Glossary

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1. Absolute truth

Sometimes called a universal truth, is an unalterable and permanent fact. The concept of absolute truths - what they are and whether they exist - has been debated among many different groups of people. Philosophers have waded in the muck of defining absolute truth for millennia. For example, Plato believed that absolute truth existed, but that truth on earth was merely a shadow of great forms of absolute truth existing in the universe. Alternatively, many believe in relative truths, where facts may vary depending on the circumstances.

2. Ancient Wisdom

Ancient Wisdom has always been in the world. It is knowledge of the nature of things and of human nature. It is the Wisdom of understanding and compassion, of which all of us feel in need in the depths of our being. A careful reading of any Ancient Wisdom will show its relevance and significance to each of us personally. To be wise we have to learn to apply the principles of Ancient Wisdom to the detailed circumstances of our lives. In this Wisdom we sense our own strength, our own self-sufficiency. It gives us hope and the courage and determination to face life, however hard.

3. Book of Wisdom

The Book of Wisdom or Wisdom of Solomon or simply Wisdom is one of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books of the Septuagint Old Testament, which includes Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), and Ecclesiasticus (Sirach). The essential principles of the Book of Wisdom have been modernised using today's language and included in How Life Really Works.

4. Brainware

The collection of neurones that forms the brain. Brainware is the part that is hard-wired by nature. However, it is emphasised that the brain has to change in one way or another in order to learn. See also Mindware.

5. Cognition

Another word for thinking.

6. Cognitive capital

An overall indication of intellectual potential. Among others, it determines one's earning potential.

7. Cognitive profile

Evaluates one's cognitive strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in detail. The objective is to increase the mission effectiveness of that person by mobilising his or her cognitive capital. See also Peer profile.

8. Conscious

The upper layer of the mind that pertains to our awareness of the environment and ourselves. See also Subconscious and Unconscious.

9. Conscious Living

Life has to be lived - why not live it consciously - the highest way? You could look at a beautiful piece of art or an ideal situation and find some fault with it. But why do that? Look for the good in everything that you see. Life is a celebration and not a tragedy or comedy for those who live consciously. To live consciously is to live in awareness of who 'I am' under all circumstances. This awareness opens up a whole new dimension of one's existence which is free from pain and suffering. This state of 'being peace' is not 'because of' but 'in spite of' the world of changing thoughts, emotions and objects.

10. Conventional Wisdom

A belief or set of beliefs that is widely accepted, especially one which may be questionable on close examination. Conventional wisdom has been holding people back for tens of centuries. Being in the majority is a recipe for disaster. John Kenneth Galbraith once said, 'In economics, the majority is always wrong.' He could have left out 'In economics'. He also said: 'The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.' Conventional Wisdom is also known as an argumentum ad populum (Latin: "appeal to the people"), in logic, is a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that "If many believe so, it is so." In ethics this argument is stated, "If many find it acceptable, it is acceptable."

11. Corporatocracy

Corporatocracy or Corpocracy is a form of government where a corporation, a group of corporations, or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country. A historical example of corporatocracy is the East India Company. This British trade organization ruled over most of India, with the support of the British Empire, starting from the end of 18th century until mid-19th century.

12. Cosmic Consciousness

Cosmic consciousness is the concept that the universe is a living super-organism with which animals, including humans, interconnect, and form a collective consciousness which spans the cosmos. The idea bears similarity to Teilhard de Chardin's conception of the noosphere, James Lovelock's Gaia theory, to Hegel's Absolute idealism, and to Satori in Zen. It is reminiscent of Carl Jung's collective unconscious. "Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind" is the title of a 1901 book on historical forms of mysticism by Richard Maurice Bucke.

13. Dimensional thinking

Cognitive response to our multi-dimensional reality of space and time. It comprises both temporal and spatial thinking.

14. Dynamic thinking

The ability to deploy both temporal and spatial thinking in order to use the most effective mind mode for a particular situation. See also Static thinking.

15. Enlightenment

Enlightenment is a continuous realisation that you are an eternal being who will never die. It comes from a deeper knowing that you are beyond body and behind the mind. It is celebrating every moment of the day with the feeling of being intimately connected to the entire Universe, as if it is a living, breathing, conscious intelligence that loves you unconditionally. It is surrendering to this truth everywhere you are.

16. Epiphany

The sudden realization or comprehension of the larger essence or meaning of something. A mental breakthrough. Clarity.

17. Gift of Wisdom

The gift of wisdom is the application of knowledge acquired through meditative thought and quieting the mind. This type of wisdom is a gift which cannot be gained through conventional study or experience and should by no means try to replace them. It is often referred to in a Biblical sense, meaning that the gift of wisdom comes from God.

18. Groupthink

A way of thinking that is so much dominated by the desire to maintain unanimity in the group that criticism is suspended. Team members will coerce each other to comply with the group doctrine. Each team needs a devil's advocate who rattles the cage and will make the team members think about their believes. This prevents that the team develops tunnel vision and that members conform to unrealistic ideas.

19. Higher consciousness

Also called super-consciousness (Yoga), objective consciousness (Gurdjieff), Buddhic consciousness (Theosophy), cosmic consciousness, God-consciousness (Sufism and Hinduism) and Christ-consciousness (New Thought), are expressions used in various spiritual traditions to denote the consciousness of a human being who has reached a higher level of evolutionary development and who has come to know Reality as it is.

20. Higher self

A term associated with multiple belief systems and is associated with the eternal, conscious, and intelligent being. The term has been popularized by those involved in new age and new religious movements (Neopaganism); however, it is used by many different groups and it can therefore have multiple meanings and interpretations. It has been linked to Aleister Crowley and the Holy Guardian Angel, as well as Theosophists.

21. Holistic living

The holistic approach to life embraces all facets of being: the physical, emotional, and spiritual. And these things are inter-connected; one affects the others, and each affects how we feel.

22. Holistic thinking

A way of thinking induced by the holistic dimension of space. It aims to explain the details of a phenomenon in terms of the entirety. Holistic thinking is part of spatial thinking. See also Linear thinking.

23. Holistic-intuitive thinking

This way of thinking helps us to understand the spatial dimension of our environment. See also Spatial thinking and Linear-rational thinking.

24. Industrial Food

A nation's food supply is controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the farmer, the safety of the workers and our natural environment.

25. Intuition

See Intuitive thinking.

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