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Every Branch in Me
by
Kurt Almqvist
Source: Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 15, No. 3 & 4 (Summer-Autumn, 1983). © World Wisdom, Inc.
www.studiesincomparativereligion.com
One of the most important themes in religion—the most important—is the confrontation between the two “selves” in man: the inner, which partakes of God’s unconditional, infinite nature and is identical with his “kingdom”, and the outer self, or human personality with a certain name. It is the intersection of these two dimensions that comprises the religious life. One sees man horizontally from the earthly side; the other vertically as a vehicle of divinity. The crossing point may be multiplicated both horizontally and vertically, making a cosmic web formed in one direction of layered worlds or conditions and, in the other, of the beings embodied in them— horizontal and vertical, woof and warp.
The warp or vertical dimension consists of invisible threads that unite all beings with their common source, while the woof is made up of the horizontal threads that cross them and are supported by the warp, thus symbolizing the substances of worlds. Each knot or crossing represents an entity, for instance, a human being. René Guénon elaborates on this theme in his book The Symbolism of the Cross.
If we look at our world from the weft or woof point of view, horizontally, it appears to be simply the sum of its parts, of all beings and things. Because there is no truly cohesive principle within this type of world, they are seen as little worlds irrevocably separate from one another, and symbolized in our image by the seemingly discrete crossing points in the web. Nothing prevents each little world from believing itself to be the only one in existence and behaving as if it were. This we call self-assertion, selfishness, egoism; and how could it lead to anything but chaos?
From the other, the warp or vertical viewpoint—the religious view—the world is seen, above all, as divine creation. Every being and thing is then regarded not primarily in its relationship to others but as something which, by grace of the warp threads, derives its very existence from God, and its real significance from its oneness with divinity: the Being in all beings. All are united with one another through this common origin, the “love of God” preceding and containing within it the “love of neighbor”. The love of one’s neighbor, in this metaphysical sense, comes from the true qualitative “alikeness” among all entities, whereas the merely quantitative, outward uniformity in present-day organizations is in fact a distortion of this transcendent “identity”, or oneness in God. “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life”.
The organ with which man apprehends and realizes this oneness is his spirit, the transcendent, direct-seeing intelligence, whereas the multiplicities of the world are perceived by means of his fragmented human intelligence, the mind. Spirit is transcendent and immediate by nature, being a direct reflection of the Holy Spirit. God “hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” says Paul (2 Cor. 1:22), and the apostle also explains (Eph. 1:14) that this is the earnest of our inheritance, the redemption (from that which divides us from the divine unity).
Having our reality in God implies that we actually are that part of our being which is his image: the spiritual part. Only therein is man wholly himself. As in the Hindu concept of the Self (âtman), the word “self” here has a different connotation from that given it above, for with this perspective the protection and furthering of Self are diametrically opposed to the usual idea of selfishness. Instead of emphasizing one entity at the expense of others—divisiveness at the expense of harmony and unity—this type of “self-sense” which is unaffected by multiplicity stresses the divine indivisibility (Sanskrit advaita—non-duality) wherein the human being participates through the spirit.
The important thing is to make a clear distinction between our two selves or egos, so that we love and respect the right one. Much is being spoken and written about seeking one’s identity, but this presupposes a subject and an object as two separate elements. What, then, is this object or goal with which we seek to identify if not the Self, which is more essential and autonomous than our ordinary, empirical self? What other meaning could self-identification have? What would it, in fact, be? To be “beside oneself” or, contrariwise, to “be oneself”, implies the loss, or gain, respectively, of that essential self-identity which is constant, and independent of outer circumstances. The outer or empirical self is that which is seeking its identity.
All that applies to the idea of identity applies also to self-realization Both actually denote different aspects of the same thing—one static, the other dynamic. If one looks only from the “horizontal” plane, there is but one self—the outer, the points of crossing or knot in the weave—so that the same ego is both the seeker and the sought, which is an absurdity.
A third commonly used word is “integrity”. It comes from the Latin integritas and is related to intact, which means “untouched” and, in a secondary sense, “whole, possessing all its (original) parts”. From this we see that it must refer to the inner, vertical self, though in current worldly usage, it is applied to the outer, fragmented ego, and then in the sense of “inviolable”: the inviolability of the personality. However, the only inviolable element in man is that inmost secret relationship with Deity which should be the deciding factor throughout his existence and all his activity on the “horizontal” plane.
It follows that the ego holds a median position between the true, enduring, innermost Self which is one with the kingdom of God, and the surrounding world, similar to the central position where woof crosses warp. To the extent that the ego remains subject to the kingdom within as prescribed in Revelation—in other words, to the degree that it holds itself to be a servant of this kingdom—it will serve the inner world in the outer environment. Throughout all its struggles and efforts it never ceases to be permeated with the flow from within: to be the branch which “abides in the vine” (John 15:4). This is self-forgetfulness or self-sacrifice in a more than moral sense.
It is quite misleading, however, to speak of self-effacement or self-annihilation without some further explanation. Even if the metacosmic sphere is the only absolute reality, the world of the senses is by no means completely unreal. It has reality insofar as it reflects the supersensuous and is illusory insofar as it asserts independence apart from its source This means that in man his reality flows directly from the spiritual Self like a ray from the Sun. This may then be said to be man’s only real Self, though the outward mortal self has reality to the degree that it reflects and manifests the inner, immortal Self. In the final analysis only the divine Self (Âtman) is real; but, as the Hindus say, all is Âtman.
ātmā the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma. (more..) BodhisattvaLiterally, "enlightenment-being;" in Mahāyāna Buddhism, one who postpones his own final enlightenment and entry into Nirvāṇa in order to aid all other sentient beings in their quest for Buddhahood. (more..) Brahman Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called Para-Brahma. (more..) Brahmin "Brahmin"; a member of the highest of the four Hindu castes; a priest or spiritual teacher. (more..) guruspiritual guide or Master. Also, a preceptor, any person worthy of veneration; weighty; Jupiter. The true function of a guru is explained in The Guru Tradition. Gurukula is the household or residence of a preceptor. A brahmacārin stays with his guru to be taught the Vedas, the Vedāngas and other subjects this is gurukulavāsa. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) mahatmagreat soul; sage (in Hinduism) (more..) padmaLotus; in Buddhism, an image of non-attachment and of primordial openness to enlightenment, serving symbolically as the throne of the Buddhas; see Oṃ maṇi padme hum. (more..) Rahmah The same root RHM is to be found in both the Divine names ar-Raḥmān (the Compassionate, He whose Mercy envelops all things) and ar-Raḥīm (the Merciful, He who saves by His Grace). The simplest word from this same root is raḥīm (matrix), whence the maternal aspect of these Divine Names. (more..) RamaIn Hinduism, one of the names by which to call God. In sacred history, Rama was the hero king of the epic Ramayana, and is one of the ten avatars of Vishnu. The term is also a form of address among sadhus(more..) RamaThe seventh incarnation ( avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa. (more..) theologydivine science, theology, logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy ( prote philosophia) in contrast with physics ( Metaph.1026a18); however, physics ( phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians ( theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites. (more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives. (more..) VedaThe sacred scriptures of Hinduism; regarded by the orthodox ( āstika) as divine revelation ( śruti) and comprising: (1) the Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur, and Atharva Saṃhitās (collections of hymns); (2) the Brāhmanas (priestly treatises); (3) the Āranyakas (forest treatises); and (4) the Upaniṣāds (philosophical and mystical treatises); they are divided into a karma-kāṇḍa portion dealing with ritual action and a jñāna-kāṇḍa portion dealing with knowledge. (more..) yamaIn Sanskrit, “restraint”, "self control", whether on the bodily or psychic level. in Hinduism, yama is the first step in the eightfold path of the yogin, which consists in resisting all inclinations toward violence, lying, stealing, sexual activity, and greed. See niyama. (This term should not be confused with the proper name Yama, which refers to a figure from the early Vedas, first a king and then later a deity who eventually conducts departed souls to the underworld and is mounted on a buffalo.) (more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality ( Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said: aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”). (more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives. (more..) alter the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life; philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is prote philosophia, or theologike, but philosophy as theoria means dedication to the bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death ( Phaed.67cd); the Platonic philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy. (more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives. (more..) dhikr "remembrance" of God, based upon the repeated invocation of His Name; central to Sufi practice, where the remembrance often consists of the single word Allāh. (more..) guruspiritual guide or Master. Also, a preceptor, any person worthy of veneration; weighty; Jupiter. The true function of a guru is explained in The Guru Tradition. Gurukula is the household or residence of a preceptor. A brahmacārin stays with his guru to be taught the Vedas, the Vedāngas and other subjects this is gurukulavāsa. (more..) japa "repetition" of a mantra or sacred formula, often containing one of the Names of God; see buddhānusmriti, dhikr. (more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1) sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2) prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3) āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future. (more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1) sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2) prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3) āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future. (more..) mantram literally, "instrument of thought"; a word or phrase of divine origin, often including a Name of God, repeated by those initiated into its proper use as a means of salvation or liberation; see japa. (more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality ( Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said: aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”). (more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives. (more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness. (more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism) (more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness." (more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) philosophialove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life; philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is prote philosophia, or theologike, but philosophy as theoria means dedication to the bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death ( Phaed.67cd); the Platonic philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy. (more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life; philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is prote philosophia, or theologike, but philosophy as theoria means dedication to the bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death ( Phaed.67cd); the Platonic philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy. (more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives. (more..) Advaita "non-dualist" interpretation of the Vedānta; Hindu doctrine according to which the seeming multiplicity of things is regarded as the product of ignorance, the only true reality being Brahman, the One, the Absolute, the Infinite, which is the unchanging ground of appearance. (more..) ātmā the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma. (more..) ex cathedra literally, "from the throne"; in Roman Catholicism, authoritative teaching issued by the pope and regarded as infallible. (more..) Ghazali Author of the famous Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm ad-Dīn (“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”); ardent defender of Sufi mysticism as the true heart of Islam. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) Umar Author of the famous Sufi poem the Khamriyah (“Wine Ode”). (more..) sophia(A)wisdom; the term covers all spheres of human activity – all ingenious invention aimed at satisfying one’s material, political and religious needs; Hephaistos (like his prototypes – the Ugaritian Kothar-wa-Hasis and the Egyptian Ptah) is poluphronos, very wise, klutometis, renowned in wisdom – here ‘wisdom’ means not simply some divine quality, but wondrous skill, cleverness, technical ability, magic power; in Egypt all sacred wisdom (especially, knowledge of the secret divine names and words of power, hekau, or demiurgic and theurgic mantras, which are able to restore one’s true divine identity) was under the patronage of Thoth; in classical Greece, the inspird poet, the lawgiver, the polititian, the magician, the natural philosopher and sophist – all claimed to wisdom, and indeed ‘philosophy’ is the love of wisdom, philo-sophia, i.e. a way of life in effort to achieve wisdom as its goal; the ideal of sophos (sage) in the newly established Platonic paideia is exemplified by Socrates; in Neoplatonism, the theoretical wisdom (though the term sophia is rarely used) means contemplation of the eternal Forms and becoming like nous, or a god; there are the characteristic properties which constitute the divine nature and which spread to all the divine classes: good ( agathotes), wisdom ( sophia) and beauty ( kallos). (B) "wisdom"; in Jewish and Christian tradition, the Wisdom of God, often conceived as feminine ( cf. Prov. 8). (more..) sunna(A) Wont; the model established by the Prophet Muḥammad, as transmitted in the ḥadīth. (B) "custom, way of acting"; in Islam, the norm established by the Prophet Muhammad, including his actions and sayings (see hadīth) and serving as a precedent and standard for the behavior of Muslims. (more..) theologydivine science, theology, logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy ( prote philosophia) in contrast with physics ( Metaph.1026a18); however, physics ( phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians ( theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites. (more..) alter the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self. (more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) philosophialove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life; philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is prote philosophia, or theologike, but philosophy as theoria means dedication to the bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death ( Phaed.67cd); the Platonic philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy. (more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life; philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is prote philosophia, or theologike, but philosophy as theoria means dedication to the bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death ( Phaed.67cd); the Platonic philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy. (more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma. (more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma. (more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma. (more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma. (more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma. (more..) buddhi "Intellect"; the highest faculty of knowledge, to be contrasted with manas, that is, mind or reason; see ratio. (more..) pneuma "wind, breath, spirit"; in Christian theology, either the third Person of the Trinity or the highest of the three parts or aspects of the human self ( cf. 1 Thess. 5:23); see rūh. (more..) prakritiLiterally, "making first" (see materia prima); the fundamental, "feminine" substance or material cause of all things; see "purusha ( puruṣa) ." (more..) prakritiIn Hinduism, literally, “making first” (see materia prima); the fundamental, “feminine” substance or material cause of all things; see guna, Purusha. (more..) purushaLiterally, "man;" the informing or shaping principle of creation; the "masculine" demiurge or fashioner of the universe; see "Prakriti ( Prakṛti)." (more..) sattvathe quality of harmony, purity, serenity (more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives. (more..) abd(A) In religious language, designates the worshiper, and, more generally, the creature as dependent on his Lord ( rabb. (B) "servant" or "slave"; as used in Islam, the servant or worshiper of God in His aspect of Rabb or "Lord". (more..) anthroposman; in Gnosticism, the macrocosmic anthropos is regarded as the Platonic ‘ideal animal’, autozoon, or a divine pleroma, which contains archetypes of creation and manifestation. (more..) ayn al-‘ayn ath-thābitah, or sometimes simply al-‘ayn, is the immutable essence, the archetype or the principial possibility of a being or thing (more..) ayn al-‘ayn ath-thābitah, or sometimes simply al-‘ayn, is the immutable essence, the archetype or the principial possibility of a being or thing (more..) Brahman Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called Para-Brahma. (more..) Cogito ergo sum"I think therefore I am"; a saying of the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650). (more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom. (B) knowledge; gnosis is contrasted with doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of gnosis is to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable ( Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science ( episteme), produced by reason ( logos), and 2) gnosis, produced by understanding and faith ( Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore gnosis is regarded as the goal of episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ ( gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises episteme and hieratic vision, epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom, scientia and sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only scientia, but before the Fall she knew sapientia ( De Trinitate XII). (more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) kashf Literally, “the raising of a curtain or veil.” (more..) modernismThe predominant post-Renaissance and post-Enlightenment worldview of Western civilization marked by rationalism, scientism, and humanism. In the Muslim world, it refers to those individuals and movements who have sought to adopt Western ideas and values from the nineteenth century onwards in response to Western domination and imperialism. (more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life; philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is prote philosophia, or theologike, but philosophy as theoria means dedication to the bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death ( Phaed.67cd); the Platonic philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy. (more..) psyche(usually transcribed as psyche): soul; breath of life, life-stuff; Homer distinguishes between a free soul as a soul of the dead, corresponding with psuche (and still regarded as an eidolon), and body souls, corresponding with thumos, noos and menos: following the Egyptian theological patterns, the Pythagoreans constituted the psuche as the reflection of the unchanging and immortal principles; from Plato onwards, psuchai are no longer regarded as eidola, phantoms or doubles of the body, but rather the human body is viewed as the perishable simulacrum of an immaterial and immortal soul; there are different degrees of soul (or different souls), therefore anything that is alive has a soul (Aristotle De anima 414b32); in Phaedrus 248b the soul is regarded as something to be a separate, self-moving and immortal entity (cf.Proclus Elements of Theology 186); Psuche is the third hupostasis of Plotinus. (more..) qalb The organ of supra-rational intuition, which corresponds to the heart just as thought corresponds to the brain. The fact that people of today localize feeling and not intellectual intuition in the heart proves that for them it is feeling that occupies the center of the individuality. (more..) ratio literally, "calculation"; the faculty of discursive thinking, to be distinguished from intellectus, "Intellect." (more..) rationalismThe philosophical position that sees reason as the ultimate arbiter of truth. Its origin lies in Descartes’ famous cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am." (more..) secularismThe worldview that seeks to maintain religion and the sacred in the private domain; the predominant view in the West since the time of the French Revolution of 1789 C. E. (more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group. (more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group. (more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group. (more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality ( Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said: aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”). (more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives. (more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness. (more..) upanishadAmong the sacred texts of the Hindus, mostly Upaniṣāds discuss the existence of one absolute Reality known as Brahman. Much of Hindu Vedānta derives its inspiration from these texts. (more..) bhakti the spiritual "path" ( mārga) of "love" ( bhakti) and devotion. (more..) distinguoliterally, “I mark or set off, differentiate”, often used in the dialectic of the medieval scholastics; any philosophical distinction. (more..) Mutatis mutandismore or less literally, "with necessary changes being made" or "with necessary changes being taken into consideration". This adverbial phrase is used in philosophy and logic to point out that although two conditions or statements may seem to be very analagous or similar, the reader should not lose sight of the differences between the two. Perhaps an even more easily understood translation might be "with obvious differences taken into consideration…" (more..) theologydivine science, theology, logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy ( prote philosophia) in contrast with physics ( Metaph.1026a18); however, physics ( phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians ( theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites. (more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness." (more..) bhakti the spiritual "path" ( mārga) of "love" ( bhakti) and devotion. (more..) Brahma God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the Trimūrti; to be distinguished from Brahma, the Supreme Reality. (more..) Brahman Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called Para-Brahma. (more..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) jatiOne of the many subdivisions of a varna. By extension, birth into a certain clan, with all of the rites and responsibilities particular to it. (more..) ksatriyaa member of the second highest of the four Hindu castes; a warrior or prince. (Also includes politicians, officers, and civil authorities.) The distinctive quality of the kshatriya is a combative and noble nature that tends toward glory and heroism. (more..) moksaliberation or release from the round of birth and death ( samsāra); deliverance from ignorance ( avidyā). According to Hindu teaching, moksha is the most important aim of life, and it is attained by following one of the principal mārgas or spiritual paths (see bhakti, jnāna, and karma). (more..) murtiAnything that has a definite shape; an image or idol; personification. (more..) nirvanaIn Buddhism (and Hinduism), ultimate liberation from samsara (the cycles of rebirths or the flow of cosmic manifestation), resulting in absorption in the Absolute; the extinction of the fires of passion and the resulting, supremely blissful state of liberation from attachment and egoism. (more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life; philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is prote philosophia, or theologike, but philosophy as theoria means dedication to the bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death ( Phaed.67cd); the Platonic philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy. (more..) sudraA member of the lowest of the four Hindu castes; an unskilled laborer or serf. (more..) Summum Bonumthe Highest or Supreme Good. (more..) theologydivine science, theology, logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy ( prote philosophia) in contrast with physics ( Metaph.1026a18); however, physics ( phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians ( theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites. (more..) vaisyaa member of the third of the four Hindu castes, including merchants, craftsmen, farmers; the distinctive qualities of the vaishya are honesty, balance, perseverance. (more..) varnaCaste; class; the four major social divisions in Hindu society include (in descending order): brāhmaṇas (priests), kṣatriyas (royals and warriors), vaiśyas (merchants and farmers), and śūdras (servants and laborers); situated outside the caste system are the caṇḍālas (outcastes and "untouchables") and mlecchas (foreigners and "barbarians"); members of the three upper castes are called "twice-born" ( dvijā) and are permitted to study the Vedas. (more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism) (more..) Advaita "non-dualist" interpretation of the Vedānta; Hindu doctrine according to which the seeming multiplicity of things is regarded as the product of ignorance, the only true reality being Brahman, the One, the Absolute, the Infinite, which is the unchanging ground of appearance. (more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato, idea is a synonim of eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning. (more..) |
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