glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

Intentionism / Sincerism: Intentionism and sincerism go hand-in-hand; what the first
has in common with the second is that it flies to defend all things blameworthy, whether
extravagant and pernicious or simply mediocre and vulgar; in short, to be “sincere,” is to
show oneself “as one is,” unconditionally and cynically, hence counter to any effort to be
what one ought to be. It is forgotten that the worth of sincerity lies in its contents only,
and that it is charity to avoid giving a bad example; the individual owes society a correct
comportment, to say the least, which has nothing to do with the vice of dissimulation. Let
us specify that correct comportment, such as is required by good sense and traditional
morality, has as a necessary corollary a certain effacement, whereas hypocrisy by
definition is a kind of exhibitionism, crude or subtle as the case may be. [PM, On
Intention]
Inwardness: The fact that the subject amounts to a dimension of the object, rather as
time is in a sense a dimension of space – this fact shows how important the perspective of
“inwardness” is in the face of God; that is, the accentuation of inward, intrinsic, profound
qualities, and by way of consequence the concern to avoid the pitfall of superficial
formalism. Christ intended that one adore God “in spirit and in truth,” and not by “the
prescriptions of men”; he opposed inward, and by definition sincere, values to outward
and extrinsic attitudes; and this, if it is not esoterism pure and simple, is at least one of its
fundamental dimensions. “The kingdom of God is within you”; this refers metaphysically
to the divine “Self,” to the immanent Atma; hence to the “uncreated and uncreatable”
Intellect of the Eckhartian doctrine.
“The world is false, Brahman is true; the soul is not other than Brahman.” This Vedantic
formula furnishes the key of the principle of inwardness: which means that we can attain
the divine Self only within ourselves, given that it is our essence. Moreover, it is this
mystery of potential or virtual identity that explains the secretiveness of esoterism.
In a more elementary mode, inwardness is faith, which by its very nature frees from
formalistic and legalistic servitude, and which essentially saves us; however, more
profoundly, inwardness is union with the immanent divine Presence and, in the final
analysis, with the divine Self. This dimension of depth does not, of course, abolish faith,
but on the contrary includes and “essentializes” it; if faith can save us, that is because it
is, at the level it pertains to, a mode of our paradisiacal essence. [RHC, Pillars of
Wisdom]
Inwardness / Outwardness: The quality of inwardness demands of us not a renunciation
of the outward world – which, besides, would be impossible – but an equilibrium
determined by the spiritual meaning of the world and of life. The vice of outwardness is
the lack of harmony between the two dimensions: between our tendency towards the
things that surround us and our tendency towards the “kingdom of God which is within
you.” What is necessary is to realize a spiritual rootedness that removes from
outwardness its tyranny at once dispersing and compressing, and that on the contrary
allows us to “see God everywhere”; which means to perceive symbols, archetypes and
essences in sensible things, for the beauties perceived by an interiorized soul become
factors of interiorization. Similarly regarding matter: what is necessary is not to deny it –
if that were possible – but to withdraw from its seductive and enslaving grasp; to
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