glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

a certain right to sacrifice the truth to opportunity; that is, it has this right to the extent
that a given truth remains foreign to its own fundamental truth and to the corresponding
spiritual strategy.
An upaya, in order to be effective, must exclude; the way of “God as such” must exclude
the way of “God become man” and conversely; but either way will retain a reflection of
the other, the function of which will remain secondary. Islam, on pain of being
ineffectual or something other than itself, must exclude the Christian dogma; Christianity
for its part must exclude the characteristic axiom of Islam – as it excluded at the outset
the axiom of Judaism, which in this connection coincides with that of Islam. The Epistles
of Saint Paul show how the Apostle simplifies Mosaism with the intention of buttressing
Christianity from the point of view of both doctrine and method; in an analogous manner,
all that shocks Christians in Moslem imagery must be interpreted as a symbolism meant
to clear the ground in view of the efficacy of the Muhammadan upaya. In order to
understand a religion, it is useless to stop short at its extrinsic polemic; its fundamental
intention lies in its intrinsic affirmation which testifies to God and leads to God. The
imagery is nothing, the underlying geometry is everything. [SME, Confessional
Speculation: Intentions and Impasses]
Veil: The veil is a notion which evokes the idea of mystery, because it hides from view
something that is either too sacred or too intimate; but it also enfolds a mystery within its
own nature when it becomes the symbol of universal veiling. [EPW, The Mystery of the
Veil]
Veracity / Sincerity: Veracity is the propensity to accept the primacy of the true or the
real, thereby acknowledging that no right is superior to the right of the Truth, whereas
sincerity is the inclination to accept and realize totally that which by its very uniqueness
requires totality; sincerity is likewise to do what is just, and not simply what flatters, and
to do it to please God, not men. [IFA, The Mystery of the Prophetic Substance]
The first of the virtues is veracity, for without truth we can do nothing. The second virtue
is sincerity, which consists in drawing the consequences of what we know to be true, and
which implies all the other virtues; for it is not enough to acknowledge the truth
objectively, in thought, it must also be assumed subjectively, in acts, whether outward or
inward. [RHC, Virtue and Way]
Vigilance: Vigilance is the affirmative and combative virtue that prevents us from
forgetting or betraying the “one thing needful”: it is the presence of mind which
ceaselessly calls us back to the remembrance of God, and which thereby keeps us
attentive with regard to anything that might separate us from it. This virtue excludes all
negligence and all carelessness – in little things as well as in big ones – since it is
founded on awareness of the present moment of this ceaselessly renewed instant that
belongs to God and not to the world, to Reality and not to dreaming. [EPW, The Virtues
in the Way]
Virgin Mary: The Blessed Virgin is both pure universal Substance (Prakriti), the matrix
of the manifested divine Spirit and of all creatures in respect of their theomorphism, and
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