आकाश

The word in Sanskrit is derived from a root kāś meaning "to be". It appears as a masculine noun in Vedic Sanskrit with a generic meaning of "open space, vacuity". In Classical Sanskrit, the noun acquires the neuter gender and may express the concept of "sky; atmosphere" (Manusmrti, Shatapatha Brahmana). In Vedantic philosophy, the word acquires its technical meaning of "an ethereal fluid imagined as pervading the cosmos".

In Buddhist phenomenology, Akasha is divided into limited space (ākāsa-dhātu) and endless space (ajatākasā).

The Vaibhashika, an early school of Buddhist philosophy, hold Akasha's existence to be real.

Ākāsa is identified as the first arūpa jhāna*, but usually translates as "infinite space."

In theosophy and anthroposophy, the Akashic records is a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms, not just human. They are believed by theosophists to be encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the mental plane. It is believed all thoughts, words, intent etc. generates its own unique "frequency or vibration" which is stored in the Akashic Records.

Akasha (ākāśa आकाश**) is the Sanskrit word for "aether", "sky", or "atmosphere".

The Sanskrit term akasha was introduced to the language of theosophy through H. P. Blavatsky (1831–1891), who characterized it as a sort of life force; she also referred to "indestructible tablets of the astral light" recording both the past and future of human thought and action, but she did not use the term "akashic". The notion of an akashic record was further disseminated by Alfred Percy Sinnett in his book Esoteric Buddhism (1883) when he cites Henry Steel Olcott's A Buddhist Catechism (1881). Olcott wrote that "Buddha taught two things are eternal, viz, 'Akasa' and 'Nirvana': everything has come out of Akasa in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and, passes away. Nothing ever comes out of nothing." Olcott further explains that "Early Buddhism, then, clearly held to a permanency of records in the Akasa and the potential capacity of man to read the same, when he was evoluted to the stage of true individual enlightenment."

"Hence the records of each entity are recorded upon time and space, and in patience may be interpreted to the entity; to be used constructively, not as something of which to boast or to take short cuts. For, there are no short cuts in patience. There are no short cuts in time or space when conceived in the mental and spiritual aspect."

Edgar Cayce reading 2771-1

* ध्यान 禪 In the oldest texts of Buddhism, dhyāna (Sanskrit) or jhāna (Pāḷi) is the training of the mind, commonly translated as meditation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, and leading to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi)." Dhyāna may have been the core practice of pre-sectarian Buddhism, in combination with several related practices which together lead to perfected mindfulness and detachment, and are fully realized with the practice of dhyana.

** 空界或虛空界（巴利文及梵語：ākāsa-dhātu)