atman“Self” or “Soul.” In early Brahminic thought the atman is the most essential part of a person that is reincarnated in another body after death. The atman is also believed to be identical with the sacred essence that pervades the cosmos, brahman. Once a person realises his atman (usually in a state of dhyana through the practice of yoga), he will identify with brahman and merge into a death rather than be reborn.
brahmanThe non-dual, sacred essence that pervades the world. A common theme of the Moksadharma is that brahman is the source from which the cosmos periodically emerges and into which it subsequently devolves. It is thus thought that brahman is responsible for world-creation and imbues it with its sacred essence, but yet remains beyond it in an unmanifest state.
bhava“Psychosomatic state.” Various philosophical texts in the Moksadharma refer to the three psychosomatic states of sattva, rajas and tamas. These three states indicate qualities that are found in sense objects as well as the states of body and mind that a person experiences. In later Samkhya thought, the three states of sattva, rajas and tamas are thought to be the essential qualities that make up the world of matter.
dharma“Religion, Law, Duty, Custom, Righteousness.” One of the most ambiguous terms in Sanskrit literature. At the simplest level dharma means “religious law” and refers to those practices and duties prescribed by sacred tradition (the Dharma Sutras and the exegetical works that followed) and distinguished in terms of a person’s class (varna) and religious path (asrama). Thus the word can refer to individual deeds, the religious laws that determine those deeds and the karmic merit that these deeds create. On a more abstract level dharma refers to the inviolable religious order of the cosmos, i.e. a natural law of righteousness from which particular laws of this world derive.
dhyana“Meditation.” Derived from the verb √dhyai (“to think, contemplate, meditate”), this word refers to the practice of one-pointed ________