P
- Q
Pain
- is the opposite of Pleasure.
It is the result of false or wrong thinking, caused by identification
with the not-self as being the self; and believing that the body-mind
is the Self. [LMT]
P&E
Forms - These are formal Participation and Evaluation questionnaires
completed by everyone attending an AHAM program. Each program has its
own P&E form. An attendee lists personal information about him/herself
pertaining to attending the program, including his personal spiritual
understanding, objectives and the specific reason he is taking the program,
and what he/she chooses or wishes to receive from it. Following the
program, the person gives his Evaluation of the program, his insights
into himself and what at that point he/she feels was gotten from participating
in the program, and his/her candid remarks or comments regarding the
trainer and/or the training, the AHAM Center (or facility where it's
held) and those assisting in the program.
Peace
- A calm, quiet mind free from Thoughts;
the natural state of the Self, Prior To
all thoughts. It is the very basis, the underlying source of
all the power in the universe.
Perfection,
or Perfected Being (Siddha) - In Sanskrit, a
Siddha
is a perfected
being, or someone who has attained perfection, who sees the perfection
in all things as they are. In Truth, everything is perfect just as it
is. It couldn't be otherwise, regardless of all appearances to the contrary.
Everything occurs by the power and grace of the divine process that
is always, already perfectly balancing or bringing about a continuous,
harmonious equalization of all that is in the universe - meaning everything
in relationship with itself and with everything else in its space, in
every given moment of time, just as it is all now appearing. Even the
apparent imperfection, seen by the unenlightened, is in fact expressing
the perfect balance that is being maintained in and with all things.
This is clearly "seen" with enlightenment. Each person who
thinks, "God doesn't know what He is doing," doesn't know
God, or the truth, or what's so about the universe. (See: Siddhis).
Person/person
- The person (small "p") is the commonly held (although
false) concept that we are separate individual beings existing as bodies,
i.e., that we are born as a body, and live separate lives apart from
one another and the world, apart from the All-encompassing Being of
God,
and will one day die. That is the apparent fact, but it is not the Truth.
The real Person (capital "P") of the true Self (capital "S")
was not born and does not and cannot die.
Observing from
its spiritual side, the human birth in this world is a perceived complex
of two elements, a spiritual Being or divine Person, and an apparent
individual soul having personality. The former is man's actual infinite
and eternal Existence,
or Being.
The latter is his perceived personal and mutable being. Personality
is only a temporary configuration or form of the mental, vital, and
physical forces that give manifested appearance to the One Being, or
the real Person of the true Self.
(See: Purusha).
Personal
God - As long as there is the lived and felt sense of oneself
being a separate Individual
or Person
living in this world, then it is important that one acknowledges the
existence of a Personal God as the Creator and Sustainer of this world.
It is not appropriate (or very wise) to otherwise consider oneself as
being the creator, either of one's world or one's circumstances, but
rather as the living entity that is subject to the higher Will of God.
Personality
- A temporary configuration or form of mental, vital, and physical
forces that give manifestation or individual expression and appearance
to the One Being, the true Self. It is the limited Ego-Self
superimposed on the Universal Self. It is the recorded conditioning
of the Body-Mind
and its history of experience in time and space.
Philosophy
- Traditionally, this is the field of knowledge or academic
study devoted to systematic examination of basic concepts, such as truth,
existence, reality, causality, freedom, etc. It is also one's particular
system of personal thought or belief, held or presented as a set of
precepts, principles and aims that underlie one's actions.
A philosopher is
literally a "lover of truth." In this sense, insofar as one
prefers truth to non-truth, and fervently stands up for the truth, or
for what is "good, true and beautiful," one is a philosopher.
Physical
Being - This is the part or aspect of being of which we are
at first conscious, or usually the most cognizant or aware; and, with
the majority of people, it's the only aspect of their being with which
they are ever aware or conscious, at least while still living in the
body. In fact, with many people the sense of one having existence or
consciousness beyond or apart from the physical is even doubtful, or
at best a mere belief or religious philosophy.
Plane -
A level or category of existence, being or life in (or on) which one
is able to experience, express, function, accomplish and achieve.
Planes
(Higher) - In most spiritual traditions or philosophies there
are conceived to be higher levels or states of experience and expression
above and beyond the physical-mental plane of worldly existence, experience
and expression. These are similar to an ascending and/or descending
stairway of consciousness that includes higher mental planes of one's
spiritual being, existing above and/or below our present consciousness
from which the higher consciousness descends or comes down into the
body, or then ascends back to the true Self, which includes all planes
and/or states.
Plasticity
- is soft, pliable and capable of being easily molded. It is
the quality that allows a substance to still retain its basic identity
when changing shape, or be fashioned into a different form after being
bent, stretched, squeezed, etc.
Ramana often asserts
that the world, itself being Consciousness,
is plastic, or has plasticity. It is subject to being easily reformed
or refashioned according to the pattern of one's strongly held Assumptions,
or one's sustained Desires;
if you only maintain constant Faith,
which is the strong feeling that "it can and will be done"
as you wish or intend it to be.
Pleasure
- is what is usually taken, or believed by most people to be
happiness, but which is not real Happiness.
As we mean the term in AHAM, the ASSOCIATION OF HAPPINESS FOR ALL MANKIND,
pleasure is an Experience
in and of the Mind,
in Time-Space.
It is what one feels when a desired object is attained, or an undesired
or unwanted object is removed from one's world or experience. It is
the opposite of Pain.
Point
of view - The way you see things from the position you are
presently taking and/or holding. It is the stuff that makes you, "you"
- i.e., the self you think you are - being your Beliefs,
Thoughts,
Ideas,
Concepts.
[LMT]
Position
- is the apparent place or location where somebody or something
is, especially in relation to other people, places and things, or other
positions; it is a view, conclusion, decision, or opinion someone is
holding, especially one being strongly defending.
It is the stand
you are taking, holding and usually defending on any issue, idea, notion,
belief, etc. In order to be able to clearly and freely choose a right
course of action, you must be willing to release or "get off your
position" and/or "give up your presently held point of view."
[LMT]
Power
- is one's control and influence over situations, other people
and/or their actions. It is the ability, skill, strength, resolve or
capacity to do something, or to take control of things, i.e., circumstances,
events, forces, etc. It is the strength that enables one to face all
that happens or that might happen, and to stand firm in its face and
overcome its influence. It is one's ability to carry out what he or
she resolves or proposes. It can include many things, such as control
over forces, other people, events, circumstances, and over ways and
means, etc.
Power
of Awareness - is the self-existent, self-cognitive, self-effective
power of pure Being, which is reflected in the mind and that expresses
itself in the manifestation of this world, and as the workings of nature.
It operates directly in conjunction with the Law Of Assumption,
either for good or for ill results, based on one's
conscious or intentional understanding and use of it, whether one consciously
realizes or understands it or not. By this self-existent power, whatever
you assume to be so in consciousness is what is seen and/or manifested
in your world. Simply stated, it's the power of creation itself, in
which thoughts are things, what you think about grows, and you become
what you think about. (See: AHAM's "Seven Basic Truths" in
the book, Living Free, by A. Ramana.)
Prakriti
- (Sanskrit) The primal substance out of which all things are
created; it is Maya
or causal matter, the elemental building block of nature, also called
Shakti.
It's the acting force of manifestation, or energy, apart from and free
of individual consciousness, which itself belongs to the Self.
Prakriti
is the Doer of all manifestation, being the very energy of nature acted
on by the individual, yet itself being apparently inert, mechanical
and unconscious, or without conscious intention.
As we observe world-consciousness,
or the force of consciousness in the world in relation to individual
existence, there seems to be an energy that obeys an apparently undisclosed
or secret will. It appears like a movement of force that is imposed
on the individual by the very existence of the individual's consciousness
that possesses or regards it. This is the play of Prakriti, or executive
force of nature, that satisfies the Conscious-Being (Purusha)
in its effortless manifestation as world-consciousness.
Prana
(See: Life Force)
Prayer
- is petitioning or beseeching God, or the Higher Divine Power,
for what is wanted or strongly hoped or wished for. Its highest purpose
and/or expression, when known and properly applied, is to bring one's
personal will into alignment with the divine Will of God.
Said another way,
"Prayer is talking to God, while meditation is listening to Him."
Presence
- is the perception or Consciousness
of pure Being,
sensed here and now. Its highest perception is the Heart-felt Radiance
of the very Self,
or Real God,
shining in and as one's very Existence
or Conscious
Awareness,
now felt in relation to what is, without the need or necessity of any
other influence.
Pretending
- The way most people live their ordinary daily lives when
they are putting on an Act
or engaged in playing their acts, or "running their Rackets."
([LMT]
Prior
to - Numerous spiritual philosophies as a rule refer to God
as "being beyond time and space," which makes God feel less
intimate and more distant. In Truth, God - being the Supreme Self of
the Universe and the Very Self of all beings or selves - precedes everything
in time and space, order and importance, value and significance. This
means being "prior to" all and everything, as well as "beyond"
all and everything. Seen in or from this perspective, God is therefore
more intimate and less distant, or, "Nearer than breathing, closer
than hands and feet."
Process
(or Conscious Process) - is what people often think is the
magical secret ingredient of AHAM and its teaching, but which is actually
only one of several conscious elements. Formally, an AHAM "process"
is a method by which one experiences and looks at - in an expanded state
of awareness, prior to the mind, and therefore without judgment - what
is actually so with regard to specific areas in his/her body, mind,
world or life, and in any fixed or unconscious Attitudes
about those areas.
The intended result
of doing an AHAM Training Process is a release into greater freedom,
clarity and spontaneity. For example, you participate in "a process"
by closing your eyes and moving into your own Conscious Awareness or
"clear space", which is assisted by suggestions from the AHAM
Trainer. AHAM graduates realize that "a process," which occurs
in life, is meant to be treated as a clearing or learning experience.
[LMT]
Processing,
or "going through a process" - is what many people
say they are doing, but is actually indulging in their reluctance and
resistance to releasing their unconscious or fixed Attitudes
about an area or some situation of their life. That is, they are stuck
in "being right about it," or their fixed attitudes, positions
or beliefs in those situations or areas that they say they are "processing."
In these instances, they are clearing neither their mind nor their consciousness.
NOTE: If you see
you are defending, or feel you are withdrawing and not relating during
"a process," or not being responsible and On Purpose
with others, or your world, or with what's so and occurring
with you, but rather are defending "being right," or projecting
the cause and source of your problem or upset as being someone else
or something outside yourself, then you are not consciously processing
it - in AHAM's use and meaning of the term. (See, Conscious Process).
Psychology
- is the systematic study of the human mind and/or its conditioned
mental states; it is also the study of human and animal behavior occurring
here and now in time and space. It is about the characteristic temperament
and associated behavior of an individual or group, or that which is
exhibited by those engaged in a particular activity.
The human mind
in today's ordinary society, as it is conditioned by and identified
with time and space, is predominantly contaminated. It is for the most
part influenced or controlled by selfishness, greed, anger, resentment
and violence. These states, which are sustained and indulged in by most
people as the predominant behavior of today's society, verified daily
in the news and further encouraged and supported as "entertainment"
on daily TV programs and the movies, candidly demonstrates that the
majority of people in today's world are basically insane. And, today's
systems of psychology, designed to align troubled humanity with the
status quo, or to maintain society in its present and seemingly appropriate
social order, is at best only bringing everyone back into the acceptable
parameters of insanity; so is our current level of so-called mental
health.
Punishment
- is to intentionally cause, deliver or impose deliberate restriction,
loss, pain and suffering on somebody for his or her actual or believed,
accused, confessed, condemned and convicted acts of wrongdoing. It ultimately
stems from the sense or belief of "wrong" projected toward
or onto another, whether justified or not.
The notion of punishment
is commonly based on the belief and intention that "someone else"
(the offender) should be made to suffer for the known, believed or felt
sense of loss, pain or unhappiness he or she is confirmed or believed
to have caused the one who feels offended, meaning the victim of the
offender's actions or deeds. It may be a clear-cut case of an intentional
act to do harm. And yet, very often we do not recognize how the offended
person may have contributed to the situation or incident, and thus played
a part in bringing it about.
Today, there is
a strong emphasis and apparently great deal of importance being placed
on what is considered and called "victim's rights." The truth
is, however, there are no absolutely innocent victims. Everything that
happens to us is the result of our own actions or deeds of the past,
either in this or a previous lifetime. We have set it all in motion
ourselves by our own actions, past or present, that now bring loss and
misfortune into our lives. It is a true saying, "What goes around,
comes around." The Bible says, "God is not mocked; as a man
sows, so shall he also reap." (Gal: 6:7)
We, either knowingly
or not, have placed ourselves in alignment with the situation by our
own actions or volition, or our refusal to act. We may our self have
started (in the past) what continued unnoticed or unremembered as the
situation progressed, or happened, which we even now may not likely
see or believe, especially when we say that it was entirely caused by
someone or something else. It is just that now we don't remember the
beginning of it. Or, when in the past we did the same thing or something
similar to someone else, and now our "chickens have come home to
roost."
It is like small
children or siblings arguing and hitting one another, both saying "he
(or she) started it." In each instance when one or the other "started"
the process against the other, it was very likely a continuation of
a previous time the other one "started" it, or with someone
else. It's an ever-cycling situation that never ends until all involved
surrender and finally take full responsibility by being in total acceptance
of the situation, both currently and in the past.
Punishment and
the desire for punishment, or revenge and retribution, are really "no
win" situations. Everything issues out of the Self and returns
to the Self. In the one Consciousness of the Self, there are no "others."
What we do to so-called others is really done to the Self; the same
is also the case in all the ongoing wars in the world, such as between
the Arabs and the Jews.
Pure
(Purity) - is uniform in composition; not changed or mixed
with anything else. It is free from impurities, adulterations, modifications,
variations, or alterations. It is utter, or complete. It is perfect;
without fault; chaste; virgin.
Pertaining to one's
spiritual life, purity means to accept no other influence than Truth,
or the influence of The Divine.
It means freedom from the taint of mental conditioning,
or the ignorance of body-mind identification. In the language of traditional
religion or spirituality, it is used to mean freedom from the impulse
or passion of sex. (See: Sexual
expression, nudity and freedom)
Purpose
- in AHAM, purpose is ongoing, it being the aim or direction
your life is intentionally taking by your own conscious choice. It is
not because you "have to," or because of circumstances outside
of yourself or beyond your control, with you being always at the effect
of life and events.
When you are living
from purpose, or with purpose, you are choosing each thing as it occurs,
or even before it occurs. You are functioning at the level of Cause
in your life. You are living at the level of Choice.
You recognize that you alone determine the direction and primary nature
of the events happening in your life, and you choose your own responses
to life. You are not living in unconscious or uncontrolled reaction
and upset from life's surprises or unplanned happenings.
Purpose is therefore
the intentional direction your life is taking by your own choice. It
is the aim that you set, as the course or track on which planned events
and experiences can and may occur, as you yourself set them up to occur,
such as your own personal goals to be achieved.
Purpose
vs. Goals - When you have attained a specific or planned goal
within the context of your purpose, you have not ended or completed
your purpose. Purpose is an ongoing thing. It is the direction your
life is intentionally taking, while Goals are milestones or achievement
markers along the way, or within your purpose, that certify a standard
of accomplishment and success attained. So purpose, when it is predetermined,
is always present and indicating the direction of your life, and is
not ended even when any or all of the goals you have set have been achieved
or fulfilled, unless you yourself choose to withdraw from your chosen
purpose. You just set new goals within the context of your ongoing purpose,
and continue living, working and being in alignment with them.
As an example,
from North Carolina (or anywhere on the east coast) we could take for
a purpose the notion to "go west." So we would choose some
method of conveyance, say, a car, truck or a travel-coach and engage
in our purpose - that is, we start going west. Now, we may have as "goals"
several cities that we choose to visit, or choose to intentionally pass
through as we manifest or express our purpose of "going west,"
such as Memphis, and Dallas, and Denver, etc. As we do so, these are
our "achieved goals." When we arrive, let's say at San Francisco,
we have not run out of purpose. Our purpose ends only when we cease
continuing to "go west." On arriving in San Francisco there
is still "more west" that we can go. We have to now change
our method of conveyance if we intend to continue our purpose, but we
are not "out of purpose."
We may choose to
withdraw from our purpose, or change it to some other or different one,
but the attainment or achievement of any number of goals within the
context of our purpose does not end or complete our purpose. Purpose
is an ongoing thing. It only ends when we choose to end it.
So, purpose is
the direction your life is going by your own choice, and goals are your
achievements within the context of your chosen purpose. (Page 209, The
Handbook to Perpetual Happiness, by A. Ramana)
Purpose
and Will - These two words do not mean the same thing. As explained
above, purpose is the intention, the course or direction that one is
taking, or pursuing perhaps toward specific objectives and beyond.
In contrast, will
is the very power to make decisions, for example the power to choose
a definite purpose or strive to attain a goal. It is the force of one's
being involved in conscious action, or the conscious force that acts
with purpose, perception and decision.
Purusha
- In Vedanta,
the Purusha is the silent witness- consciousness that observes the actions
of Prakriti
(the force of nature) that one feels as doing all the actions of manifestation
when one ultimately lets go of the sense of being an individual self
or entity, and is finally free from the sense of the ego-self being
the doer.
Qualities
(See: Gunas)
Quality
- The characteristic nature of a thing or situation.
Quiet
- Absence of mental restlessness or disturbance. It occurs
by Self-Inquiry and/or Self-abidance.
Quiet
Mind - A mind that does not get disturbed or is not upset by
rising Thoughts.
It is at peace and free of worry or concern.
"Quiet
on the Inside" - is the name of a program developed by
two people in AHAM, a parent and a teacher, designed especially for
children and presented in schools. It is taken from AHAM's basic teaching
and is offered in some public and private schools. It is a way to bring
children back into their true nature as pure Being,
or the Self
felt within them as I
AM. It frees their minds from the commotion of thoughts and the
usual daily upsets arising from peer pressure and the events going on
around them in their lives, and from fear and worries about the past
or future.
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