M
| Mars | Moody, Raymond |
| Meditation |
Moon |
| Mercury |
Mahayana, literally “Great Vehicle”, is one of the two great schools of Buddhism, the other being the Hinayana, “Small Vehicle”. The Mahayana, which arose in the first century C.E. is called Great Vehicle because, thanks to its many-sided approach, it opens the way of liberation to a great number of people and, indeed, expresses the intention to liberate all beings.
Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhists differ in their perspective on the ultimate purpose of life and the way in which it can be attained. Hinayana Buddhists strive to become arhats, or perfected saints who have attained enlightenment and nirvana. This is considered to only be possible for monks and nuns, who devote their entire lives to the task. The best outcome the laity can hope for is to be reborn in the monastic life. Mahayana Buddhists, on the other hand, hope to become not arhats, but boddhisattvas, saints who have become enlightened but who unselfishly delay nirvana to help others attain it as well, as the Buddha did. Perhaps more significantly for one who would choose between the paths, Mahayana Buddhists teach that enlightenment can be attained in a single lifetime, and this can be accomplished even by a layperson.
In Mahayana tradition, the historical personality of Sakyamuni Buddha recedes behind the universal figure of the Perfect Enlightened One, the symbol of the Complete Man who has realized his divine nature. Instead of worshiping a God beyond all human conception, enthroned in a realm of metaphysical abstractions and generalizations, the Buddhist strives after the realization of those divine properties which have been demonstrated by innumerable Enlightened Ones. He tries to realize them in his own heart, in his own mind and in his own life. - Lama Anagarika Govinda, Greative Meditation and Multi-dimensional Consciousness.
Mahayana Buddhism is the form of Buddhism prominent in North Asia, including China, Mongolia, Tibet, Korea, and Japan. The most important Mahayana schools are the Vajrayana in Tibet and the Ch’an and Pure Land school in China. These later schools were further developed in japan as Zen and Amidism respectively.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun at a distance of about 228 million km. One day on Mars takes just a little over 24 hours (24,62 hours), the time it takes for Mars to rotate or spin once. It makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Martian time) in 687 Earth days. Mars has two moons named Phobos and Deimos. Mars is known as the Red Planet because iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil - and the dusty atmosphere - to look red.
With astrology the planet Mars is the giver of life, energy and motion to the human beings. The signs of zodiac governed by the Mars are mainly concerned with his physical birth and death, denoted by Aries (birth) and Scorpio (death). While Mars through the sign Aries gives the living fire of passion, desire and animal magnetism, Scorpio gives the living water of eternal life through the purifying waters of the vital fluids, or regenerative life.
Mars governs the senses, which are five in number. These senses are the basis of all human knowledge where that which is tangible and objective is concerned or inferred. Mars, therefore, rulers science and hence the reason in this present era for the fundamental but not permanent materiality of science – a materiality which rapidly lessening as Mars nears the end of its present cycle of influence. Already, the trend of modern science is shifting into the realm of intangible and into the world of the non-material. - Alice Bailey, Esoteric Astrology.
In India the Pleiades, those seven daughters of Atlas, are connected with their nursling the war god, Karttikeya. It is the Pleiades (in Sanskrit, Krittika) who gave the god their name, for Karttikeya is the planet Mars, astronomically. As a god he is the son of Siva, generated in the fire (Agni) from the Seed of Siva spirit – hence called Agni-bhu. In the Greek mythology Ares (Mars) was the son of Hera, who bore him without the assistance of male seed and one of the twelve gods. He loved fighting and delighted in bloody massacre. He wore bronze armor, a gleaming helmet with a long plume and carried a spear and a leather shield.
The Red, or Sixth, solar Ray is wholly under the influence of Mars. The Red Ray constitutes the emotional soul in man and it is the unconscious quickener of the birth of the Spirit. The planet Mars symbolizes the senses. And here we come at once to the suggestion that the Red Ray of Mars is subject to a process of sub-division, for while the senses as a whole are under the six subdivisions of the martial Ray. For instance, Mars practically dominates the sense of taste; Mars-Venus governs the sense of touch; Mars-Jupiter governs the sense of smell; Mars-Saturn the sense of sight.
Meditation is the result of an inward-turning tendency, of the capacity to abstract the consciousness from the form and substance and to center it in itself. When attention is concentrated in eternal consciousness of Self, it reveals everything from the grossest to subtlest. There are two types of meditation. The first focuses the one’s attention on a meditative symbol. The purpose here is to turn the processes of thought inward until the mind transcends itself.
The second type focuses on detachment of awareness and emphasizes the dispassionate observation of what is happening now. Instead of taking an object to dwell upon, the meditator here puts his effort in moving away from all objects, in not identifying with anything that he perceives. By departing from the known he thus allows for the unknown and by dis-identifying from his current self concept, he may go into the non conceptual awakening of his true nature.
By means of meditation, a man finds freedom from the delusion of senses and their vibratory lure; he finds his own positive center of energy and becomes consciously able to use it; he becomes, therefore, aware of his real Self, functioning freely and consciously beyond the planes of sense; he enters into the plans of the greater Entity within Whose radiator capacity he has a place; he can then grasp them at varying stages of realization; and he becomes aware of essential Unity. – A. Bailey, A Treatise of Cosmic Fire.
The English meditation is derived from the Latin meditatio, from a verb meditari, meaning "to think, contemplate, devise, ponder". In the Old Testament, haga means to sigh or murmur, and also, to meditate. The Tibetan word for meditation "Gom" means "to become familiar with one's Self" and has the strong implication of training the mind to be familiar with states that are beneficial: concentration, compassion, correct understanding, humility, perseverance, etc. Apart from its historical usage, the term meditation was introduced as a translation for Eastern spiritual practices, referred to as dhyana in Hinduism. Zen is the Japanese way of reading Chinese Ch’an. This in turn is the Chinese version of the Sanskrit word dhyana, which refers to collectedness of mind or meditative absorption in which all dualistic distinctions like I and you, subject and object etc. are eliminated. By the 12th century, the practice of Sufism included specific meditative techniques, and its followers practiced breathing controls and the repetition of holy words.
Mercury the God
Mercury (Greek Hermes) was the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, a daughter of Atlas. Soon after his birth in a cave on Mount Cyllene, he managed to undo his swaddling clothes and went off to steal some of his brother Apollo’s herd. He led them to his cavern in Pylus and made them walk backwards to blur the tracks. This theft won him recognition as a god himself.
Nonetheless, Hermes had to defend himself before Zeus’ tribunal. His speech for the defense was so spirited and skillful that the king of Olympus laughed as he listened to it. He ruled that there should be a friendly settlement of the disagreement between the two brothers.
Hermes was also a divine inventor and magician. He invented the flute and gave it too to Apollo in exchange for his golden staff (Caduceus) and lessons in augury. He gave Ulysses moly, the magic plant which offered protection against enchantment. He was personal herald of Zeus, who made his last-born son messenger and herald of the gods. He went from men to Olympus and from Olympus to Hades. Also he conducted the souls of the departed to Hades.
Hermes was the god of the spoken word – the medium through which exchanges were made and knowledge was conveyed. He was responsible for increase in the animal kingdom; he was a deity of wealth, god of trade and travelers, of persuasive speech and eloquence. He was the god of the thieves. He stole the scepter of Zeus, the Aphrodite’s girdle, Poseidon’s trident, the sword of Ares and the bow and arrows of Apollo! But it was also he who gave the golden-fleeced ram to Nephele, the lyre to Amphion, a sword to Heracles and Hades's helmet to Perseus.
Mercury the Planet
The nearest planet to the Sun, Mercury is second only to Pluto between the planets. In astrological study the Mercury is termed the winged messenger of the gods and takes upon himself the vibrations of all other planets. In the physical body Mercury governs the sense of seeing (right eye). It has also a very close relationship with the mind and it is the planet of the reason.
Mercury and the Sun always remain close to each other in the skies. The Sun is the central body of these two, as the will is central in man. Mercury by contrast, is continually changing its relationship. Now it presses ahead of the Sun, and now it falls behind. Man’s mind in the same way is now ahead of his situation or affairs, and now behind. The working of the mind is much like the activity of a dog to his master. There are times when the dog runs ahead to investigate this or that and other times when the animal laps behind in a moment of concern over some fascinating aspect of things, until it is necessary to hurry forward and catch up again.
Mercury is the link, as it were, between spirit and matter or the agency for the influx of spirit into matter. Its world is the middle of 7 planes and is numbered the 4th. It is called the planet of the mind and astrologers are aware that Neptune has a decided influence upon that vehicle. Being ruler over the fourth (buddhic) plane, it is apparent that it has considerable sway in bringing the soul in touch with that realm.
There is a certain Intelligible One, whom it becomes you to understand with the Flower of Mind. – The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster.
In everyday usage, one's "mind" is "the seat of a person's consciousness, thoughts, volitions, and feelings; the system of cognitive and emotional phenomena and powers that constitutes the subjective being of a person" (Oxford English Dictionary). The Scottish philosopher David Hume tell us that the "mind is a kind of theatre, where several perceptions successively make their appearance".
There are various opinions on this. Some philosophers regard the mind as a separate entity; others, psychologists and biologists, as a mechanism, of which the brain and the nervous system are integral parts. One school deals with it as a sort of superior, non-physical structure, capable of strict scientific study. Some look upon it as a form of the self, with a life of its own.
The Greek philosophers had used the separate terms nous, psyche, etc., to chart much the mental territory. Mediaeval and Renaissance Western philosophers adopted St. Thomas Aquinas's Vatican-approved form of the Greek writings. The 17th century then divided its effort between the Aristotelianism of the British Empiricists and the Platonism of the Continental Rationalists.
Nous Praktikos: This is one of Aristotle's two basic types of knowledge (the other being nous theoretikos). Nous praktikos may loosely be regarded as the classical equivalent of the modern procedural knowledge and motor skill rolled together.
Nous Theoretikos: In Classical Greek this phrase means, approximately, "an intellect which, like a god, looks out over the world and reflects upon what it sees", but this definition really only means anything if prior consideration has been given to the phrase bios theoretikos, Aristotle's term for perfection in life. And because the Greek word for god was theos, this godlike way of thinking was described by the adjective theoretikos, precisely as we use the word "theoretical" today for the presumptuously godlike act of trying to understand how things work. It is for this reason that the Greek bios theoretikos has traditionally been translated as "life of contemplation".
Anaxagoras called the cause of motion by the name of Nous. It was this, which made Aristotle say that he "stood out like a sober man from the random talkers that had preceded him," and he has often been credited with the introduction of the spiritual into philosophy. Aristotle, of course with this passage in mind, says: “Anaxagoras uses Mind as a deus ex machine to account for the formation of the world”. Anaxagoras said, “There is a portion of everything in everything except Nous, and there are some things in which there is Nous also” (fr. 11). In these words Anaxagoras laid down the distinction between animate and inanimate things. He tells us that it is the same Nous that "has power over," that is, sets in motion, all things that have life, both the greater and the smaller.
Mind: individual and universal
According Indian philosophers, at the microcosmic level of individual souls, mind is consciousness and its faculties of memory, desire, thought and cognition. Individual mind is chitta (mind, consciousness) and its three-fold expression is called antahkarana, “inner faculty” composed of: 1) buddhi (“intellect”, higher mind); 2) ahamkara (“I-maker,” egoity); 3) manas (“lower mind”, the seat of desire).
In the most profound sense, universal mind is the sum of all things, all energies and manifestations, all forms, subtle and gross, sacred and mundane. It is the inner and outer cosmos. It is everything but That, the Self within, which is timeless, formless, causeless, spaceless, known by the knower only after Self Realization. The Self is the indescribable, unnameable, Ultimate Reality. Mind in its subtlest form is undifferentiated Pure Consciousness, primal substance, out of which emerge the myriad forms of existence, both psychic and material.
This pure Mind, the source of everything, shines forever and on all with the brilliance of its own perfection. But the people of the world don not awake to it, regarding only that which sees, hears, feel and knows as mind. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing, they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source-substance. if they would only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself like the sun ascending through the void and illuminating the whole universe without hindrance or bounds. – The Zen Teaching of Huang Po.
To the esotericist, mind is simply a word standing for an aspect of man which is responsive in one direction – the outer world of thought and of affairs – but which could be equally responsive in the world of subtle energies and of spiritual being. So there are two main divisions of the mind and grades of thought. First: the concrete or analytical mind with which we are all familiar, and which we use to interpret and organize the information about the everyday world coming to us from the senses. And second: the abstract or synthesizing mind which deals with symbols, principles and values, and which is the instrument used by the Thinker to contact the world of the spirit. Relatively speaking, ideas ate abstract and thoughts are concrete; and one function of the concrete mind is to translate ideas into forms of thought and activity that can take expression in the tangible everyday world.
Raymond A. Moody, Jr. (born 1944) is a psychologist and medical doctor. Moody earned a BA, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Virginia. In 1976, he was awarded an MD from the Medical College of Georgia. After obtaining his M.D., Moody worked as a forensic psychiatrist in a maximum-security Georgia state hospital. In 1998, Moody was appointed Chair in Consciousness Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Raymond Moody has spent nearly 40 years looking forward, trying to understand what happens when people die. That pursuit led to the publication of "Life After Life" in 1975, a seminal collection that actually coined the term "near-death experience."
"I was reading Plato's 'The Republic' at age 18 and I can't account fully the electricity that had for me", he said. The story of Ur, a warrior thought dead who awoke and described going to another world, impressed him deeply".
"I have absolutely no fear of death. From my near-death research and my personal experiences, death is, in my judgment, simply a transition into another kind of reality." – Raymond Moody.
"I felt the question of the afterlife was the black hole of the personal universe: something for which substantial proof of existence had been offered but which had not yet been explored in the proper way by scientists and philosophers," Moody writes in "Paranormal." His fascination only deepened after befriending a psychiatrist at the university, George Ritchie, who had his own near-death experience, and even felt that his experience had given him at times a "direct line with God."
In 2010, Moody published Glimpses of Eternity which describes the "shared-death experience", in which people gathered at the bedside of a dying loved one sometimes describe being lifted out of their bodies and accompanying their loved one part-way into another realm. Moody describes seven key elements of the shared death experience, which are very similar to those of the near-death experience.
Moody has also researched past life regression and believes that he personally has had nine past lives.
His main works are: (1) Life After Life: the investigation of a phenomenon – survival of bodily death. (2) Reflections on Life After Life. (3) Laugh after laugh: the healing power of humor. (4) Raymond Moody, The Last Laugh: a new philosophy of near-death experiences, apparitions, and the paranormal.
Artemis pouring a libation, 460-450 BC.
The Moon is a satellite of the Earth, and makes a revolution around it in an elliptical orbit of 29.5 days. She also appears to revolve from one point in the heavens to the same point again in 27 days 7 hours 43minutes; she is 240,000 miles from the earth. The Moon is an important body in Astrology, and should be very carefully studied astronomically. The Moon may be called the mother of the earth; for all life that once existed there, together with its water and atmosphere, has been drawn off by the earth, the Moon being the physical globe in a past chain of worlds connected with our evolution. She has been best known as Luna or Isis; her symbol is the half-circle or the crescent. The Moon is the collector of aspects and influences and acts only in accordance with the sign that she is in, having no definite nature of her own; she is in fact colored, as it were, by the sign through which she passes. Her office and mission is to reflect the light. As she passes out from the Sun she gathers up the influences on her way until she reaches the full; thence she returns laden with the fruits of experience to the Sun, and once more re-emerges, cleansed for a new experience.
As the sun, what better image could be found for Jupiter emitting his golden rays than to personify this emanation in Diana, the all-illuminating virgin Artemis, whose oldest name was Diktynna, literally the emitted ray, from the word dikein. The moon is non-luminous, and it shines only by the reflected light of the sun; hence, the imagery of his daughter, the goddess of the moon, and herself, Luna, Astarte, or Artemis. As the Cretan Diktynna, she wears a wreath made of the magic plant diktamnon, the evergreen shrub whose contact is said, at the same time, to develop somnambulism and cure finally of it; and, as Eilithyia and Juno Pronuba, she is the goddess who presides over births; she is an Aesculapian deity, and the use of the dictamnus-wreath, in association with the moon, shows once more the profound observation of the ancients.
Queen of stars, all-wise Diana hail!
Deck’d with a graceful robe and shining veil;
Come, blessed Goddess, prudent, starry, bright,
Come moony-lamp with chaste and splendid light,
Shine on these sacred rites with prosp’rous rays
And pleas’d accept thy suppliant’s mystic praise.
The Hymns of Orpheus, by Thomas Taylor
The Hindu Brahmans and Buddhists have complicated theories on the influence of the sun and moon (the male and female elements or yin and yang), as containing the negative and positive principles, the opposites of the magnetic polarity. "The influence of the moon on women is well known," write all the old authors on magnetism.
Artemis is the daughter of Zeus by Leto, who represents the Earth in her active labour, and, according to Hesiod, as Eilythia she is Juno's daughter. In the frequent matrimonial quarrels between Juno and Jupiter, Artemis is always represented as turning her back on her mother and smiling upon her father, though she chides him for his numerous frolics. The Thessalian magicians are said to have been obliged, during such eclipses, to draw her attention to the earth by the power of their spells and incantations, and the Babylonian astrologers and magi never desisted in their spells until they brought about a reconciliation between the irritated couple, after which Juno "radiantly smiled on the bright goddess" Diana, who, encircling her brow with her crescent, returned to her hunting-place in the mountains.
It seems to us that the fable illustrates the different phases of the moon. We never see but one-half of our bright satellite, who thus turns her back to her mother Juno. The sun, the moon, and the earth are constantly changing positions with relation to each other. With the new moon there is constantly a change of weather; and sometimes the wind and storms may well suggest a quarrel between the sun and earth, especially when the former is concealed by grumbling thunder-clouds. Furthermore, the new moon, when her dark side is turned toward us, is invisible; and it is only after a reconciliation between the sun and the earth, that a bright crescent becomes visible on the side nearest to the sun, though this time Luna is not illuminated by sunlight directly received, but by sunlight reflected from the earth to the moon, and by her reflected back to us.
If the Sun is the life giver and symbolically connected with the spirirual dimension, the Moon is connected with the manifesting to the spirit. In every day, it deals with the practical expression of mundane matters. The Moon passes through every sign of Zodiac and touches off every aspect in every chart once a month. Today we could say, psychologically, it represents our psychic “homework”, learning and applying. But in old days, it was the cosmic clock by which all things were measured.
The Moon’s influence varies so greatly, according to the sign in which it is located at birth and the planet with which it is in closest aspect. It is usually considered moderately cold and moist, and to be feminine, negative, receptive, plastic, magnetic, fruitful and changeable. The Moon has also a great influence over such matters as spiritualism, mediumship, dreaming, astral projection and psychic experiences generally.
