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Glossary of spirituality terms(A-B-C)

January 13, 2025

Afterlife: (or life after death) A generic term referring to a purported continuation of existence, typically spiritual and experiential, beyond this world, or a personal reputation that is so strong as to be capable of persistent social influence long after death. (see also soul)
Agnosticism: the view that the existence of God or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable.
Ahimsa: A religious principle of non-violence and respect for all life. Ahimsa (अहिंसा ahiṁsā) is Sanskrit for avoidance of himsa, or injury. It is interpreted most often^[^{citation needed}^] as meaning peace and reverence toward all sentient beings. Ahimsa is the core of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. Its first mention in Indian philosophy is found in the Hindu scriptures called the Upanishads, the oldest dating about 800 BC.^[^{citation needed}^] Those who practice Ahimsa are often vegetarians or vegans.^[^{citation needed}^]
Aikido: (合気道 Aikidō, also 合氣道 using an older style of kanji) Literally meaning "harmony energy way", or with some poetic license, "way of the harmonious spirit", aikido is a gendai budo – a modern Japanese martial art. Practitioners of aikido are known as aikidoka. Aikido is also considered to contain a significant spiritual component.^[^{citation needed}^]
Akashic Records: (Akasha is a Sanskrit word meaning "sky", "space" or "aether") In the religion of theosophy and the philosophical school called anthroposophy, the Akashic records are a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms, not just human. They are believed by theosophists to be encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the mental plane.
Ancestor worship: (拜祖), also ancestor veneration (敬祖) A religious practice based on the belief that one's ancestors possess supernatural powers.
Animism: The religious belief that all objects, places, and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence.
Asceticism: Denotes a life which is characterised by refraining from worldly pleasures (austerity). Those who practice ascetic lifestyles often perceive their practices as virtuous and pursue them to achieve greater spirituality.
Atheism: In the broadest sense, is the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief in at least one deity.
Bagua (concept): (Chinese: 八卦; pinyin: bā guà; Wade–Giles: pa kua; lit. 'eight trigrams', Korean 한국어: 팔괘) An ancient Chinese philosophical concept, the bagua is an octagonal diagram with eight trigrams on each side. The concept of bagua is applied not only to Chinese Taoist thought and the I Ching, but is also used in other domains of Chinese culture, such as fengshui, martial arts, navigation, etc.
Baháʼí Faith: A global religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh, a nineteenth-century Iranian exile.
Blessing: (from to bless, Old English bleodsian or bletsian) Originally meant "sprinkling with blood" during the pagan sacrifices, the Blóts (reference: AHD). A blessing, (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the infusion of something with holiness, divine will, or one's hopes. Within Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and similar traditions, formal blessings of the church are performed by bishops, priests, and sometimes deacons, but as in many other religions, anyone may formally bless another.
Chakra: In Hinduism and its spiritual systems of yoga and in some related eastern cultures, as well as in some segments of the New Age movement—and to some degree the distinctly different New Thought movement—a chakra is thought to be an energy node in the human body.
Chant: The rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, either on a single pitch or with a simple melody involving a limited set of notes and often including a great deal of repetition or statis. Chant may be considered speech, music, or a heightened form of speech which is more effective in conveying emotion or expressing ones spiritual side.
Channelling: The act of attaining information (from a state of being in the present moment) from higher power or spirits and bringing it forth through writing, speaking, teaching or music.
Creation: The term creation refers to the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe (cosmogony). Some accounts of creation describe the beginnings of the universe as a deliberate act of "Creation" by a supreme being.
Consciousness: A quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. Many philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness which is experience itself and access consciousness which is the processing of the things in experience.
Contemplation: A type of prayer or meditation in the Christian, especially Catholic, tradition. It is an attempt to experience God directly. It is connected to Christian mysticism, and authors such as Teresa of Avila, Margery Kempe, Augustine Baker and Thomas Merton have written about it extensively. It is briefly described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2709 onwards, where the Song of Songs is quoted.
Cosmogony: [Gr. Kosmogonia from Kosmos the world and root of gignesthai to be born] A description (or model) of the coming into existence, the creation and origination of the universe. It is also the study of these aspects. So a cosmogony describes how the Universe came to be; hence, the account of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis is one such cosmogony, and there are many others, both scientific and mythological. This contrasts with cosmology, which studies the Universe at large, throughout its existence.