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Jihad: (Arabic: جهاد jihād) An Islamic term, from the Arabic root jhd ("to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle"), which connotes a wide range of meanings: anything from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to a political or military struggle to further the Islamic cause. The meaning of "Islamic cause" is of course open ...
This threefold meaning of "mystical" continued in the Middle Ages. [2] According to Dan Merkur, the term unio mystica came into use in the 13th century as a synonym for the "spiritual marriage", the ecstasy, or rapture, that was experienced when prayer was used "to contemplate both God's omnipresence in the world and God in his essence."
The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, [4] [5] in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural magic, which today are considered pseudosciences.
"Mysticism" is derived from the Greek μύω, meaning "to conceal," [13] and its derivative μυστικός, mystikos, meaning "an initiate." In the Hellenistic world, a "mystikos" was an initiate of a mystery religion. "Mystical" referred to secret religious rituals [14] and use of the word lacked any direct references to the transcendental. [15]
The word nagual derives from the Nahuatl word nāhualli [naˈwaːlːi], an indigenous religious practitioner, identified by the Spanish as a 'magician'.. In English, the word is often translated as "transforming witch," but translations without negative connotations include "transforming trickster," "shape shifter," "pure spirit," or "pure being."
In Tibetan Buddhism and later traditions of mysticism and the paranormal, a tulpa is a materialized being or thought-form, typically in human form, that is created through spiritual practice and intense concentration.
Mystical theology is the branch of theology in the Christian tradition that deals with divine encounter [1] and the self-communication of God with the faithful; [2] such as to explain mystical practices and states, as induced by contemplative practices such as contemplative prayer, called theoria from the Greek for contemplation.
The historian N. Bhattacharyya provides a working definition of the benefits of sādhanā as follows: [R]eligious sādhanā, which both prevents an excess of worldliness and molds the mind and disposition (bhāva) into a form which develops the knowledge of dispassion and non-attachment. Sādhanā is a means whereby bondage becomes liberation. [6]