glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

nature of creation; but this fundamental being, or this theomorphic nature, represents an
ontological layer deeper than the level of the fall. [GDW, Vicissitudes of Different
Spiritual Temperaments]
Karma-Marga: The path of action (the Hindu karma-marga) refers to the Divinity’s
aspect of Rigor, whence the connection between this path and “fear” (the makhafah of
Sufism): this aspect is manifested for us by the indefinity and ineluctability of cosmic
vicissitudes; the goal of the path of action is liberation from these vicissitudes, and not
from Existence itself, as in the case for the path of knowledge. But this liberation through
action is nonetheless a deliverance, namely, from the cosmos of suffering; and if it is
action which here plays the part of support, this is because it is by action that we situate
ourselves in time which, as the destroyer of beings and things, is precisely a
manifestation of the divine Rigor . . . What confers on action its liberating quality, is its
sacrificial character: action must be envisaged as the accomplishment of the dharma, or
“duty of state,” which results from the nature of the individual, and it must consequently
be accomplished, not only to perfection, but also without attachment to its fruits
(nishkama-karma). [EH, Modes of Spiritual Realization]
Khaos: Just as principial Maya is bipolarized into Purusha and Prakriti, so manifested
Maya comprises two poles, namely the active and imaginative demiurge and the passive
but efficient Substance; it is this materia prima which is the tohu wa bohu of Genesis or
the khaos – the “void” – of Hesiod’s theogony. Let it be noted that the Greek word khaos
has the double meaning of “primordial abyss” and “indeterminate matter”; it is neither
nothingness pure and simple nor a substance preceding the creative act, but, together with
the demiurge, the first content of creation; the active demiurge being the center, and its
passive complement, the periphery. This two-fold demiurge constitutes the creative
power in the midst of creation itself. [SME, Creation as a Divine Quality]
Knowledge: All knowledge is by definition knowledge of absolute Reality; which is to
say that Reality is the necessary, unique and essential object of all possible knowledge.
While it is true that there are kinds of knowledge which seem to have other objects, this is
not insofar as they are Knowledge but insofar as they are modalities or limitations of it;
and if these objects seem not to be Reality, this is so not insofar as they are objects of
Knowledge, but insofar as they are modalities or limitations of the One Object, which is
God seen by God. [EH, On Knowledge]
Knowledge is total or integral to the extent that its object is the most essential and thus
the most real. [RHC, Preface]
Knowledge (liberating): If we are able to conceive of the pure Absolute, that is because
our Intellect, which is “uncreated and uncreatable,” penetrates “to the very depths of
God”; once again the Transcendent and the Immanent are One and the same. Liberating
Knowledge consists in being aware of the nature of things, because it is in the nature of
things that we should be aware of it. [THC, Universal Categories]
Knowledge (mental / heart / faith): In rational or mental knowledge, the transcendent
realities grasped by thought are separated from the thinking subject; in properly
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