I
ICHCHHASHAKTI :
This is the long way to say 'will-power.' Actually, it is not just the power which enables one to say, ‘I can’ and ‘I will,’ but is, instead, rather more like the electric waves generated by the brain, and which can, literally, galvanise one into a special form of activity. It is the special power which enables the Adept, who is breathing correctly, to accomplish levitation. Levitation is quite possible, and rather easy to do, especially if one really has a sound reason for it. This ‘will-power’ is that which enables us to see into the future, or into the probable future, and which enables us within a limited extent to pre-order future occurrences. It is the power by which so-called 'coincidences' take place. There is no actual Western term for this, but it is a special power of the will acting at the instigation of the Overself which enables the physical body and the astral body to co-operate to an unusual extent to produce certain effects.
IDA :
This is a column of sensory and motory nerves on the left side of the spinal cord. These nerves, or bunches of fibers, have a special place in the relationship between the physical and astral bodies. The fibers coil around and end at the left nostril. By using certain breathing exercises one can cause palpation of the Ida, and so awaken certain dormant centres. It is not proposed to give that special breathing exercise, although others are given at the end of this Dictionary. To give this particular exercise might be to cause harm to someone who read and rushed without knowing what it was all about. One has to remember that many people will go into a library, pick up a book, and just copy out a paragraph or two to save the price of a book, and to protect those people who are trying to run before they can walk such an exercise must be omitted.
IGNORANCE : Ignorance is lack of knowledge, lack of wisdom, and if we were not so foolishly ignorant we should not have so many troubles. The ignorant person does not know enough to know that he does not know. Perhaps the best way to explain it is : He that knows not and knows not that he knows not, he is a fool, shun him. He that knows not and knows that he knows not, he is teachable, teach him. He that knows and knows that he knows, he is wise, follow him.
ILLUSION : This particular planet is called on other planes the World of Illusion, the world where one's senses deceive one, the world where things are very different from what they seem. People on ‘the Other Side’ think of those on the Earth as being afraid to go to Hell. Well, Earth is one of the hells, it is where we get the hell of physical experience and the hell of illusions. We look upon this world which we call the Earth, and we think it is the most wonderful thing ever. We think the whole Universe and Universes beyond were made specially and exclusively for this Earth; we think we are the only creatures alive in space; we think that millions and billions, and trillions and trillions of other worlds are empty, desolate, just put up there as a peep-show for Mankind. We think that we are Godlike creatures, the like of which has never been seen before and will never be seen again. That is illusion. Earth is a speck of dust and no more. Earth is one of the smaller specks of dirt in the sky. We think, while we are on this Earth, that we are great and powerful, we think that our riches will buy the Kingdom of Heaven. But there is no bargain basement beyond this Earth. We cannot get salvation at cut rates, we have to get rid of illusion and get down to the true meaning of things. We have to get rid of selfishness and lust, we have to get rid of our callous disregard for the other person. Until we are ready to give of ourself we cannot receive of others. It is an illusion to think that we can.
IMAGINATION : Imagination is the picturing of one's desires or one’s fears, and imagination is the greatest force of all, greater than will-power, greater than love. It is an old lore of psychologists that in any battle between the will and imagination, the imagination always wins, and if we try to conquer imagination by brute will-power then we cause a neurotic condition. The imagination still wins because the imagination causes a breakdown, so that the imagination must conquer. There cannot be love without imagination. One imagines the charms of one's beloved, or one imagines that one has met one's ‘twin soul’ (as rare as apples on a gooseberry bush while on Earth!), and one imagines all the pleasures with love undying of being married to such-and-such a person. In passing, it needs rather more than just animal passion to keep two people in harmony. If the imagination says that one shall not do such-and-such a thing, then, no matter how strong the will, a person cannot do it. Could you, for instance, walk along a plank suspended across the tops of two ten-story buildings? No matter how strongly the plank was anchored your over-worked imagination would say that you were going to fall, and then you would fall, to the delight of the onlookers and to the profit of the Press who would be sure to be there. If you want to get results you will have to control your imagination so that it and friend will-power work together in harmony.
INCARNATION : Homo sapiens who so often lacks the latter, is just one method of enabling an Overself to gain experience. There are people on an enormous number of planets, as is now being recognized by reputable scientists all over the world. Some of them are trying to tune in on radio messages from other worlds, and even as long ago as the beginning of the century a very famous man; Nicholas Tesla, who was one of the inventors of the radio tube or valve (depending on whether you are in the U.S.A. or England), reported that he had received signals from another planet. Marconi reported the same, but these two eminent gentlemen were such objects of ridicule that they dropped research like a hot potato—a very hot potato. But now the U.S. Government and the U.S.S.R. Government are doing everything possible to initiate success. Possibly the Communists want to convert a few more planets to Communism. People come to this Earth to gain experience of a special kind. According to some teachings, Earth is hell! A person comes to Earth in order to have sharp experiences which can be analyzed by the Overself, and which the Overself could not gain in such a short time. People come to Earth time after time working through every sign of the Zodiac, and working through each of the quadrants of the Zodiac, in much the same way as a student at a college takes various courses of instruction in order to get a balanced knowledge. Thus a person can become Aries in one life, and the opposite sign in the next life. In succeeding incarnations the poor soul can go through all the Houses or Signs of the Zodiac, and each quadrant of each Sign, and thus gain complete experience of all the unpleasant happenings which occur to humans. When one has learned, and not had any great desire to come back to this Earth, then the person is rid of incarnations on this Earth plane. After, when one leaves as when one leaves school, one takes up the work for which one has been trained.
INDRIYAS : More correctly it should be 'The Ten Indriyas' because there are ten organs in the body by which the Overself can gain various specialized information. There are the organs of perceptions, the organs of hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch; and the organs of more direct action which are the organs of excretion, generation, propulsion (feet), touch (hands), and taste (tongue). Each of these organs relays back through the spinal cord and up into the brain everything that is happening. The information is broadcast to the Overself, who thus is in touch with everything that is happening and becomes aware of every sensation. When this relay system breaks down we can see the results in a mental home when we look at catatonic patients.
INTUITION : A process under which the physical body is given a glimpse of something which normally in the physical body could not be known. For example, a person can be standing on a sidewalk, and can then have a sudden flash of intuition that a chimney-pot or a slate is going to fall on his head. The man cannot see the chimney-pot, and cannot hear it either, but he usually looks up in time to see the thing before it hits him! When people will believe in intuition, and give it rein to develop and blossom forth, it can be a very useful thing indeed. Actually, the Overself who is not yet ready to have the body damaged, can give a preliminary warning of a danger to come and thus to be avoided. When one gets an impression that a person is near, when a person is perhaps within six or seven feet, it does not mean that that is intuition, it just means that either telepathy or impinging or auric emanations is taking place. It is often stated that women have greater intuition than men, and if you will look at some of the illustrations in YouForever you will observe that a woman's etheric and aura have a rather different shape to that of a man, and so it gives them spiritual consolation. Presumably in the latter case they hope greater intuition.
ISHVARAKOTI : This is an inferior type of Avatar. The person who comes to this Earth for the good of others, and who is normally free of the bonds of the Earth and thus has no Earth Karma, may be an Ishvarakoti. If he or she is dealing with individuals on a minor scale, then it will be an Ishvarakoti. An Avatar is very much more evolved and does not necessarily come from this Universe at all, nor from the next or the one after that. An Avatar is one who teaches and restores to present-day requirements ancient teachings.
ISHWARA : Some people use this word as meaning, or indicating, God. This is particularly so among the Brahmans. The actual meaning is ‘Divine willer,’ the Supreme Giver. It is a Perfect Being who has compassion for struggling humanity because the Being has worked through all the rounds of existence and knows how difficult it can be, and having suffered the Being has sympathy and understanding.
T.L. Rampa., Wisdom of the Ancients (1965), Letter I, Pg 56-60.
