Definitions: T

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Taittiriya Upanishad: one of the principal Upanishads.

Takshavill: a murderer who, after coming to the touch of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, became highly realized.

tamas: Sanskrit word meaning one of the three qualities of nature (guna), expressing sloth, restlessness, and idleness.

tanuh: Sanskrit word meaning body.

tantra: techniques for acquiring supernatural powers.

Taoism : the religion founded about 700 years after the death of Lao-tzu around the ideas of the old Chinese sage.

Tao Te Ching: Lao-tzu composed the Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its Power) in a terse 5,000 characters, summing up his entire philosophy of the way of effortless goodness.

tapah loka: Sanskrit word meaning the sixth of the seven upper spheres of existence (loka). Corresponds to the pituitary (soul center).

tapas (Sanskrit word meaning "heat"): to do penance and austerities.

tapasvin: Sanskrit word meaning those who practice austerities.

tapo yajña: Sanskrit word meaning to offer ghee in the fire and to chant some mantra with every oblation.

tat: Sanskrit word meaning that.

tejas: Sanskrit word meaning fearlessness, valor.

Teresa, Mother (1910-1997): born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje of Albanian parents, she established her Missionaries of Charity order in Calcutta, India in 1948. Her humble work touched the hearts of millions throughout the world where she was revered as a symbol of selfless devotion towards the poor, the sick and dying.

Therese of Lisieux, St.: born Therese Martin in France in 1873, she entered the Carmelite Order at the unusual young age of fifteen, due to her strong will and precocious sense of her spiritual destiny. Known as the "Little flower of Christ", she died at twenty-four.

third eye: the divine eye, the spiritual eye, also known as the eye of wisdom (ajña chakra).

Thomas, Gospel of: part of a collection of ancient manuscripts written in the Coptic language and dated to the first or second century A.D. Discovered in 1945 in the Egyptian desert, this collection of sayings of Jesus is being hailed today as the "Fifth Gospel" by many scholars and theologians.

treta yuga: Sanskrit word meaning the “silver” age in the Vedic cosmological system of cyclical time.

tri: Sanskrit word meaning three, triple.

triveda, trayi veda: Sanskrit word meaning the three first Vedas (Rik, Sama, Yajur).

Tulsidas: a 15th century seeker who became realized through good company, and later author of the famous Hindi spiritual treatise Ramacharita Manasa.

turiya samadhi (Sanskrit word meaning “fourth stage of ecstasy”): another name for nirvikalpa samadhi.

tyaga (Sanskrit word meaning “abandonment”): it refers to renunciation of all action, but not outwardly. Inner detachment is possible only when one is meditating sincerely and surrendering completely to the will of God.

tzaddikim: a spiritual preceptor in the Judaic tradition. From the Hebrew word meaning “just one” or “saint”.

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