glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

Jivan-mukta: According to Shankara, the one “liberated-in-this-life” (jivan- mukta) is
not he who stands apart from all that is human, it is he who, when he “laughs with those
who laugh and weeps with those who weep,” remains the supernaturally unaffected
witness of the “cosmic play” (lila). [PM, Delineations of Original Sin]
Jivatma: Jivatma, the “living soul,” is the mask-individual that is illusorily and
innumerably superimposed on Atma, or on the one “Self.” [PM, The Play of Masks]
Jnana / Bhakti: The doctrines of jnana and bhakti contradict one another outwardly
because of the difference of levels and modes, but neither is absurd in itself: to say that
the world is unreal, or that it is real, or that it is both at once, or again that it is neither one
nor the other, is true according to the perspective adopted, and these perspectives result
from objective reality and not from human arbitrariness. [LS, Orthodoxy and
Intellectuality]
No doubt, the loftiest ideas, above all metaphysical truths, do not necessarily entail
emotions properly so called; but they necessarily confer upon the soul of the knowing
subject the sentiment of certitude, and also serenity, peace and joy.* Fundamentally, we
would say that where there is Truth, there also is Love. Each Deva possesses its Shakti; in
the human microcosm, the feeling soul is joined to the discerning intellect,^ as in the
Divine Order Mercy is joined to Omniscience; and as, in the final analysis, Infinitude is
consubstantial with the Absolute.
(*In Islamic language, knowledge in fact brings about a “dilation” (inshirah).
^ “It is not good that the man should be alone,” says Genesis. And let us recall that there
is no jnana without an element of bhakti.) [SME, Ambiguity of the Emotional Element]
Jnana-Marga: The third and last mode of spirituality, in ascending order, is the path of
knowledge (the Hindu jnana-marga, the ma‘rifah of Sufism); its dependence with regard
to doctrine is the closest possible, in the sense that doctrine is an integral part of this path
in an immediate manner, whereas in bhakti doctrine can be reduced to very simple
syntheses and is practically situated as it were outside the path; on the other hand, jnana
is completely independent of any doctrinal formulation, and this precisely insofar as it
realizes the “spirit” which, while necessarily expressing itself by means of the “letter,”
always remains transcendent and incommensurable in relation to its symbols. There is a
sentence from Meister Eckhart which expresses admirably the general attitude of the
jnani: “Truth is so noble that, if God wished to turn away from it, I would remain with
Truth and leave God; but God Himself is Truth.”
The speculative faculty, which constitutes an essential qualification and a sine qua non
for jnana-marga, is the natural ability to contemplate transcendent Realities; we call this
ability “natural” because the one who possesses it makes use of it more or less like any
other faculty, that is to say, without the intervention of a “supernatural” state: thus, the
jnani has in his state of ordinary consciousness the knowledge which the bhakta gains in
a “state of grace.” [EH, Modes of Spiritual Realization]
Jnanic Perspective: The jnanic perspective, which confines itself to maintaining the soul
in the virginity of our fundamental being, is impersonal from the fact that it sees virtue,
not in human initiatives, but in an existential quality, namely the primordial and innocent
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