D
Death
- The end of all vital functions or processes in a cell or organism;
the condition or quality of being deceased, dead or ceasing to live.
In the spiritual
teaching of AHAM, death is not the opposite of life, it is the opposite
of birth. And, what's more, the birth and death of the body is not the
birth and death of one's being, or the Self.
In the philosophy and spiritual teaching of AHAM, no one (no entity
or person as such) was ever born, and no one ever dies. In Truth,
there is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will there ever be an
individual person or being. There is only the momentary and seeming
rise into expression of the One Being that is apparently taking form
and going through an apparent evolution and change of form; all of which
is an expression of the One Self, like waves arising in one expanse
of water. The death of the ego, or ending body-mind identification,
is itself the one Ultimate Death that is really the re-awakening to
the true Self, or the Awakening into and Conscious Abidance in Eternal
and Infinite Life. (See: Death of the ego, below).
Death
of the ego - The final, ultimate merging or dissolving of the
separate sense of "I," and all sense of body-mind identification,
into the One Reality of pure Being, or the Self. There is no birth and/or
death to the true Self.
Deductive
vs. Inductive Reasoning - The unique characteristic humans
have over all animal species is our capacity and ability of dual reasoning.
We are able to use the mind in a manner not available to lesser species
in that we can reason both deductively and inductively.
Deductive reasoning
is the process or method of going from the general to the particular.
It is reasoning from a general law or principle (a stated premise) to
a logical conclusion, arriving at a particular conclusion or prediction
which is implied either formally or necessarily by such a premise. It
is the kind of reasoning familiar in formal logic. An example is, theorems
in mathematics or geometry are usually proven by deductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning
is arriving at logical conclusions or formulating general laws by the
process of inferring. It is drawing conclusions based on the observation
of particular instances. It is reasoning from the particular to the
general. A general law is formulated as a consequence of observing many
events or happenings, each having something in common, or each behaving
in the same way under similar circumstances. For example, by the use
of inductive reasoning Sir Isaac Newton "discovered" or formulated
the Law of Gravitation by observing over time many instances of falling
bodies.
Of the two, deductive
reasoning processes data from the general to the particular; while inductive
reasoning processes data from the particular to the general.
For the sake of
simplicity, let's refer to them as "A" type and "B"
type reasoning, respectively. Our conscious mind is capable of reasoning
either "A" type or "B" type. "A" type
means that we have the ability with the conscious mind to investigate
any situation or remark before we "buy" it, or before we accept
it as true. "B" type reasoning means it's not necessary to
investigate or analyze a matter, remark or situation before we accept
it; we can accept it as true on the assumption that it is true, without
having analyzed or investigated it for ourselves. (Page 110-111, Handbook
to Perpetual Happiness, by A. Ramana)
Delight
- That which is beyond joy and that gives meaning or purpose to life.
It is beyond sensation, or sensation is an attempt to translate the
secret delight of pure existence itself, into the terms of physical
consciousness. It is the Bliss,
Ananda,
of absolute conscious existence, the supreme nature of omnipresent Being.
Desire
and Divine Aspiration - One's devotion to God,
or desire to return fully to the Divine Self, to Truth, or the Highest
Expression of Being, is the one desire or aspiration that can eventually
free you from the pain of all other desires. It does this by freeing
you of all other desires.
Desire
and Demand - Desire and demand are similar, being actually
two aspects of the same thing. Demand is a clear and firm request for
fulfillment of a personal need that is difficult to ignore or deny.
It is the level of desire or personal need that exists for bringing
into being a particular type, kind or style of goods or services. In
the business world, one effective principle of success is to find a
need, bordering on demand, and fill it.
It is not necessary
that feelings should be agitated or restless to be a desire. On the
contrary, they can be quietly fixed and persistent to be considered
desire, or simply be consistent or recurrent.
Demand is when
you set your sights on claiming something to have or possess as an urgent
requirement, such as a definite time, specific services or facilities,
resources or assets, or particular actions. Desire is a more general
term.
Desire
- To crave or want something strongly, that is, wishing or longing for
things in the world. This is the very principle and cause of all superficial
life; and it's the cause of suffering. Desire can be either subtle or
dynamic. Either way it is a mode, method or way that produces energy
to flow outwardly or externally in consciousness, or the mind, and that
ignorantly seeks delight in the form or object of the thing or things
desired, rather than resting and drawing contentment from the Source
of BEING, or Brahman
(The Absolute). Desire is the primary stimulus by which life is motivated
to continue in mental and/or physical form.
The desire for
God
or The Divine is the one desire that can free one from all other desires.
At the core of this one desire, the strong urge for God or Bhakti,
is actually the quality of Aspiration.
It is the Spirit, or pure Being.
Desirelessness
- abiding without any sense of need or expectation. [LMT]
Destiny
or Fate - The apparently predetermined or inevitable events
that happen to somebody or to something in which one is involved or
engaged. A force or agency that predetermines what will happen to something,
someone or some situation. The inner purpose of life that may be discovered
or realized, that is revealed at the time of its occurrence. Something
consequential that inevitably happens to somebody or something.
Destiny or Free
Will, which is it? - This is the age-old question or debate between
philosophers or truth-seekers of all races, religions, all thinking
people everywhere. It will continue to be, as long as man lives with
the sense of separateness from God, his Source.
Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Maharshi answered this question like this: If a primitive man, visiting
civilization for the very first time sees a TV set, he may be amazed
and ask, "Does the little man in the box have the ability to say
whatever he wants to say, or does he have to say what he is required
to say?" Of course, the correct answer is "There is no little
man in the box." In the same respect, there is no individual being
that either has or does not have free will or destiny. There is only
the One Infinite Being, the true Self, Who was neither born nor does
He die.
Detachment - Usually, it means indifference to worldly
concerns, including the lack of bias, prejudice or emotional involvement
with what is occurring, or is likely to occur.
In AHAM, it means
standing back from the apparent imperfections and weaknesses that normally
occur in one's life, not identifying oneself with them or getting upset
or troubled by the fact they are happening. But rather it is looking
on them as being foreign to one's true nature, or Self,
and thus remaining in the Here-and-Now Presence
of the One Self, and calling on its Higher Power or Consciousness to
eliminate or dissolve them in the Core or Source
of being. It means intentionally withdrawing consciousness from the
mind and its conditioned tendencies or patterns of Thought,
its mental activities; and, with effort, remaining detached in the Heart,
keeping attention centered in the Self, or in one's spiritual practice.
Devotee
- One who has ardent feelings of Devotion
and/or affection toward God, or the Higher Self, or the Guru.
Devotion
(Bhakti) - Love and devotion for God, Truth, Guru, or the Self,
and surrendering the ego to either one or all of these (which are not
different).
Dharma
- (Sanskrit) it literally means, "that which lays hold of and which
holds things together." It means the rule of life as it is manifesting
or normally occurring in the world; the Law,
or the Rule of being; the norm; the standard of Truth;
the rule of law or action; the principle of nature, action and life.
Dharma is the collective
Indian conception or theory of the religious, social and moral rule
of conduct. It is one of the four human interests: ethical conduct,
the right law of individual and social life, encompassing appropriate
action.
In the Bhagavad
Gita, Dharma is more than either religion or morality, it is action
controlled by our essential nature, or manner of being.
Dharma is any higher
ideal we can propose to ourselves, with its principle of action, or
its law of natural outworking.
To elaborate the
last definition: Ideals are truths that have not yet fully realized
themselves for man, e.g., the realities of a Higher Plane of existence
that have yet to fulfill themselves on this lower plane of manifested
life and matter, which is the body-mind's present field of operation.
The Ideal is an
eternal Reality which we have not yet fully realized in the conditions
of our usual life of limited separate being, or apparent individual
existence.
Dhyana
- In its highest sense Dhyana is inner concentration of consciousness
on the Source,
or meditation on the Self.
Its ultimate purpose is to eventually direct attention inward, into
pure Being,
the natural state, or Samadhi.
Direct
Realization - Since God's name is " I
AM," everyone who constantly meditates on the pure I
AM within himself will eventually Awaken to, or be taken into the
heart of Being,
the true Self, which is the location of the kingdom of God.
This was Moses' own direct experience when he proclaimed, " I AM
THAT I AM. " (Exodus 3:14) It was also Jesus' direct experience
when he proclaimed, "I and the Father are One." (John 10:30)
Discipline
- is mental self-control. It is to live or act in an orderly or controlled
manner, according to a high standard of good conduct. It means obeying
established or set rules of conduct, or using mental self-control to
direct or change your behavior in compliance with established rules
or ethics.
Self-discipline
is a prerequisite to achieving success in almost any worthwhile endeavors,
particularly ultimate success in one's spiritual practice.
The
Divine - The Highest Supreme Truth;
the very Supreme Being from which all has come, and into which all must
ultimately return or subside. It is That from which all that is now
occurring appears to arise, or comes into existence. It is That in which
all and everything now lives and moves and has its being. It's That
in which all that is has always and ever been - even though it's covered
or concealed by the cloud of ignorance.
Divine
Consciousness - The Highest Spiritual Consciousness; The Divine;
That alone in which all exists, since All is the Divine.
"Doing
your same old number" - Playing out your Act;
or Racket;
pretending. It is the contrived behavior patterns that one always uses
to "look good," or that you think gets you what you want,
at least before you noticed that this doesn't work; it is your old,
automatic, outworn and probably now useless patterns (from before you
attended AHAM's Living Meditation Training).
"Drop
it" - A statement often spoken forcefully by Ramana when
a person is stuck or caught up in a limiting, painful, ridiculous, stupid
or outrageous position. He may say, "Drop it, right now, like a
hot potato! And don't pick it up again!" With it, he may remind
the person, "What you think about grows, and you become what you
think about."
Duality
- is believing in and living one's life based on the concept that the
world has solid, objective reality independent of one's consciousness
of it. This is identification with the body-mind as being the self,
and the world as being real, or the ground of being and foundation principle
of all life. This results in the conflict, confusion and contradiction
of all the apparent opposites, i.e., all the relative assortments of
good and evil, right and wrong, inside and outside, above and below,
etc., which are therefore believed and thought to have independent and
dynamic reality on their own.
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