glossary of terms used by frithjof schuon - Sophia Perennis

hardly arises in pure metaphysics and, if it does, consists in overestimating the letter of
the doctrine in its formal particularism – we would recall for the glory of the doctrine this
saying of Christ: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
The Hindu, or Hindu-Buddhist, theory of the upayas perfectly takes account of these
dimensions of the spiritual realm: concepts are true according to the levels to which they
relate; it is possible to transcend them, but they never cease to be true at their own level,
and that level is an aspect of Absolute Reality.
In the sight of the Absolute, envisaged as pure Self and unthinkable Aseity, metaphysical
doctrine is assuredly tinged with relativity, but it nonetheless offers absolutely sure
reference points and “adequate approximations” such as the human spirit could not do
without; and this is what the simplifiers in pursuit of the “concrete” are incapable of
understanding. Doctrine is to the Truth what the circle or the spiral is to the center. [UI,
The Path]
Metempsychosis: “Transmigration” . . . (is) not to be confused with metempsychosis,
whereby psychic elements – perishable in principle – graft themselves upon the soul of a
living person, which may give the illusion of a “reincarnation.” The phenomenon is
benefic or malefic according to whether the psychism is good or bad; that of a saint or
that of a sinner. [SME, Universal Eschatology]
Microcosm: The human microcosm is like a circle, the center of which is situated on the
circumference of a larger circle, namely the sensible macrocosm, and the center of this
second circle in its turn is situated on a still larger circumference, representing the total
Macrocosm. [TB, Cosmological and Eschatological Viewpoints]
Miracle: Miracles denote an interference of the marvellous in the sensory realm. [GDW,
The Sense of the Absolute in Religions]
This phenomenon has in itself nothing mysterious or problematical about it: the so-called
natural laws of a lower degree of Existence can always be suspended through the
intervention of a higher degree, whence the perfectly logical term “supernatural”: but this
degree also has its laws, which means that the miracle is “natural” on the universal scale,
while being “supernatural” on the earthly scale. The purpose of the miraculous
phenomenon is the same as that of the Revelation which it accompanies or as a result of
which, or in the shadow of which, it is produced: to elicit or to confirm faith. [LT,
Oriental Dialectic and Its Roots in Faith]
The miraculous is that which is due to a direct, thus vertical intervention of a heavenly
Power, and not to a horizontal progression of causality. If one extends the notion of
“nature” to all that exists, miracles too are “natural,” but in that case words would
become meaningless, as it would then be impossible to make the essential distinction
between blind or unconscious causes and the supra-conscious Cause, the source of all
consciousness and of all power. Scientists confuse the miraculous with the irrational and
the arbitrary. [TB, Cosmological and Eschatological Viewpoints]
Morality: The notion of a moral qualification brings us to the question of the meaning of
morality in itself, or in other words, the meaning of the distinction between what is
“good” and what is “evil.” Independently of anything we may have heard on this subject,
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