glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

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against intelligence and the nature of things; it likewise controls charity and determines its various modes. One has to be humble because the ego tends to think itself more than it is; and one has to be truthful because the ego tends to prefer its own tastes and habits to the truth. [THC, Intelligence and Character] Virtue (essence): Virtue is the conformity of the soul to the divine Model and to the spiritual work; conformity or participation. The essence of the virtues is emptiness before God, which permits the divine Qualities to enter the heart and radiate in the soul. Virtue is the exteriorization of the pure heart. [EchPW, 15] Virtue (natural / supernatural): It is important to understand that the natural virtues have no effective value save on condition of being integrated into the supernatural virtues, those precisely which presuppose a kind of death. Natural virtue does not in fact exclude pride, that worst of illogicalities and that preeminent vice; supernatural virtue alone – rooted in God – excludes that vice which, in the eyes of Heaven, cancels all the virtues. Supernatural virtue – which alone is fully human – coincides therefore with humility; not necessarily with sentimental and individualistic humilitarianism, but with the sincere and well-grounded awareness of our nothingness before God and of our relativity in relation to others. To be concrete, we would say that a humble person is ready to accept even a partially unjust criticism if it comprises a grain of truth, and if it comes from a person who is, if not perfect, at least worthy of respect; a humble person is not interested in having his virtue recognized, he is interested in surpassing himself; hence in pleasing God more than men. [THC, Survey of Integral Anthropology] Virtue / Art: Virtue realizes in the human subject a conformity with the divine Object; spiritual art eliminates – or conjointly with knowledge contributes to eliminating – the human objectification that veils the divine Subject. [LS, A View on Yoga] Virtue / Beauty: Virtue is the beauty of the soul as beauty is the virtue of forms. [LT, Truths and Errors Concerning Beauty] Virtue cut off from God becomes pride, as beauty cut off from God becomes idol; and virtue attached to God becomes sanctity, as beauty attached to God becomes sacrament. [EchPW, 17] Virtue / Grace: “Virtue” in this sense is not equivalent to the natural qualities which of necessity accompany a high degree of intellectuality and contemplativity, it is a conscious and permanent striving after perfection, and perfection is essentially selfeffacement, generosity and love of truth; “grace” in this sense is the divine aid which man must implore and without which he can do nothing, whatever his gifts; for a gift serves no purpose if it be not blessed by God. [LAW, In the Wake of the Fall] Virtue / Union: God . . . is . . . One; the unity of the divine object demands – and logically involves – the totality of the human subject; and it demands it in the double respect of individual, and therefore horizontal, perfection, and universal, and therefore vertical perfection. This second perfection closes the circle since it opens onto the Divine 156
Subject, which is immanent, while at the same time remaining transcendent in relation to the human subject. In other words, the discernment that allows the intelligence to distinguish between the absolute and the relative has, as a corollary, both moral virtue and spiritual union. Virtue is the conformity of the soul to the divine nature; and union is extinctive concentration on the immanent Self. [EPW, The Way of Oneness] Wakan: Wakan is whatever conforms integrally to its proper “genius”; the Principle is Wakan-Tanka, namely: what is absolutely “Self”; on the other hand a sage is he who is wholly in conformity with his “genius” or with his “essence,” with that which is none other than the “Great Spirit” or the “Great Mystery.” Wakan is what enables us to apprehend directly the Divine Reality; a man is wakan when his soul manifests the Divine with the spontaneous and flashing evidence of the wonders of Nature. [FS, The Sacred Pipe] Wakan-Tanka: The name Wakan-Tanka, literally “Great Sacred” (wakan = sacred) is commonly translated “Great Spirit” or “Great Mystery,” and has also been rendered as “Great Powers,” the plural being justified in view of the polysynthetic significance of the concept. [FS, The Shamanism of the Red Indians] Objections are sometimes raised to the name “Great Spirit” as a translation of the Sioux word Wakan-Tanka, and of similar terms in other Indian languages; but although Wakan- Tanka (and the terms which correspond to it) can also be translated by “Great Mystery” or “Great Mysterious Power” (or even “Great Medicine”), and although “Great Spirit” is no doubt not absolutely adequate, it nonetheless serves quite well enough and in any case conveys the meaning in question better than any other term; it is true that the word “spirit” is rather indefinite, but it has for that very reason the advantage of implying no restriction, and this is exactly what the “polysynthetic” term Wakan requires. The expression “Great Mystery” which has been suggested by some as a translation of Wakan-Tanka (or of the analogous terms, such as Wakonda or Manitu, in other Indian languages) is no better than “Great Spirit” at expressing the idea in question: besides, what matters is not whether the term corresponds exactly to what we mean by “Spirit,” but whether the ideas expressed by the Red Indian term may be translated by “Spirit” or not. [FS, The Sacred Pipe] Weakness: Weakness is abandonment to illusions and lack of intellectual penetration with regard to appearances, and hence a lack of inward homogeneity and consequently of resistance. [EH, Transgression and Purification] Weakness / Strength: Weakness is the habitual conviction of being weak; to be weak is to be unaware that every man has access to strength, to all the strength there is. Strength is not a privilege of the strong, it is a potentiality of every man; the problem is to find access to this strength. To be weak is to be passively subject to duration; to be strong is to be actively free in the instant, in the Eternal Present. To be weak is to give way to pressures, and one gives way to pressures because one does not see the effects in the causes. Sin is a cause, punishment is its concordant effect. Man 157
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GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED BY FRITHJOF
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Absolute: “In the Absolute, I am
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emains paradoxically attached out o
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knowledge which determines action,
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liturgical quality and - for all th
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divine Substance, but of the human
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ecause beauty is unitive and exclud
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consequently that Being is not othe
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said that the Buddhas bring salvati
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Charity means to lose oneself. [SPH
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Christianity: “God became man tha
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world which is its medium of manife
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democracy is possible; but then it
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True dignity could not be affected,
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total since this form is a symbol a
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Ellipsism (Oriental): Which consist
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use of the intelligence, and not on
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Now, if we start out from the idea
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material world. The answer to evolu
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Exoterism transmits aspects or frag
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certainly not their more or less na
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Faith / Intelligence: Unlike an int
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pure and simple, constitute what we
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Existence itself; now, no one can c
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Generosity (towards man): Generosit
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it is of this we are speaking - suc
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or this Divine Face turned towards
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ejoicing in the good which they enj
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If love takes precedence over hatre
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Holiness: Holiness is the sleep of
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sham absolutes, which in addition a
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“humble,” in relation to the su
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wisdom. Esoterically, one can disti
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whatever be its value, has no dogma
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the cogito alone. From the point of
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“activity,” the intelligence re
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Intentionism / Sincerism: Intention
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Jivan-mukta: According to Shankara,
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intellectual or heart knowledge, th
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The validity of a logical demonstra
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Substance; therefore it cannot beco
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It is in man’s nature to be able
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enveloped Christ’s ascension. Tha
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Matter, in fact, refers in the fina
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divine possibilities projected into
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Metaphysic: The science of the Abso
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hardly arises in pure metaphysics a
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Morality (two sources): Morality ha
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The mythological wording of a tradi
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space, and the immobility of the su
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Nothing / Being: The notion of “n
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“heart,” given that “the king
Page 105 and 106: Orthodoxy (quintessential): Quintes
Page 107 and 108: Passion, as it is to be understood
Page 109 and 110: principles, together with the scien
Page 111 and 112: illusory. The innovators, nihilists
Page 113 and 114: Pneumatic / Psychic / Hylic: The
Page 115 and 116: themselves; and the fact that they
Page 117 and 118: Prophet: The Prophet is the human n
Page 119 and 120: should perceive without difficulty,
Page 121 and 122: absoluteness; it seeks to destroy e
Page 123 and 124: ultimate purpose, it is difficult f
Page 125 and 126: plane, but rather a sphere of reali
Page 127 and 128: Sacred Scripture: A sacred Scriptur
Page 129 and 130: and its ultimate effects cannot but
Page 131 and 132: logicians, whereas the Semites - if
Page 133 and 134: horizontal and ambiguous faculty, w
Page 135 and 136: Simplicity: Simplicity is indiffere
Page 137 and 138: liberating. Love, which responds to
Page 139 and 140: Path is effort; if as intelligence,
Page 141 and 142: - whether it is a question of the P
Page 143 and 144: other a belief in unreal or ineffec
Page 145 and 146: The Christians had no reason at all
Page 147 and 148: truths well enough in theory, has n
Page 149 and 150: Transcendence / Immanence (objectiv
Page 151 and 152: to us; it is Revelation entering in
Page 153 and 154: a certain right to sacrifice the tr
Page 155: A spiritual virtue is nothing other
Page 159 and 160: The world is divine through its cha
Page 161 and 162: BIBLIOGRAPHY Books by Frithjof Schu
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glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

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