Twenty-four words this book uses with care. Terms marked [A] are the author’s own; the others are traditional, and where the book narrows a traditional meaning, the entry says so.
- Ahimsa
- Non-harm; the ethical restraint against injury in act, word and intent. Traditional; extended in this book to ecological consequence.
- Anasakti
- Non-attachment; acting without being possessed by the outcome. Traditional.
- Aparigraha
- Non-grasping; the refusal to accumulate beyond need. One of the traditional restraints of the Yoga tradition.
- Avatar (avatāra)
- Literally a descent; in Vaishnava theology a deliberate manifestation of the divine within the world.
- Bhakti
- Devotion understood as relationship rather than obedience. Traditional; taken here in its transferable sense of service to something beyond one’s own advantage.
- Darshan (darśana)
- Sight, seeing; by extension a philosophical viewpoint. The sense used in this book’s title.
- Dharma
- Duty, right order, that which upholds. In this book narrowed to responsibility correctly located.
- Kali algorithm [A]
- The author’s name for a structural pattern: distraction, dopamine, distortion, dependency. Not an accusation against any organisation.
- Kaliyuga
- The last of the four traditional ages, characterised by the thinning of dharma. Read in this book as a condition of collective attention rather than a chronology.
- Kalki
- In Vaishnava tradition the tenth and final avatar of Vishnu, expected at the close of Kaliyuga. Read here as a symbol of correction and restoration.
- Karma
- Action; the principle that action carries consequence for the actor as well as the world. Traditions differ on mechanism; this book takes no position on the metaphysics.
- Moksha
- Liberation; release from the cycle of conditioned existence. Traditional. Referenced in this book but not argued for.
- Nishkama karma
- Action performed without craving for its fruit — a central teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. Not indifference to outcomes.
- Pancha mahabhuta
- The five classical elements — earth, water, fire, air, space. A classical framework, not a modern scientific one.
- Sat-cit-ananda
- Being–consciousness–bliss; a Vedantic formulation of the nature of the ultimate. Traditional.
- Satya
- Truth, truthfulness; in the ethical traditions, living without contradiction rather than merely avoiding falsehood.
- SatyaYuga
- The first and finest of the four traditional ages. In this book: the condition in which inner state, speech and action are one continuous thing.
- Satsanga
- Keeping the company of the true — of people, texts and settings in which honesty is easier.
- Seva
- Service, especially unattributed. Traditional.
- Tapas
- Literally heat; chosen discipline, the friction one accepts on purpose. Not imposed deprivation.
- Truth state [A]
- The author’s term for the condition in which a person is not managing an impression. See Chapter Fifteen for the careful separation of its modest and stronger claims.
- Viveka
- Discernment; the faculty distinguishing the real from the merely apparent. Traditional.
- Yuga
- An age within the traditional cosmological cycle. The immense durations given in Puranic literature belong to that literature and are not treated here as chronology.
- Zone [A]
- The author’s term for the interval between impulse and action — the state one is in before acting, which largely determines what the action becomes.