| Pagan | A person who is irreligious or who adheres to Non-theistic practices. |
| Pagoda | Buddhist worship shrine built over sacred relics; characterized by layers of spires. |
| Pali Canon | Basic Buddhist canon; Traditional collection commenced shortly after Gautamas death when followers met to recite the Tipitaka. |
| Panic | a sudden or complete loss of will or assurance. |
| Pantheism | Belief that all reality and matter is divine. |
| Paradise | Originally, a Zoroastrian term referring to a walled garden or park, forest, mountain, or island; a blessed heavenly state of bliss; applied to Garden of Eden in LXX only. |
| Paramita | Buddhist notion of perfection developed most fully by Boddhisvattas. see six mental. |
| Parsva | Legendary founder of Jainism. considered to be the twenty-second Tirthankara. |
| Past life Regression | (New Age) Through hypnosis, one can discover past lives or reincarnations. |
| Patit | A Sikh who has seriously offended the code of discipline or lapsed from the faith. |
| Perception | A single unified awareness derived from experience and environment which is based on influences, insight, perspective, and preference. |
| Personality | Spiritual component; the pattern of individual characteristics made up of the physical, mental, emotional, behavioral and relational characteristics. |
| Perspective | One's mental view of facts, ideas, etc., and their interrelationships. |
| Pesach | ('Passover') Seven-day Jewish spring festival commemorating the deliverance from Egyptian bondage; Sacred meal includes unleavened bread, wine and bitter herbs. |
| Physical | personality component comprised of health, constitution, and heredity. |
| Pilgrimage | A commemorative or sacred journey to a holy site for illumination or faith. |
| Planetary Citizens | New age adherents to global interrelationship for healing and harmony. |
| Pluralism | The philosophic contention that all religions are equally valid for salvation. |
| Polytheism | The belief and veneration of multiple gods. |
| Potential | maximum capability of talent, relationship, personality, or ability. |
| Prakriti | ('matter') Hindu primary substance of the cosmos. |
| Pralaya | The end of the degenerate age when Brahma sleeps dreamlessly until next incarnation. |
| Prana | ('breath ') Term in Yogic Hinduism,; many breathing techniques are designed to calm the prana. |
| Prayer | Verbal or nonverbal offering of worship, request, confession, adoration, intercession, praise, and/or any other desires directly to deity; Devout petition or spiritual communion with God. |
| Prayer Wheels | in Buddhism, wheels and cylinders inscribed with a mantra spun at high speed. |
| Prejudice | Hostile unreasonable feelings, opinions or attitudes to a racial, religious, or national group. |
| Priest | A religious official who is authorized to mediate for others to deity. |
| Primal | An essential element, primary source, or basic core. |
| Primal Religions | Tribe or clan based religions that have no literary tradition. |
| Principle | Fundamental law, axiom or doctrine; a personal or specific basis of conduct or management. |
| Private | Behavior with immediate family, intimate friends, and while alone. |
| Productive | Ability to generate or create goods and services in conformity with society, family, and potential; being a useful resource. |
| Progress | Natural positive or negative movement in a series of events to the next by experimentation, logic, learning, maturity, or the lack thereof. |
| Progression | Instinct for experimentation, maturation, learning, and improvement. |
| Prophet | One who speaks boldly concerning consequences of continuing perversion of faith. |
| Psalm | Sacred song or poem. |
| Puja | ('Reverence') Hindu adherence to rites/ceremonies ascribed to Brahmin in temple worship. |
| Punna | ('merit') Buddhist idea that one can improve karma to attain a better reincarnation. |
| Puranas | Devotional texts for some Hindus. |
| Pure Land | Some Buddhist's believe in a after life paradise to which they are transported after death, except that any caring souls will become a Bodhisvatta and return to Earth. |
| Purification | Removal of defiling elements within humans, or sacred sites by various means. |
| Purim | ('Lots') Jewish festival celebrating Esther's defeat of Haman in Babylon. |
| Purusha | ('person') Hindu belief concerning primal human linked with Brahma and atman. |
| Pyramidology | Study of Egyptian or Mayan pyramids to extract wisdom, knowledge, and power. |
©2006 Basic Progress