glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

horizontal and ambiguous faculty, whereas the intellect – not just intelligence or reason
alone – is by definition a vertical and ascending faculty. [FSR, The Human Margin]
Sentimental Doctrine: A doctrine merits the epithet “sentimental,” not because it makes
use of a symbolism of the feelings or because it reflects incidentally in its form the
sentiments of the writer who expounds it, but because its point of departure is determined
more by feeling than by objective reality, which means that the latter is violated by the
former. To this definition we must add a reservation in favor of the traditional doctrines,
or some of them: strictly speaking, a true doctrine could be qualified by use of the word
“sentimental” when sentiment is introduced into the very substance of that doctrine,
while limiting the truth, by force of circumstance, on account of the “subjective” and
affective character of sentimentality as such; it is in this sense that Guénon spoke of the
presence of a sentimental element in the Semitic exoterisms, while pointing out that it is
this element which causes the incompatibilities between dogmas of different origins. But
in this case, the term “sentimental” cannot mean that the doctrine itself originates in a
sentimental and therefore human reaction, as happens with profane ideologies; on the
contrary, here the marriage between truth and sentiment is a providential and beneficial
concession to certain psychological predispositions, so that the epithet in question is only
applicable on condition that one specifies that it concerns orthodox doctrines. [TM,
Reflections on Ideological Sentimentalism]
Serenity: It is necessary to accept “God’s will” when evil enters into our destiny and
cannot possibly be avoided; indeed, the partially paradoxical nature of All-Possibility
requires of man an attitude of conformity to this situation, namely the quality of serenity,
of which the sky above us is the visible sign. Serenity is to keep oneself so to speak
above the clouds, in the calm and coolness of emptiness and far from all the dissonances
of this lower world; it is never to allow the soul to immerse itself in impasses of
disturbances, bitterness, or secret revolt, for it is necessary to beware of implicitly
accusing Being when accusing some phenomenon. We do not say that one should not
accuse evil in all justice, we say that one should not accuse it with an attitude of despair,
losing sight of the everywhere-present Sovereign Good and, in another respect, of the
imperatives of universal equilibrium; the world is what it must be.
Serenity is resignation, at once intellectual and moral, to the nature of things: it is
patience in relation to All-Possibility insofar as the latter requires, by its very
limitlessness, the existence of negative possibilities, those that deny Being and the
qualities manifesting It, as we have noted above. We would also say, in order to provide
one more key, that serenity consists in resigning oneself to that destiny, at once unique
and permanent, which is the present moment: to this itinerant “now” that no one can
avoid and that in its substance pertains to the Eternal. The man who is conscious of the
nature of pure Being willingly remains in the moment that Heaven has assigned him; he
is not feverishly straining towards the future nor lovingly or sadly bent over the past. The
pure present is the moment of the Absolute: it is now – neither yesterday nor tomorrow –
that we stand before God.
. . . Serenity is the quasi-unconditional moral victory either over the natural shadows, or
over the absurd dissonances of the world and of life; in the case of encounters with evil –
and we owe it to God and to ourselves to remain in Peace – we may use the following
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