glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

Impiety: By impiety we mean, not the mere fact of not believing in God, but the
fundamental tendency not to believe in Him; herein lies the whole difference between the
“accident” and the “substance.” [PM, Prerogatives of the Human State]
Infinite: Life of the Absolute. [RH, Cosmos]
To say Absolute, is to say Infinite; Infinitude is an intrinsic aspect of the Absolute. It is
from this “dimension” of Infinitude that the world necessarily springs forth; the world
exists because the Absolute, being such, implies Infinitude. [FDH, The Interplay of the
Hypostases]
The Infinite is that which, in the world, appears as modes of expanse or of extension,
such as space, time, form or diversity, number or multiplicity, matter or substance. In
other words, and to be more precise: there is a conserving mode, and this is space; a
transforming mode, and this is time; a qualitative mode, and this is form, not inasmuch as
it limits, but inasmuch as it implies indefinite diversity; a quantitative mode, and this is
number, not inasmuch as it fixes a given quantity, but inasmuch as it too is indefinite; a
substantial mode, and this is matter, it too being without limit as is shown by the starfilled
sky. Each of these modes has its prolongation – or more exactly its basis – in the
animic state and beyond, for these modes are the very pillars of universal existence.
[FDH, The Interplay of the Hypostases]
Infinitude, as we have said, is the radiation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, of the Absolute:
a priori it is internal Bliss, if one may say so; in becoming relative a posteriori, it
becomes hypostatic and creative as well as saving Maya; . . . the Absolute as such and its
radiating Shakti – Infinitude. [IFA, Islam and Consciousness of the Absolute]
Infinity implies by definition the at least symbolical possibility of its own negation; hence
the “existentialization” of nothingness. “And the more man blasphemes,” Meister Eckhart
says, “the more he praises God”; in puffing itself up with pride in order to deny That
which is, the existentialized nothingness pays homage to Being, the source of all
existence. [THC, Concerning an Onto-Cosmological Ambiguity]
Inspiration: Inspiration by the Holy Spirit does not mean that It is to replace human
intelligence and free it from all its natural limitations, for that would be Revelation;
inspiration simply means that the Spirit guides man in accordance with the divine
intention and on the basis of the capacities of the human receptacle. Were this not so,
there would be no theological elaboration, nor any divergences within orthodoxy, and the
first Church Father would have written a theological treatise that would have been
unique, exhaustive, and definitive; there would never have been either a Thomas Aquinas
or a Gregory Palamas. As to the rest, there are men who are inspired by the Holy Spirit
because they are saints and inasmuch as they are, whereas there are others who are saints
because they are inspired by the Holy Spirit and inasmuch as they are. [FSR, The Human
Margin]
Inspiration / Reflection / Reasoning / Intellection: Inspiration, like revelation, is a
divine dictate, with the difference that in the second case the Spirit dictates a law-giving
and obligatory Message of overriding force, whereas in the first case the Message,
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