplifting solutions to life’s difficulties with their psychic readings and furnish your soul with wisdom and happiness.

Jacinthe is the author of this article for Psychics.com.au that offers Love Astrology and Horoscope Signs.

A Few Popular Free Magic Spells

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:51:02 +0000

By: Jack Daniel Morris

Since it is mostly Free Magic Spells for love that people search for in the internet, here are a few simple and elaborate Free Magic Spells for love, romance, passion and lust or fidelity that you may find useful. All of them are 100% free of cost and are extremely effective, forceful and powerful to boot as long as they are performed with heartfelt desire and sincerity and genuineness of feelings.

Free Magic Spells – Celtic marriage spell

You have to first find out 9 pea pods. Then you have to place them over the door of your kitchen on the lintel. This way you can attract your future husband to your home. There is also another edition of this spell that is favored by Venus and which involves the use of a branch of myrtle. You can nail a branch of myrtle on your door towards a top to attract a husband to your doors.

Free Magic Spells

This magic spell will induce a man to marry you. Take a lily and hollow out its root. Now fill the roots with lamp oil. You have to prepare a cotton wad wick. Now soak the wick thoroughly in a man’s semen. Every evening at 9 o’ clock you have to light this semen soaked wick for 1 whole hour. It won’t be long before your man surrenders to the power of this spell and agrees to marry you.

There is a Celtic variation of this spell as well. When you can’t get hold of your lover’s semen, you have to use your own vaginal fluid. On midsummer’s eve, you have to source and gather Adam and eve root. Grind it to powd

er by a red candle’s light. Now take some fine sand or witch’s sugar and mix it with the powder. Prick your ring finger, on the left hand and collect a few drops of blood.

Sprinkle those blood drops on the mixture. Then you have to write down your name on the sand. Whenever you get the chance, you can sprinkle a bit of the sand on top of your lover’s hair. The rest of the sand you have to save. This saved up portion can prove to be useful later on. This will make your beloved marry you.

Free Magic Spells – broken mirror spell

This spell is easy but requires you to prick your finger. First of all, you have to take a hand mirror and catch your lover’s image in that mirror. Then you have to smash that mirror. Collect a sharp shard and sterilize it in antiseptic liquid. Now prick your finger with the shard and let the shards get stained with the blood drops from your finger. Collect all the broken pieces of glass and bury the pieces together in the earth (in your garden or in a flowerpot).

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The Kabbalah Kraze!

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:51:01 +0000

By: payton lowe

I remember hearing a minister years ago as he quoted Dwight L. Moody. He said, “There are two types of religion in the world: Biblical Christianity…and all the rest.” Similarly, another minister I listened to later said, “The only two religions that exist in the world are Christianity and Hinduism…because Hinduism allows each man to find his or her own truth.”

A breed of ancient Jewish mysticism has recently resurfaced among the rich and famous, enticing those who are uninformed about the dangers of this cult. Madonna, who has given the Kabbalah Centre $18 million since 2001, Bette Midler, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Marla Maples and Roseanne Barr (refer to [http://radaronline.com/web-only/the-kabbalah-chronicles/2005/06/inside-hollywoods-hottest-cult.php] for more Hollywood stuff on Kabbalah) have been studying what’s known as “the Kabbalah.”

There is now a growing interest in the Kabbalah around the world. TV’s 20/20 just aired an interview with the charming Berg family whose Kaballah Centre is raking in millions off sincere followers, most of whom sport a red thread around their wrists.

So, what is the Kabbalah? Where did it come from? How should the Church view the Kabbalah according to Scripture?

I located this definition on the web: Kabbalah: (Various spellings) meaning: “to receive.” Mystical Jewish teachings intermingled with teachings of gnosticism, Neoplatonism, magic and the occult were handed down by oral tradition. The word Kabbalah was coine

d by an eleventh century Spanish philosopher, Ibn Gabirol. The philosophy developed in Babylon during the middle ages from earlier Hebrew speculation and numerology. An early Kabbalist, Moses de Leon, developed and systematized the philosophy in his thirteenth century work, The Book of Zolar (sometimes spelled Zohar meaning “Splendor”).

The media is filled with references to Kaballah these days and, as they have with their warmed-over, Westernized verson of reincarnation, prominent Hollywood personalities are clambering to take hold of this feel-good, popular, contemporary version of Kabbalah. According to the Israeli-based Kabbalist, Michael Laitman, the discovery of the upper spiritual world is the single truly satisfying answer to the growing demands of the modern ego. A scientist by profession, Laitman claims that exposing youngsters of all backgrounds and religions to the authentic Kabbalah sources can significantly reduce the escalating phenomena of drug abuse and suicide in today’s society. The brief daily exposure to these texts is highly recommended for getting youngsters back on track toward fulfilling their true purpose in life.

We should find it quite strange to discover the occult practices of Kabbalah rooted deep within Judaism. The venerated Torah is loaded with many prohibitions against all forms of the occult expression. Read on and we will see how Kabbalah is loaded with occultism and an anti-Scriptural doctrine.

Judaism Redefined

After the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, having rejected Jesus as Messiah, Mosaic Judaism had a major problem. The Torah emphasized that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” So, how could there be a continuation of the required blood sacrifices without an altar and a Temple? This, and other related issues, required a staff meeting. So, the Council of Jamnia was called in A.D. 90, and began, in essence, redefining Judaism, justifying their beliefs, essentially, and their reason for existence. This led to the formulation of the Talmud, the body of writings that seeks the interpret the civil law as well as the Law of God contained in Jewish Scripture), including commentaries on the Torah, or Pentateuch, and oral laws handed down through tradition. Among other things, the Talmud includes materials that concern decisions by Jewish scholars on disputed legal questions known as the Halakhah. Many examples and illustrations of the ethical, political, and religious principles involved in the laws are set down in the Haggada.

Now, two versions of the Talmud exist: the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud became authoritative because the rabbinic academies of Babylonia survived those in Palestine by many centuries. After the completion of the Talmud, the Halakhah continued to develop as rabbis adapted it to the changing times. The Haggada was also continually revised.

One of the most important parts of the Talmud is the Mishneh Torah. This was a compilation of all the rabbinical legal literature by various rabbinical commentators in existence at his time. Problems emerged when some Jews began veneration of the commentators over the text itself. People were focusing too much on the TEACHERS than their inspired TEACHINGS, much the same as some do today even within Christianity. It is simply the nature of people to do so.

Interestingly, in the 8th century, there arose a Jewish sect called the Karaites who clung to the strict interpretations of the Scriptures – let’s call them Fundamentalists – rejecting the Talmud and the rabbinical traditions that had been incorporated during the first six centuries. They were considered heretics by “Orthodox” Jews, and suffered persecution.

Here Kums the Kabbalah!

As was mentioned earlier, The Zohar was a monumental work composed by Spaniard Moses de León, who lived in Guadalajara until 1290, before living the life of a wanderer. De León was a prolific writer, completely immersed in mysticism. The Zohar, his greatest work, was written in Aramaic over a 30 year period. The doctrine taught in his book was deceptively credited by de León to some legendary Palestinian scholar, Shimon ben Yohai, claiming that a Spanish-Jewish scholar and mystic named Moses ben Nahman had found the book in a cave in which Shimon and his son had found refuge from Roman persecution. When Moses tried to send ben Yohai’s important teachings to his son in Catalonia, de León claims he intercepted it and began making copies, which he then circulated among the more educated folk.

De León failed in this attempt to deceive the world and hide the fact that he was its actual author. In his own lifetime a Palestinian mystic who doubted the authenticity and antiquity of the Zohar, investigated the matter. De León finally promised to produce the original, but died before the matter was settled. One must always closely examine the founder’s background when investigating any philosophical or religious movement. In this case, the author was a deceiver. His Zohar depicted God as merely a powerful force that one should aspire to obtain. De Leon taught that God is the unknowable, immutable Ein-Sof (Infinite “Nothingness”). From this philosophy sprang the Kaballah, the name of an occult theosophy that developed among Jews in Babylonia, and later Italy, Provence, and Spain, between the sixth and thirteenth centuries A.D.

The doctrine they taught was that heavenly revelation was received by enlightened Jews, and was passed on to succeeding generations through oral tradition. At first it was used by the mainstream of Judaism, but eventually it became identified with those who believed that the Kabbalah was an esoteric, occultic tradition that explained the true meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures, which was kept hidden from the masses and only made known to those who were spiritually ready to receive it.

Typically, Kabbalah is divided into two systems: theoretical and practical. The theoretical is concerned with theosophical speculation upon God and His attributes. The practical is concerned with bringing what has been theorized into the realm of everyday experience. This is attempted through prayer, ascetic practices, and the employment of various occult means, such as numerology, talismans, amulets, and incarnation of divine names and words.

One Kabbalah belief is that Scripture is inspired, not only in its obvious interpretations, but even to the degree that, through the use of occult symbol interpretation, one could find hidden meaning in the very numerical and alphabetical interpretation of the texts. Thus, the doctrine of the Kabbalah was derived through study of the Old Testament, but only when occultic interpretative techniques were utilized.

To give you an historical perspective, Kabbalah grew out of two basic needs in the Jewish consciousness. First, because they had rejected their Messiah, God temporarily rejected the Jewish nation (Luke 13:35), and so, in the centuries that followed, there were no prophets and no immediate manifestation of God’s presence among them. This left them feeling that God was far removed from them and made them more prone to be influenced by the philosophical climate of the people in whose lands they dwelt. This included Greek; Neo-Platonism and its “Christian” offshoot, Gnosticism. These philosophies had a very transcendent view of God: He is infinite and far removed from any conceivable contact with man. As the Jews embraced increasingly transcendent view of God, they needed to reconcile this with the traditional Hebrew belief in the accessibility of God to man. This need seemed to be met best through the doctrine of the Sefirot, the attributes or “emanation” of God, the groundwork of which had already been laid by the Gnostics, and Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher and contemporary of Christ.

The second reason for Kaballah’s emergence was that, by around the twelfth century, Talmudic legalism, ritualism, and intellectual slavery had reached its peak. Kabbalah became popular because it opened up an approach to religion that seemed more pleasurable, immediate, and less confining.

The Kabbalistic belief is that God, or “Ein Sof,” is infinite and transcendent, and can make no direct contact with finite beings like us. We came into existence when the Ein Sof voluntarily limited Himself by allowing Himself to become manifest through attributes or “emanation” (the Sefirot), listed as: Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence, Greatness, Strength, Beauty, Firmness, Splendor, Foundation, and Sovereignty. Each emanation would be further removed from the Ein Sof, and thus further from His perfection and transcendence. The Sefirot would be repeated on four different levels, and these realms, according to descent, were called: “Atziluth” (the world of the supernals, or heavenless), “Briah” (the world of creation), “Yetzirah” (the world of formation), and “Assiah” (the world of material action). Taking on a personal form, these Sefirot, as angels, served as intermediaries between God and man.

In this theosophy, the Sefirot are viewed as archetypes for everything in the world of creation, an understanding of their workings make clear to the seeker the inner workings of the universe and all of history. The concept is that the Zohar provides a cosmic-symbolic interpretation of Judaism, and of the history of Israel, in which the Torah and commandments – as well as Israel’s life in exile – become symbols for events and processes in the inner life of God. Interpreted in this way, the proper observance of the commandments by man takes on a cosmic significance.

That’s it. From the get-go, the concept of Ein-Sof was a tragic attempt to depersonalize God. After all, no one can relate to an unknowable force. On the other hand, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob IS a knowable, personal God who rejoices over His children with singing and longs to bless them. Jesus said, “When they see me, they’ve seen the Father.” Jesus showed humanity the character and nature of God in the flesh. One author writes, “…any attempt to chart the “inner life” of the Godhead, by means of the Sefirot or any other, is akin to “uncovering the Father’s nakedness,” a sin of grave disrespect emphasized in the Tenach itself!”

The disciplines of Kabbalah include meditative practices that promise to enable individuals to share and participate in the diverse dimensions of God’s being. Kabbalistic discipline was also limited to the elite who were highly educated in the texts of Talmudic Judaism prior to their immersion in Kabbalistic studies. Kabbalistic communities soon developed (not unlike today’s Kabbalh Centre), generally organized as secret societies of disciples that gathered around a specially gifted mystical teacher (Tziddik). Such communities soon spread all over Europe with increasingly broad appeal among learned Jews – the rich and famous wannabee’s, if you will. As the Berg’s stated during their 20/20 interview, even though one may not even read Hebrew, the very act of merely LOOKING at the Kaballah will command a blessing!

What should be the Christian response to Kabbalah?

There are many other aspects of Kabbalah that one can search out on this subject to expose the errancy of this theosophy. Don’t waste your time…read your Bible instead. I can hear an old friend of mine saying, “Let the Kabbalah movement grow! Its followers will ultimately come up empty. Finding that it leaves them wanting, we, The Church, must be there to show them unconditional love of Jesus. THAT is all they were ever looking for in the first place!”

Prayer is the greatest response to the “Kabbblah Kraze.” In today’s occult revolution where every dimension of the occult is being explored, there has been a revived interest in Kabbalah among both Jew and Gentile. Yes, its Jewish origin makes it unique, but Kabbalah is still essentially an occultic practice, and is thus incompatible with the Judaeo-Christian faiths. Its Pantheistic theology teaches that all reality springs directly from God’s own essence. Even if one believes that these emanations from God’s essence have gone through a descent of ten spheres on four different levels, the conclusion is inescapable that even he who is on the lowest level is still of one essence with God; and thus, ultimately, that individual IS God. This belief is nothing short of Pantheism.

Pantheism is a concept that is incompatible with the biblical concept God, who created the world out of nothing, not out of Himself. In Genesis 1:1, the Hebrew word for “create” is “bara,” referring to something coming out of nothing. Genesis 1:1 debunks Pantheism, the belief that God is IN the creation and IS the creation. God is the tree? He is the rock? He is the building? He is the air? Pantheism holds that God permeates, and, therefore, IS all.

I recall a debate with a believer in Pantheism where I asked him if God was in those bird droppings on the fence before us. I believe I heard his mental wheels come to a screeching halt for a moment. “Come now,” I said, urging him not to check his brain at the door, “your beliefs are either absolutely true in all instances or they aren’t true at all.” Pantheism, for those who aren’t aware, is a non-biblical world view. The concept is, basically, that only the spiritual dimension exists. Pantheists refer to the perception of material reality as maya, which means illusion. Some Pantheistic religions include Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. Pantheism also forms the basis for Transcendental Meditation and some aspects of New Age mysticism. It should not be confused with believing that God is omnipresent. God IS omnipresent. He is everywhere at once. David could say, “…if I ascend up into heaven, thou (God) art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there,” (Psalm 139:8). But God is NOT the created world. In fact, He is completely EXTERNAL to the created world. Worship belongs to the Creator, not His creation. Paul tells us in Romans 1:25 that there will be those “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator….”

God is related to the world as a sculptor is related to his sculpture, or as an artist is related to his painting, and I am related to this message on my computer screen right now. The sculptor is not the sculpture. The artist is not the painting. The writer is not the writing. The sculpture, painting, and writing are productions. They are produced by the One that creates, and what one creates, can be created again. Perhaps it will be different or it may be better.

God is infinite; He existed before the world existed. He still exists, co-existing with the universe and allowing you and me, through Christ Jesus, to become co-laborers with Him for we ARE seated with Him in heavenly places. That’s present tense. The universe is finite, having a very definite beginning and ending. The universe will end. Scientists reckon that the sun will shine about five million more years. Then in a great burst of energy, it will swell up, engulf and consume the planets before shrinking into a white dwarf. They claim the sun will eventually burn itself out, and the whole universe will come to a great cataclysmic end. God only knows. The Bible says that heaven and earth WILL pass away (Matthew 24:35). It also states, “…the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, …the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up,” (2 Peter 3:10). 1 Timothy 6:16 says that “the Lord only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.”

God created everything just by speaking it into existence. It was not difficult. He’s God, you know. “Let there be light and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). Poof! “Let the waters bring forth and they brought forth, Let the earth bring forth and it brought forth” (Genesis 1:20,24). Poof! God was not put to a test to make the universe. Some say, “Mankind was a more difficult product!” God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground; we must not have been TOO tough. Like a mud pie maybe. Poof! He took a rib from Adam’s side, spoke a word, and turned it into a woman. Poof! That was not hard for God. This whole creation was not such a magnificent production where God was concerned. To us, it is absolutely unfathomable. With just a little word, it all came to be. It was really easy for the Creator. Genesis1:31declares that in six days, it all came to be, simply through spoken words.

Imagine having that kind of an all-pwerful Creator God handling your measely, temporal problems! He WANTS to!

Finally, my brethren…

Although Kabbalists’ insistence upon the inspiration of Scripture in its literal form was commendable, their carrying this point to the extent of seeking to find hidden meaning in its numerical arrangements was just plain unnecessary. Logically speaking, couldn’t we apply Kabbalistic methods to almost any piece of literature and draw almost any interpretation from it? “Green eggs ‘n Ham” by Dr. Seuss might take on a profound new meaning! Their method of interpretation is neither acknowledged in the Bible, nor justified by it. The application of this method to the Bible have produced interpretations that are not supported by Scripture, and, in fact, produced something directly opposed to it.

To any Christian individuals considering the Kabbalah, I would say this: In the words of author Chick Missler, “Recognize that your adventure as a student is unfinished. “Now we see through a glass darkly; then, face to face.” Like a giant jigsaw puzzle, each piece takes its significance in how it fits in among those already in place. Forcing it only causes distortions. Withhold judgment until all the key pieces are in place.”

You may be dissatisfied or disillusioned with your most holy Chrsitian faith but, as my wise ol’ mom used to say, “You get out of it what you put into it.” Are you studying the Scriptures daily? Fellowshiping with strong believers? Praying? And if you’re praying, what is the Spirit saying? Are you listening to His still, small voice? As a disciple, are you practicing the disciplines of the faith, following the examples and studying the teachings set by Christ Himself? If not, then it’s no wonder Christianity is leaving you hungry. The delicious banquet has been set before you…but no one’s going to force you to partake.

Remember the wise counsel of Paul: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ,” Colossians 2:8.

Yes, Beware!

Bottom line: Kabbalah is a mystical, spiritual teaching that emphasizes secret knowledge (old-fashioned gnosticism, addressed by Paul in Colossians, that’s still around today). This secret knowledge stands in direct opposition to the way God communicates plainly with us through His Word. “Kabbalah uses animistic principles of superstitious practices to attempt to exert control over the world: numerology, talismans, amulets, and incarnation of divine names and words,” to quote from an article on Kabbalah by the Christian Research Institute.

Currently, the Kabbalah is spreading like wildfire, consuming disenchanted Jews, Christians and Celebs in its wake as many, if they are not abandoning their traditional faith all together, are trying to create some sort of hybrid faith by using a smorgasbord technique.

What will the Church do? What will YOU do? Pass this message on to others now. Someone out there needs to read this today.

Go ahead and RATE this article by scrolling to the bottom of the pagre and voting! NEXT, pass this message on to your friends and families. These acts will keep these messages alive in the Search Engines.

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Religions In India

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:50:58 +0000

By: Shikha Priyadarshini

Though limited in its physical space, India has always had a vast area opened for all those who have wanted to take refuge to its lands. The welcoming attitude of this nation has given it the unique characteristic of being a country with people following several religions and faiths. The pellucid air of the nation becomes sacred with the pious sounds of Azaan from the mosques, conchs from the temples, big bell from the church and Gurbani from the Gurudwara.

The main religions followed in the country are Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism. The dominant majority of the Indians, which is around 82 percent of the entire population of India, follow the Hindu faith and thus you can find most of the festivals celebrated here, like Diwali, Dussehra, Janmashtmi, Shivratri, Ram Navami, Ganesh Chaturthi, all find their roots deeply connected with the Hindu mythology. Other religions, except Hinduism, are a result of invasions,conquests, travelers and missionaries. Jainism, Buddhism, Judaism and Zoroastrianism are the other religions that gradually emerged and strengthened their roots in India.

People following Hinduism worship three main Gods who form a trinity, Lord Brahma who is the creator, Lord Vishnu who is the savior and Lord Shiva or Shankar, the destroyer. Hindus believe in Karma, incarnations, salvation and idol worship. The revered books are four Vedas-Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sam Veda and Atharva Veda. Other Holy books that include divine teachings are Ramayana, Mahabharat and the Puranas. The four major holy places for Hindus are

Badrinath, Puri, Rameshwaram and Dwarka, as the places find mention in the mythological books. Some trees, plants like basil and animals, especially cows and snakes, are highly worshiped.

Only around 12 percent of the population in India follow Islam. Islam has its roots in Saudi Arabia and the religion spread to India and to other places as a result of Muslim Invasions from Turkey, Yemen and Afghanistan since the 11th Century. Through violence of the sword, many people were converted into Islam, which enhanced their presence in the country. Muslims mainly belong to two sects-the Shias and the Sunnis, having different beliefs and principles. Some Muslims are Sheiks, who call themselves the generations of the first muslims while others call themselves Syeds, who believe they are of Prophet Mohammed’s daughter’s clan.

The holy book of Islam is Quran and their language is called Urdu. They worship the holy Quran in a mosque, but women are not allowed to enter here. They offer their prayers from home. The main Muslim festivals celebrated in India are Id-i-Milad, Bakri-Id, Shab-i-Barat and Muharram. Their prayer is called Namaaz and their thirty day fasting ritual is known as Ramzaan.

Christianity is a religion which is followed in every country of the world. Around 2.5 percent of the Indian population follow Christianity. The religion originated two thousand years ago in Bethlehem or Palestine. Christians worship Jesus Christ in Churches and they follow their holy book, Bible. The main festivals they celebrate are Christmas, Easter, Good Friday and Lent. These festivals are more commonly celebrated in the states of Goa and Kerala, where Christian population is in abundance.

Sikhism is followed by 2 percent of the Indian population. The Sikhs are easily identified by their turbans, colorful attire and humble nature. The religion was established by Guru Nanak Dev Ji and it flourished under the leadership of the ten gurus that followed the lineage. The Sikhism teachings say that there shouldn’t be any discrimination between people on the basis of caste, creed, race, sex or religion. They follow the teachings of their holy book, Guru Granth Sahib and worship it in the Gurudwara. The main Sikh festivals are Baisakhi, Lohri and Gurupurab.

Jainism is considered by many, to have its roots in India. The religion originated in around 500 BC, founded by the 24th Jain Tirthankar or prophet, Lord Mahavira. Jains worship the prophets of the religion as Gods and follow their teachings that includes following of non-violence or Ahimsa to attain salvation. The religion is divided into two sects-the Digambars and the Shwetambars. The digambar remain nude and consider the sky to be their only covering while shwetambars wear white clothes as a mark of purity. The main Jain pilgrimage spots in India include Mount Abu in Rajasthan, Mount Gimar in Gujarat and Mount Shatunjaya near Palitana.

Buddhism is another religion that originated in India as a system of moral teachings and guidelines of conduct. Like Jainism, it was also created in around 500 BC when Siddhartha achieved enlightenment in Gaya and became Gautam Buddha. The teachings of Gautam Budhha mainly included the four noble truths and the eight-fold path of conduct, which comprises of right understanding, thought, speech, endeavor, action, mode of living, concentration and mindfulness. Buddhism is widely followed in north and north-eastern parts of India like Ladakh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh. The main Buddhist scriptures are Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidamma Pitaka. The place of worship is known as a monastery or Gompa. Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Sanchi and Ajanta.

Zoroastrianism is a religion that was founded in Persia in around 6th Century BC and its followers are known as Parsis. Many Parsis fled to the coastal regions of Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, to escape violence in their country. They worship Lord Ahura Mazda and their holy scripture is known as Zend-e-Avesta. The basic teachings of Zoroastrianism includes the logic behind man’s existence, his duties and his final destination. Their main place of pilgrimage is Udwada in Gujarat.The main Parsi rituals include Navjoti, when a child is welcomed to the world of Zoroastrianism and No Ruz or the New Year.

So many variations can be observed in the beliefs, customs, rituals, moral conducts and ways of worship in these religions. Some raise their joined palm in a crescent shape, some join their hands and bow down while others move the prayer wheel, but the hopes, the faiths and the wishes are quite the same. The multiplicity of hues on a same canvas, make it more vibrant and meaningful than a plain white sheet. This is what India is all about, vibrant with variations, bonded with affection!

For more information about culture and religions of India, visit www.cultural-heritage-india.com

Water Spells – What Are They, What Can They Do, And 3 Simple Ones

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:50:44 +0000

By: Rose Ariadne
Water is believed to be the most important energy on the Earth. Studies have proved that water acts as a receptor as well as a transmitter of information through vibration.

Water gives life to all living things. Water is easily influenced by our thoughts, emotions and communications.

Just imagine the water from a shower or a gentle waterfall. As soon as it hits you, you feel like all your worries are draining away.

Ancient cultures considered taking a shower under a waterfall as very auspicious. Nothing cleans our soul like naturally flowing, pure, clean water.

Many of us are aware of the fact that our tissues are made up of at least 70% water. We use a mixture of salt and water to cleanse our homes and our environment. Water not only cleanses, it also heals. Ancient cultures used water spells to solve many problems.

When water is charged with energy, it becomes Angel water, Holy water, Moon infused water, Peace water, Spirit water, etc.

It was believed the water quickly absorbed and preserved the powers of other natural entities via infusion. Water is holy as it is, but when the following changes were made to it, it became even more powerful:

Prayers recited over it

Flowers of herbs soaked in it.

Gemstones immersed in it

Salt and water mixed together

Here are some water spells:

Angel water bath spell

Angel Water ingredients: Collect Myrtle leaves, Orange Blossoms, Rose petals and use the hydrosol method to create Angel water which is infused with the powers or all three of the above items.

Add Angel water to your bath. This will add romance and excitement to your lives. Also add Angel water to your laundry as a last rinse. Use these for special occasions.

Full Moon water spell

This is a simple method for drawing down the moon and using the moon charged water to enhance your psychic abilities

Get a large glass or crystal bowl. Fill it with spring water. Place it outside on a Full Moon night. In the morning, bring the bowl in and transfer the water into a clean, unused bottle. Refrigerate to preserve the contents.

Every morning, after a bath, apply some of this moon charged water with your fingers to the nape of your neck and to the third eye area. Repeat for nine consecutive days for optimum benefit.

Spirit summoning water spell

Add one tablespoon of anisette to a glass of spring water to makes spirit water.

Just before you go to sleep, place a glass of spirit water by your bedside as an offering for an ancestor you wish to see. Also drink a small glass of anisette or sambuca before settling down to sleep.

As soon as you awake, throw away the water that you had offered your ancestor.

Repeat the spell if necessary.

Water scrying spells

Fill a shallow pan with water. After the water has settled, add a few drops of oil to it. Watch the patterns that the oil makes. It may form shimmery designs or a rainbow.

Ask questions for which you know the Yes/No answers such as (Is today Tuesday?) etc. Learn the way in which the oil/water combination gives you clues as to what the answers are.

Rose Ariadne has been practicing ancient forms of Witchcraft for over 25 years. Get more info about water spells here: http://www.askroseariadne.com/editorials/7_water_spells.html

Transcendental Meditation: Discovering The Inner Self

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:50:37 +0000

By: Brenton Mason

Each human being is a masterpiece, a source of limitless energy and potential. Within each person, there is a vast well of power, knowledge, and life. Each is created with a mind and a soul that instinctively rises above to meet the infinite boundaries of being.

The quest for happiness, for success, and for a better quality of living is endless among most people. Many look forward to the promises of tomorrow for a more pleasant life. Some, on the other hand, cling to various things for joy and satisfaction. However, do you know that many of the things that most people dream today are actually hidden within them? These are only waiting to be discovered and unleashed.

Transcendental meditation revolves around this purpose – to help a person successfully bridge the gap that separates him from his inner self and to discover the treasures lurking within him in the process. Transcendental meditation can be traced back to the year 1957, originating from India’s Vedic tradition. This specific type of meditation primarily works using a certain utterance called mantra. The idea behind this activity is to reiterate the given mantra following specific principles and procedures.

When successfully performed, the result is the attainment of a specific state of mind that is called transcendental consciousness. Once you attain this state, you will experience a sense of tranquility and alertness. These two senses of being may make you think that transcendental consciousness is ironic in nature. However, this can actually be achieved, and

the benefits are overwhelming.

Practicing transcendental meditation is a way to calm the body and the mind, to free it from the binds of the material world. You will not need to exert too much effort to achieve this. No concentration is even required. You do not have to do anything. With the mantra as your guide, you will be able to transcend worldly thoughts.

Once free from the bounds of material perceptions, only then will you be able to discover the pool of potentials that you have. Your intellect will reveal to you truths that have been hidden in the depths of your soul and riches that you may never even know exist in you. By looking inward, you keep in touch with yourself and bring to life all those dormant potentials that have been endowed to you since you were born.

The challenge to every person who practices transcendental meditation is to be able to bring his hidden potential out into his daily life. This activity only requires about twenty minutes of your time, performed two times a day, to be able to take effect in its best form. With practice, you can easily learn the technique and witness the changes that it will bring your life. It is geared towards the growth of the entire self. By drawing energy from within, you will be able to improve your outer self and your whole life. Once the gap has been bridged, you can expect to experience a new personality, a new lifestyle, and a much better outlook in life.

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How to Transport Your New Puppy to Your Home

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:50:35 +0000

By: Keri Carrillo

In years past the normal way of getting your puppy would be looking in your local newspaper, calling the breeder, picking it up and taking it home. Those days are long past since the age of the Internet. The Internet has brought a new way of purchasing your puppy. It has opened up more avenues and more choices then the local paper could ever hope to offer. At any given time of day or night you can browse through the pet web sites and have a choice of color, size or breed as well as the locale the puppy you are looking at. The question you may have in your mind is that if you are looking at a puppy where the breeder is located in California and you live in New York, how I will get my new baby home. There are a few different avenues however there is one way that is best above all of them.

A drive from New York to California would be out of the question for most but in this day in age there are many options available to buyers for transporting a baby home. The three most popular ways are as follows:

1. Breeders offering personal delivery for an extra charge.

2. Commercial transportation that specialize in transporting pets directly to your door.

3. Having your puppy shipped via airplane transport.

Some breeders for a small fee will bring your puppy right to your door. This gives you a chance to meet the person you are buying from as well as personal service. However there are some high risks to be aware of if you choose this method. Depending on where you live could make all the difference with this choice. Puppies dr

iving in cars for long periods of time can get car sick, throw up all over the place and refuse to eat. Some will even refuse to go to the bathroom. Depending on the size of the puppy you are buying this could spell disaster especially if you are buying a Yorkie or a Maltese. The tinier the puppy being transported it also raises the risk. They can develop hypoglycemia; keel over and kick the bucket in just a matter of hours. Even if the puppy survives the trip the affect may still be seen days later. Some may want to blame the breeder for the puppy being sick but it may not be the case. Most will choose this method of transport if available; however a word of caution should be given when using this method.

Commercial transportation is another way to bring your new baby home. This service can be contacted by the breeder or the buyer to be set up. The cost is usually around five hundred dollars or less and they will bring your baby right to your door. Usually several weeks advance noticed will be needed if you intend on using this method. What they do is they get a list started of all their potential stops and carefully map out the route that will save the company the most time and expense. If you don’t happen to be within the vicinity they may not be able to fit you in and you may have to wait until the next trip or not at all. The drawbacks of course include the time it takes your puppy to get there when they get on the road. Once your puppy is on the way, it could take up to 3-7 days for that new baby to reach your doorstep. With this way of transport you are also dealing with the same problems with personal delivery but there are more. There is not just one puppy traveling but possibly twenty or more puppies. All twenty puppies in the back of the truck and let’s hope none of them have kennel cough, because your new family member may catch it since it’s airborne.

A buyer can have their puppy transported via airplane. Some would not even dream to have there new addition fly on an airplane. This however by far is the safest and quickest way to get your new baby to you. Delta Airlines has a Pets First program in which they offer some direct and quick flights to your local airport. The problem with them if it’s too cold or too hot they can’t ship. During good weather Delta is a good choice however there is another choice if you can’t fly Delta.

Continental Airlines is a good choice of flying live animals because everything they do with the puppy for the most part is air and heat controlled, thus being able to ship all year long. In all airlines the puppy is shipped in a special pressurized compartment below the plane. Each puppy is in its own container that the breeder provides which reduces any type of contamination or airborne illness. Most puppies arrive the same day they are shipped. Finally in a few hours your baby arrives at your local airport in which you are eagerly waiting the arrival. All of the airlines have different places where you would pick up your new family member. Some it would be the ticket counter; also you can pick up your baby at the cargo facility and others the baggage claim service office. Your breeder would let you know in advance where to go.

Buying a puppy these days is quick, easy and more convenient then ever. A decision will have to be made which way you would like your new baby delivered to you; as you can see above the choice is pretty clear. It is safe and economical costing around two hundred dollars. I have been shipping puppies for about three years now and also have been on the receiving end so I can say from experience, flying your new baby home is the best way.

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The Buddhist Theory of Unhappiness

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:50:34 +0000

By: Gerald Dupre

It is an ancient tradition of India, first surfacing in the Upanisads, to be interested in unhappiness and the possibility of liberation from it. Siddhartha Gautama, titled the Buddha, took this one step further, claiming that unhappiness and suffering are the basic issue for humanity, and that human efforts should be focussed on overcoming it. He said “One thing I teach, unhappiness and the end of unhappiness”, and he laid out this project in a four point programme which became known as the Four Noble Truths. The Buddhist theory of unhappiness begins with the first two of these, the first giving a description of unhappiness and suffering (dukkha),and the second stating its cause, and elsewhere other causes are added and a more detailed account given of how they operate. However, it is actually difficult to find in the Buddhist texts a clear overall statement of the theory. To arrive at that, one has to draw together scattered doctrines and draw out their meaning, and that is what I want to attempt in this article.

Unhappiness

Buddhism takes the simple view that the world contains some things that we find agreeable and which make us happy, and some things that we find disagreeable and that make us unhappy. Accordingly the description of unhappiness in the First Noble Truth lists

1. several examples of disagreeable physical situations we encounter in life, and

2. a few examples of the mental states of unhappiness they cause in us.

Disagreeable Things

These are the things mentioned, picked out in bold type. Right at the beginning of our life we experience pain at our birth – the first thing we do is cry! Our mother also experiences pain and risks her life to bear us. Being liable to experience pain is a feature of having a physical body. So is the need to constantly maintain ourselves, keeping ourselves clean and having to earn money to feed and clothe and house ourselves. We are emotional beings, at the mercy of our emotions. We and the world we live in are subject to change – we may lose our job or our friends. We sometimes find ourselves in a situation we don’t like, there are times when we are separated from the people and things we love, and there are many occasions when we don’t get what we want. More seriously, we may succumb to illness or injury. We become increasingly burdened with the restrictions and hardships of old age. We suffer the death of loved ones, and have to endure dying ourselves. According to the story, it was when the young Gautama witnessed old age, illness and death on the streets of India that he was spurred to dedicate his life to doing something about it.

Nowadays, in an effort to recast Buddhism in modern philosophical or religious terms, some people speak of dukkha in Buddhism as existential angst or spiritual emptiness. But the original definition is clearly about the straightforward physical causes of the ordinary unhappiness of everyday life. This is just the unhappiness we all experience at times in our life as a result of being a physical organism in a physical world.

Some people also anguish about how to translate ‘dukkha’, and too often chose the one word ‘suffering’. But the definition makes clear that what is being talked about is the whole range of unhappiness caused by disagreeable things, all the way from the agony of searing pain at one extreme, through episodes of loss and hardship, down to the moment by moment petty irritations of everyday life. The description gives a broad survey of this range of disageeable things, and I think that all other such things not actually mentioned are also implied.

Few of these disagreeable things can be eradicated, but many can be reduced to some extent, and this is the important part played by Buddhist ethics. The principle underlying the Buddhist guidelines for living is that of doing what will increase happiness and welfare and reduce unhappiness and suffering. So, it is a Buddhist value to minimise death by not killing humans or non-human animals. Gautama urged caring for the sick, and spoke out against trade in anything harmful to health. He was sceptical about the efficacy of much of the medicine being practised in his day, but later in Buddhist countries hospitals were established for humans and other animals. Although poverty isn’t specifically mentioned in the list of disagreeable things, Buddhist ethics forbid trading in slaves, and specify that workers should be paid a living wage, treated well, and allowed time off. Along with knowledge and mental training, morality is one of the three pillars of the Buddhist life, and tackles the physical causes of unhappiness and suffering.

States of Unhappiness

The remainder of the First Noble Truth gives a brief list of examples of the states of unhappiness caused in us when we experience disagreeable things. The list is: pain, unpleasant feeling, grief, lamentation and despair. These can be divided into two groups:

1. feelings of pain and unpleasantness that may occur in the process of perceiving a disagreeable object, and

2. emotional moods such as grief, lamentation and despair that may follow from such a perception.

1. Painful and Unpleasant Feelings in the Perception of a Disagreeable Object

Buddhist psychology developed a detailed account of the perceptual process that occurs when we perceive an object. This process is said to be composed of a series of causally linked conscious states that only last for an instant. The object is noticed, we become conscious of it in the form of a bare sensation, it is received by the mind, then investigated, then when we have established what the object is, we respond to it, and register it in our memory. When the object is disagreeable, feelings (vedana) of pain or unpleasantness are said to sometimes arise at specific points in this process.

The feeling of pain (dukkha, used here in a more limited sense) arises in our bare awareness of a tactile object of a sufficient intensity, and this is said to be the only conscious state in which pain occurs. In other words, we feel pain when a sufficiently strong stimulus affects our tactile sense receptors, such as when we are hit or cut or burned. Each conscious state of pain lasts for only an instant, but so long as the object continues to cause it these conscious states of pain will rapidly reoccur with each new perceptual process, giving us longer experiences of pain. There are some yogic techniques which teach a degree of mental control over pain, and one might have expected Gautama to have taught them, but he didn’t. Perhaps they had not yet been developed. However, he did teach the mental control of our emotional reactions to pain. There are also, of course, pain-killing drugs, some of which probably existed in early Buddhist India, but I’m not aware that Gautama advised using them, which is perhaps surprising. Nevertheless, alleviating pain was the driving force of his code of morality, so he did advocate this in general terms.

According to the developed Buddhist psychology, the unhappy feeling of unpleasantness (domanassa) occurs only at the stage in our perception of a disagreeable object when we respond to such an object with aversion. Unlike pain which is felt directly as part of our first consciousness of the object causing it, the mental feeling of unpleasantness can only arise when we have mentally established what the object is, which we do immediately prior to responding to it. It is said that we are capable of some control over whether we associate a perceived disagreeable object with an unpleasant feeling, and gaining this may be part of the Buddhist mental training for removing the emotional response of aversion.

2. Emotional Moods of Unhappiness

These are the remaining states of unhappiness listed in the First Noble Truth, the emotional moods of grief (soka), lamentation (distress) (parideva), and despair (upayasa), and we can take it that all other emotional forms of unhappiness are meant to be added to these examples. The definition makes it clear enough that this is such unhappiness in this present life. At no point in the definition is anything said about lives after death. Gautama believed in rebirth, but his primary concern, as stated in the Four Noble Truths, was unhappiness and liberation from it in this present life.

However, when the Abhidhamma Buddhist psychology was formulated at a somewhat later date, these caused states of unhappiness appear in the account, not as occurring in this present life, but in another life after death into which one is reborn. This is rather extraordinary. The original central basic Buddhist project was concerned with unhappiness in this life, but the later more detailed account of it, apart from the unhappy feelings in the perceptual process, drops all mention of grief, lamentation and despair, etc., in this life, and instead talks of the unhappy perception of a disagreeable object leading, in some cases, to physical rebirth after death into a future unhappy life, in unfortunate circumstances on earth, or in one of a number of hells.

What seems to have happened is that the original phase of Buddhism, in which Gautama is said to have achieved liberation from unhappiness in this life, and to have led many other people, often quite ordinary people, to do the same, had come to an end. The situation had changed to one we are familiar with today, where liberation in this life was rare indeed, and most followers of Buddhism didn’t even aspire to it, but just hoped for a happy rebirth. The Abhidhamma Buddhist psychology seems to reflect this. It concentrates on unhappy rebirth, and how to avoid it.

Nevertheless, it still owes us an account of the unhappy emotional moods such as grief, lamentation and despair, that arise in this present life and are listed in the First Noble Truth. There is reason to believe that the Abhidhamma account of physical rebirth into other unhappy lives can also be taken as a poetical image of unhappy periods within this present life. The wider context of Buddhism is the whole Indian tradition of liberation from the unhappiness of rebirth. Here the rebirth that liberation is from is typically expressed in terms of physical rebirth after death. Yet liberation from rebirth is also said to involve a mental liberation in this life which transforms one’s consciousness. The rebirth this mental liberation is from has to be a psychological rebirth, so talk of physical rebirth also has to be taken as an image of unhappy human consciousness metamorphosing from one transient emotional state to another. For the Abhidhamma account of physical rebirth to also have this psychological interpretation is therefore in line with the dual nature of the concept of rebirth in ancient Indian thought. (See my article “Rebirth in Hinduism and Buddhism is Also an Image of Unhappy Consciousness”). Also some schools of Buddhism explicitly teach this interpretation.

The Buddhist psychology says that an unhappy perception of a disagreeable object may be immediately followed by birth into an unhappy life, which we are now interpreting as an unhappy mood in this present life. It is said that the conscious state of the perceptual process responsible for investigating the disagreeable object so as to establish what it is, and so the state that establishes that the object is a disagreable one, reappears as the first conscious state (patisandhi) of the unhappy mood, as the conscious states (bhavanga) which fill any gaps between perceptions throughout the duration of the mood, and as the final conscious state (cuti) of the mood. This seems to describe the way experiencing something disagreeable can put us in an unhappy mood that continues the same despite perceiving other things.

It is said that some of the ‘hell’ moods contain some happiness mixed in with the predominant unhappiness, a likely description of cases where an unhappy mood is enlivened by the occasional lifts in our spirits when something agreeable comes along, but not enough to bring the unhappy mood to an end. Other ‘hell’ moods are said to be entirely unhappy, which would be a fitting description of despair or depression.

The different unhappy rebirth lives, interpreted as unhappy moods in this present life, do not link up neatly with the examples of such moods given or suggested in the definition of unhappiness, but there is some connection. Two of the hot hells are hells of lamentation, making them a suitable image of this emotional state and behaviour. The cold hells would make a telling image of despair. Being born as a Peta, a creature consumed by unsatisfied desire, makes a perfect image of the unhappiness of the situation of not getting what we want which is listed in the definition of unhappiness.

The Causes of Unhappiness

This completes my examination of the First Noble Truth of unhappiness, and I move on now to the Second Noble Truth which states the cause of unhappiness. This apparently simple distinction between the two isn’t quite as simple as it looks at first sight, because in fact, as we’ve seen, the First Noble Truth is also mostly given over to listing causes of unhappiness. The causes dealt with there are for the most part external physical causes which may be reduced by ethical action but not eradicated. What the Second Noble Truth moves on to is the mental cause of unhappiness, and this according to Buddhism (and the ancient Indian tradition) is something that can be entirely removed.

It is stated that the mental cause of unhappiness is desire (lobha, tanha, raga or upadana). This may be desire for sensory things, or it can be attachment to ideas and thoughts and beliefs. This isn’t an original idea. Already in the Upanisads, a founding literature of Hinduism, it was asserted that desire was a major cause of unhappiness. As in the Upanisads, Gautama is actually saying that desire is the main mental cause of unhappiness, not that it is the only one.

This is because elsewhere he talked of there being two other mental causes of unhappiness: aversion and ignorance (avijja). The latter is also not original, already presented as a cause of unhappiness in the Upanisads. In part it means not knowing what causes unhappiness, having desires and aversions freely because you don’t realise that they are laying up future unhappiness. As such it is really only an indirect cause of unhappiness, in that it allows the direct causes of desire and aversion to arise.

Gautama may have been a bit more original bringing in aversion (dosa, patigha, upanaha, kodha or vyapada) as a third fundamental cause of unhappiness. Doing this effectively embraces all emotions, with desire being emotionally reacting for something, and aversion being reacting against something. It is actually just desire and aversion that are the direct mental causes of unhappiness, and this means that what Gautama is really saying is that the mental cause of our unhappiness is our emotional responses. One sometimes hears it said that Buddhism picks out ego as the cause of unhappiness, but this is not what the central Buddhist doctrine says. Instead Buddhism takes the Behaviourist line that what causes unhappiness are our emotional reactions, both to sense objects and to thoughts.

The view was that in any conscious state containing desire or aversion, there is ignorance as well. It is also the Buddhist view that you can’t have both desire and aversion in the same mental state – they are opposites so that the presence of one excludes the presence of the other. It follows that the three causes of unhappiness actually operate as two alternative pairs. Ignorance and desire together cause unhappiness, and ignorance and aversion together do so, although, as I have said, in each pair it is only the emotional response, of desire or aversion, which is a direct cause.

In somewhat later Buddhist texts more causes of unhappiness are added to these three. This is partly because on various occasions Gautama remarked that some other mental or emotional quality would lead to unhappiness, so these had to be added to the list. Of the three early Buddhist schools whose literature has survived, the Theravadins added eleven more causes, which are really only ten because two of them, thina and middha, both mean mental laziness. They include envy (issa), meanness (macchariya), uncontrolled thought (uddhacca and vicikiccha), and a conceited self image (mana). The Sarvastivadins and Yogacarins also list all of these, and in addition they both add seven more: carelessness (pramada), sloppiness (kausidya), hypocrisy (makkha), dissatisfaction (pradasa), doing harm (vihimsa), deceit (maya) and dishonesty (satheyya), and the Yogacarins tentatively add three more: forgetfulness (musitasmrtita), confusion (viksepa), and wrong judgement (asamprajna). I can’t deal with all this extra detail in this present article, so I’ll restrict myself to the original three causes, ignorance and either desire or aversion.

How these mental causes of unhappiness operate is set out more thoroughly in the doctrine called paticca-samuppada. It is presented as a list of twelve items, with each item said to be the cause of the following one. From early in Buddhist history up to the present day it has been found bafflingly obscure, and has been given many different interpretations. It has proved difficult to give a precise account of each link, and at the same time present the doctrine as a whole as both coherent and illuminating.

I think that what we have to do is to stand back, stop worrying about precise causal links, and just ascertain in general what the doctrine is about. It is plain enough, and fairly widely agreed, that it is an elaboration of one of the pairs of main causes of unhappiness. This is because the item at the end of the causal chain is unhappiness, represented by the phrase ‘old age and death’ (jaramarana), and among the other items on the list are the members of one pair of the main causes of it, ignorance at the beginning, and desire two thirds of the way through. As we have already seen, it is said that where there is desire there is also ignorance, so that is why we have both causes here. Out of desire and aversion, desire is held to be the more dominant cause, as such the one picked out in the Second Noble Truth, so that is why desire is featured here. It is also said that if there is desire in a mental state, there cannot be aversion as well. This explains why desire is in the list, but not aversion. The emphasis on the list being a causal one is not, I think, because it is about causation itself, but simply because it is setting out how unhappiness is caused.

Let me now give an exposition of what the paticca-samuppada might be telling us about the main causes of unhappiness. In order to do that it is necessary to relate the bare list of items with what is said about them elsewhere in the ancient Buddhist texts.

I believe the first three items on the list give an account of how ignorance (avijja), the first item, indirectly causes unhappiness. Ignorance, in this context, is not knowing what causes unhappiness, (i.e desire and aversion), and these are mental components (cetasika) of conscious states. The second item in the list, sankhara, is a general term for the mental components, including new components as they were added to Buddhist psychology, but originally referring in particular to the karmic or unhappiness- and happiness-causing components, and in this context referring to just the unhappiness-causing ones. Because we do not know that these components will cause later unhappiness, we allow them to arise unchecked. The mental components are constituents of conscious states (vinnana, the third item on the list). They are responsible for making the conscious state they are in the kind of conscious state it is. In the Theravada school of early Buddhism in due course eighty nine different kinds of conscious state (citta) were distinguished. An unhappiness-causing mental component in a conscious state makes it an unhappiness-causing conscious state. More to the point, unhappiness-causing mental components cause later unhappy conscious states.

The next six items present the view, central to Buddhist psychology, and widespread in ancient Indian thought, that desire arises at a particular stage in the process of perception. Our unhappy, and all other, conscious states are found in association with our physical body, together constituting us as a sentient or perceiving organism (nama rupa, item number four). The relevant part of our physical body is the five sense receptors, and the physical organ of mind, then thought by some to be the heart, but now known to be the brain. These six (salayatana) are item number five. Sense objects make contact (phassa, the sixth item) with these sense receptors and the mind organ to produce sense consciousness. A similar process occurs in the case of mental objects (thoughts), the mind organ, and mental consciousness. Where the sense object is an agreeable one, it may in the consciousness of it be accompanied by a feeling (vedana, the seventh item) of pleasure. At the responding stage (javana) of the perceptual or mental process we may, due to our ignorance of its effect, respond to such a pleasurable perceived object with the emotion of desire (tanha, item number eight). Repeated desire for a particular object causes habitual entrenched emotional attachment to it (upadana, item number nine).

This causes our normal unliberated everyday consciousness of life (bhava, item number ten), which is depicted pictorially in Buddhism in the Wheel of Life (bhavacakra). This image has the three main causes of unhappiness, ignorance, desire and aversion, in the central hub, and the twelve items of the paticca-samuppada around the outer rim, and between them, where the spokes would be, the various ‘rebirth states’ which we are here interpreting psychologically as the different moods and circumstances of our life. We find ourself born (jati, item eleven) into these different phases and moods, some happy with agreeable objects, some unhappy with disagreeable objects. When disagreeable situations arise, such as old age and death (jaramarana, the twelth and final item) we are cast into unhappy moods. Taken as a whole, this is the more fully developed Buddhist account of how unhappiness is caused.

But it leaves some details to be filled in, which is done in the Abhidhamma Buddhist psychology. Here it is said that there will typically be a gap of time between the desire or aversion, and the unhappiness it causes. What operates across this interlude is karma, which in this case is mental karma in this present life. To our modern eyes it looks a lot like the emotional response of desire or aversion as neural activity that causes a physical modification of the brain.

In the case of desire, what Buddhist psychology says is that past desire for an agreeable object influences our present perception of a disagreeable object, specifically our initial consciousness of it (vinnana), our receiving of it into our mind (sampaticchana), and our investigating of it to establish what object it is (santirana), and this may result in our being put into an unhappy mood. Since the object we responded to with desire was agreeable, and the object we are perceiving now is disagreeable, it cannot be one and the same object reappearing unchanged. But it could be the same object altered. For example, if we have become attached to a beautiful possession, then if we now discover that thing broken it will have become a disagreeable object, and our perception of it will contrast how it is now with how it used to be making us all the more upset, and the more attached we were to it in the past, the more distraught we are going to be now. It is interesting to see that here desire and impermanence are working together to produce unhappiness. A different case of desire causing unhappiness is where we want something desireable, but face the frustrating situation of not being able to have it. Wanting it strongly colours our view of not having it, and the more we want it, the more inconsolable we are. Yet another case is being attached to being surrounded by beautiful things. If we now find ourself somewhere ugly, our past attachment to beauty will give us a very negative attitude towards the ugliness and make us feel depressed.

In the case of aversion, past dislike of a disagreeable object or person influences our present perception of something disagreeable and puts us in a bad mood. If it is the same object, for example the same person, then reacting against him in the past will cause us to view him negatively when we meet him again, making our heart sink. If the two objects are different, then it will be our general tendency to react to unpleasant things adversely that will make us sensitive to any unpleasant thing we experience and liable to be cast into a bad mood by it. Interestingly, unlike desire, aversion and impermanence work against each other. If a disagreeable object changes into an agreeable one, that changes unhappiness into happiness! This could be one reason why aversion is seen in Buddhism as a lesser cause of unhappiness than desire.

The Buddhist solution to all this is that we must train ourself not to react to things emotionally, so ridding ourself of moods, enjoying the good times without attachment or elation, and enduring unpleasant circumstances without aversion or ill humour.

Conclusion

We have found that the definition or description of unhappiness in the First Noble Truth gives two sets of examples, instances of disagreeable mostly external physical objects and situations, and examples of some of the states of unhappiness they cause. These instances of unhappy states can themselves be divided into painful and unpleasant feelings that may arise in the perception of a disagreeable object, and unhappy emotional moods that may follow from such a perception.

As for the Second Noble Truth, we have found that this gives what in the Buddhist view is the main mental cause of unhappiness, but that there are also other mental causes in the Buddhist literature, such as ignorance and aversion. The two direct causes are desire and aversion, which effectively stand for all emotional responses. How desire causes unhappiness in the process of perception is set out in more detail in the paticca-samuppada doctrine, and in more detail still, for both desire and aversion, in the Abhidhamma psychology. At first sight it can seem difficult to extract from the early Buddhist texts a clear statement of exactly how unhappiness is caused, but I hope I have shown that it is possible to piece together something like a coherent Buddhist theory of unhappiness.

Back in the 1970s Gerald Dupre wrote a series of articles on Buddhism and Science for The Middle Way, journal of the Buddhist Society in London, which were reprinted in a book of essays, and also translated into German. In the 1980s he was founder chairperson of the Scientific Buddhist Association and major contributor to its magazine The Western Buddhist, dedicated to setting out core Buddhist doctrines in clear language, as well as beginning to present Buddhist mental training in easy steps. He then moved away from Buddhism, studying philosophy at London University, and continuing studies in this area and that of consciousness for a dozen years. He has retained a great admiration for the ideas of the Buddha, and is now writing new, and, he hopes, more philosophically acute articles on this subject.

Chakra System

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:50:31 +0000

By: Andrew Greszczyszyn

Chakra System

What is the only way to conceptualize the complete Chakra System? The complete chakra system is a metaphysical source comprised of 108 chakras. The complete chakras system is 66 chakras up and chakra zero grounding with minus 42 down. This for a total chakra system of 108 chakras.

Something else which should be understood about the chakra system is that chakras are grouped into series. Each series found in the chakra system also relates to a spatial dimension.

Science and spirituality tell us there are 10 spatial dimensions. What is extremely interesting is that yoga meditation, spirituality, and advancements in metaphysical enlightenment teach that the chakras 0-7 relate to 3rd dimension of space (volume, the reality that most people are living in), chakras 8-15 relate to 4th dimension, chakras 16-22 to 5th dimension, 23-30 to 6th dimension, 31-42 to 7th, 43-50 8th, 51-58 9th, and 59-66 10th dimension.

Although most people live in 3rd dimension of reality this does not mean that you can not advance to higher realities, opening more of the complete chakra system and become more enlightened, gain more power, increase health, longevity, deathlessness and even abundance.

The traditional view of the seven human body chakras is a reality. What happens is when you have realized the opening of the 7th chakra the next series descends and falls into place. This sequence continues at the next level of major spiritual realization (when each crown placement open: chakras 7, 15, 22, 30, 38, 50, 58, 66) until

the complete chakra system is in place.

The location of the traditional view of the seven major chakras also are part of the chakra system. The first chakra rests at the coccyx or tailbone. The second at the sacrum or small of back. The third in the mid low back. The fourth chakra at the chest. Fifth at the throat. Sixth at brown or where nose meets the forehead, and the seventh at the crown of the head. Chakra zero and chakras 8, 16, 23, 31, 43, 51, 59 sit at the feet.

Why is there one less chakra in the 5th dimension or reality? That missing space which sits between chakra 18 and 19 is much like a space or divider. It also sits at position 3 or the lumbar chakra position, and is a metaphysical preventor from achieving Soruba Samadhi.

The extra chakras 39-42 relate to the Omni?s (Omnipresence, Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnitempus which simply mean ever presence, all-knowing, all-powerful, and deathless or all-lasting).

For more information on the chakra system go to www.youtube.com/agreszcz and watch free breakthrough videos on the chakra system.

Dr. Andrew Greszczyszyn Avatar Master Yogi and metaphysician. Through mastering Samadhi, unlocking higher chakras, and becoming master of abundance, metaphysics, and omnipresence, teaches insights, meditations, and breakthrough information to build abundance, metaphysics, and godliness in any true seeker.