The Three-Character Rhymed Classic on the Ka‘bah (the Cube of Heaven)

by Ma Fu-ch’u

Translated and annotated by J. Peter Hobson

Source: Studies in Comparative Religion, Vol. 14, Nos. 3 & 4. (Summer-Autumn, 1980). © World Wisdom, Inc.
www.studiesincomparativereligion.com

Because there are Heaven and Earth
the ten thousand creatures are born;
because there are sun and moon
Heaven and Earth have light;
because there is the Sage
enlightening teachings arise.
To hear the teaching of the Sage
is to deepen knowledge and perception,
to know the past,
clearly to understand the future and the present,
to grasp the origin of Heaven and Earth
and the source of the myriad creatures,
to attain to celestial principles
and to see into the hearts of men;
it shows us the road we have come by
and demonstrates the return to Reality;
it makes us aware of our heart and nature
and enables us to penetrate ultimate mysteries;
perpetuated by the wise men of old
it is enshrined in scriptural classics.
The foundation of the Path
is clearly to acknowledge God,[1]
not bounded by space
nor limited by form,
without end or beginning,
not to be apprehended by the senses,
neither near nor far,
the Uniquely Sublime;[2]
not empty nothingness
but Truth and Reality,
mysterious and hard to fathom,
beyond definition,
resembling Goodness and Reason,
yet like empty space,
Reality, Truth and Being,
wondrous and beyond description.
If we simply consider Being,
not trying to ponder too deeply,
Being’s great attribute
is called Consciousness-Potency,
Consciousness foreshadowing the intelligence of things
and Potency implying forms;
creative change begins
when the archetypes are born;
the Great Command is given[3]
which is the gate to all marvels;[4]
natures and intelligences are separated out
prefiguring their forms;
the myriad intelligences muster
and the subtle substance forms;
what one calls the Primal Spirit[5]
is truly all-pervasive
from the limits of the Previous Heaven
to the roots of the Later Heaven;[6]
the male and female principles emerge
and the four elements are manifested
and their celestial and chthonic aspects fixed;
when the myriad forms are complete
they make Man.
Now Man
is the Essence of Heaven and earth;
among the ten thousand transformations
his is a special creation;
the quintessence of Heaven
is Man’s heart;
the glory of earth
is his body;
the ten thousand intelligent principles
are Man’s essential Nature.
Man’s descent into the world
marked a great transformation;
when the first ancestor,
whom we call P’an-ku,[7]
first entered manifestation,
he dwelt in a country of the West,
the land of the Ka‘bah,
called Tā’if[8]
and then moved his dwelling
and established Sha-mu (Syria);[9]
he began his teaching
and became a Sage-King,
establishing the Great Path,
determining ethical norms
propagating rites and justice
and pacifying kingdoms and countries.
When manners and the spirit were young
there were many good and wise men
who kept to the ancient Path
and admonished men ceaselessly,
and for many thousands of years
their teaching flourished.
But when men multiplied
and spread to the earth’s four quarters,
they abandoned their ancient norms
and lost their primordial goodness;
moved only by selfish ambitions
their speech became immoderate
and the Path of the ancient sages
was gradually corrupted.
The primordial Doctrine was preserved
by the Ka‘bah alone;
sage followed sage,
the stream flowed from its source
until it reached our Prophet;
the Path then gleamed with great brightness
and all were conquered by it
and the teaching of the Ka‘bah was handed on.[10]
The world was full of omens
when the Prophet was born—
the Sage of Sages;
combining all achievement in himself.
To contemplate the symbols of sanctity
is to transcend past and present;
he expounded the ancient doctrines
with the utmost clarity;
the seeds of a great renewal
broke through the decadence;
what had not flowered even in the past
now blossomed forth.
Nothing in the First and Second Heavens
remained obscure.

(There follows a difficult passage giving a brief history of the Prophet according to the nomenclature of the contemporary
Chinese dynasties starting in the period Ta-Chien of the
Ch’en Dynasty, during which the Prophet was born,
and ending with the ‘Return to Reality’—i.e., his death,
during the T’ang Dynasty).

For all lands under Heaven,
the doctrine of the Prophet runs
comprising Rites for human society,
and the Heavenly Path.
To confess the Sovereign God
is the first requirement,
and this central ritual
is most wondrous.
The Heavenly Path is cultivated
by the Five Virtuous Acts:
the Virtuous Act of enunciating the Truth
with the heart turned to God;
the Virtuous Act of ritualizing the Truth
with the body adoring God;
the Virtuous Act of fasting
to master the promptings of desire;
the Virtuous Act of heavenly charity
to assist the orphans and the needy;
and the Virtuous Act of pilgrimage
forsaking home and family.
All things, deep and shallow
reside in the heart and breast.
The virtues of the person
are vehicled by the Rites;[11]
the virtues of the heart
are vehicled by the Path,[12]
which is therefore called the Vehicle of Reality.[13]
Now the Vehicle of the Rites
is the foundation of all;
the true Vehicle of the Path
is derived from this;
when the Rites are abandoned
the three virtues are obscured.
These five Virtuous Acts
are the five norms.
God commands men
to conquer self
whether they be ignorant or wise,
saints or commoners,
each acting in respectful obedience
as the Rites prescribe
and bearing his own burden
neither relenting nor backsliding;
like the kingdom’s constitution
or the monarch’s laws,
to offend against them
is a crime hard to pardon.
In contemplating Heaven and Earth
and considering our persons
it behooves us to perceive in all things
the bounty of the True God;
the bounteous mercy of God
is beyond human definition;
it is weighty as the mountains
and deep as the sea.
The servitor
has no person of his own,
no desires of his own,
no heart of his own,
but fearing the command of God
he cultivates his person assiduously,
makes his intentions sincere
and rectifies his heart.
The ancient name for this
is Purity and Truth;
to be able to conquer self
can be called Purity,
and to return to the Rites determined by Heaven
can be called Truth;
neither to conquer self
nor to return to the Truth
can only be called hypocrisy.
A man has a body
and he has also a heart;
when the body meets objects
emotion and desire are joined;
the heart in relation to human nature
is like the spirit of Heaven;
if the promptings of desire prevail
a man rejoins the birds and beasts;
but if reason masters desire
he becomes a True Man.[14]
A man who cultivates goodness
must endeavor to be sincere
to realize in himself the way of the Prophet
and constantly to live the Truth.
The Four great wise men
each have a school
which is guided by the precepts of Heaven
and grounded in the practice of the Prophet;
each one adopts laws
and lays down rules
and has its regulations
and its guiding norms.
Both scholars
and the unlettered people
must hold to these,
and respectfully follow them,
be guided by the scriptures
and rely upon the Vehicle of the Law.
It is absolutely wrong
to act according to personal ambition,
foolishly to think of personal advantage
or simply to pursue private aims,
to behave immoderately or eccentrically,
to embrace heretical doctrines,
to claim supernatural psychic powers
or to boast of commerce with spirits
and thus, by deceiving the ignorant,
to seek a vain reputation
or, by falsifying the rites
to confuse the doctrinal schools;
this is like gilding base metal
or minting forged silver,
like selling dog’s flesh
placarded as mutton;
and bragging loudly
to deceive folk
means that those who are misled
are irreparably harmed;
these kinds of thing
offend against Purity and Truth[15]
like a venomous poison
or a pestilence;
to take note and avoid them
is the beginning of a life of peace.
To offend against God and the Prophet
to disregard the scriptural classics[16]
and to neglect fasting and worship,
means gradually losing one’s balance.
Not to cultivate one’s person
but simply to cultivate the heart
by striving inwardly
whilst neglecting outward practices
is truly abhorrent,
and one who behaves like this
may have the form of a man
but is really a sorcerous devil;
to fall into this error
is to suffer ineradicable harm.
The things that destroy virtue
are indeed innumerable
but it is the animal instinct
that casts the tightest net;
to master its lusts
is most difficult,
and herein lies the difference
between the commoner and the saint—
that only the saint can destroy his passions
and become truly good;
the man who is swayed by passion
is benighted beyond endurance.
To control wayward desire
is to hold back a raging torrent,
or to restrain a savage steed
by tightening the reins,
and the slightest inattention
spells outright disaster;
for lust is like a fire
that cannot be contained
and none who meet it
can escape its harm;
longing desire
is the heart’s plague,
the destroyer of all virtues
and the root of the ten thousand evils;
every yearning attachment
that springs from this
can be cured if caught early,
but if there is delay the cure is hard.
Desire is to reason
as darkness is to light;
wrong and right
cannot walk together
for compromise between them
cripples them both;
the leanings of desire
are for the lowly dust,
and a man conquered by lust
is a man confused and lost.
A man laid low by wine
lies in unrelieved stupor
discomforted till morning’s end
and forgetful of time’s passing,
with no repose by day
nor rest by night,
hoping for a filling meal and warmth
and fearing hunger and cold.
What most men seek
is an untroubled life,
be they simple people
or officials—
one sleep by night,
two meals by day;
whether to use delicious flavorings
or to eat coarse grains,
to wear embroidered robes
or to dress in cotton,
to dwell in a splendid mansion
or to inhabit a hut of reeds—
men discuss their respective merits
without any compromise;
(the heart loves victory
and the will would prevail!)
but to abandon what is easy
and to seek what is hard,
to build many-storied pavilions,
to lay out flowered mansions,
to order brocaded robes,
to don rich satins,
or to prepare banquets
with rare and extravagant dishes
—all these are weariness of soul
and can only be deplored.
This world of floating dust
—do not long for it!
its poverty is brief,
its wealth does not endure.
The ranked lords and nobles
attendant upon courtiers and kings
pass, in a few score years,
to the isles of the dead.[17]
The heroes of old
in their many thousands
were, in their days of fame,
a glorious company
like storm and thunder,
renowned for cold courage,
but before very long
the sun had melted their frost.
From past to present
who has lived forever?
The great, rich and noble
die upon a morning;
wives and children
all tread the same road,
interred in a lonely grave,
or buried on a moorland waste,
friendless by day,
no companion by night.
If we consider this carefully
it is truly saddening.
Things great and small
are as Heaven decrees them;
what Heaven has commanded
can never be pre-empted;
no man is free
to plan profit and loss;
each has an allotted position
not to be striven against;
a man’s appointed lot
is like his face
which, whether beautiful or ugly,
is Heaven’s gift
and he cannot alter it;
nor can he change his fate.
Material prosperity is to happiness
as water to the cup;
though the cup be full
there may still be a sense of loss;
not to achieve one’s promise
is like a crack in the cup
which, soon filled,
is swiftly emptied.
A man’s nobility
resides in his heart
and if his breath and blood are sound
the heart will be bright;
if his nourishment is correct
his breath and blood will be pure,
and thus all his food
must be chosen with care,
for wholesome nourishment
profits morality
as medicine and acupuncture
benefit the body.
To hurt the feelings of others
in order to benefit oneself,
to promote one’s own ambitions
against the ordinances of Heaven
may achieve immediate aims
but is mere self-deceit,
truly deplorable,
really to be regretted.
If one wishes to practice virtue,
one must first desist from evil;
first guard one’s diet
and later take the medicine.
If one eats what is illegal
virtue will not result;
if one is clogged with food
no medicine will be effective;
to choose good and wholesome food
is a basis of virtue;
to eat what is impure
brings impure desires to birth;
when lewdness operates
the harm extends to the heart,
like every kind of poison
which can damage the body.
When the body has a sickness
all men grow alarmed;
but when the heart has a blemish
they feel self-satisfied;
this sort of thing
is intolerable foolishness.
Being born into the world
we must not be like the beasts.
Man and beast—
it is the heart that distinguishes them;
between them there is reason
which brings awareness.
The sages and wise men of old
expounded their doctrines clearly
embracing both Heaven and earth
and linking past and present.
Although their words were simple
their import was truly deep.
The doctrines of the Ka‘bah
pervade the Confucian Classics
and have been handed down over a myriad ages
to dispel ignorance and obscurity;
all scholars
should treat them with the utmost respect,
ponder them deeply
and analyze them with a clear mind.
Born into this world,
how can we treat life trivially,
and simply entreat the spirits
to protect us?
If we consider our persons
and who it was created us,
it is easy to perceive the Truth
and we must not withhold our gratitude
but we must worship the true God,
assiduously cultivate our persons,
be loyal always, and filial to parents,
make our intentions sincere,
regret faults and shortcomings,
and seek forgiveness,
for God pardons faults,
and bestows bliss,
raising us to the portals of Heaven
in inexpressible beatitude.
So mark this well!
The doctrine of Purity and Truth is good;
strive then with all your strength
to realize the Supreme Path.

Translator’s Commentary

The work of which I have attempted the above translation was unearthed from a dusty file in the New York Public Library when, in late 1975, I went there to look for Islamic literature in Chinese for the purpose of the World of Islam Festival. Printed in the typical format of a Chinese folded book, in sturdy, but not inelegant, wood-block characters, it bore no explanatory notes other than its author was Ma Fu-ch’u and that its probable date of composition was the early 18th Century. Its interpretation must therefore rest upon its contents.

Its form is not unfamiliar to students of things Chinese: it is a didactic poem in lines of three characters with a rhyme at the end of every second line, easily memorized, condensed and epigrammatical, without any internal divisions into sections or paragraphs and, as always, without punctuation. It is not hard to imagine groups of children reciting it by rote in the time-honored fashion, in China and elsewhere, of learning what is most fundamental by committing texts to memory; that this was, in part, its purpose is suggested by its being designated a “classic” (ching), a term applied to the seminal texts of Taoist and Buddhist learning and to the Mahayana Sutras.

And what of its content? It is very Chinese in every way. In the first place it employs the common vocabulary of Chinese metaphysics and morality, terms that are the fabric of the main strands of Chinese thought, be they Taoist, Confucian or Buddhist; certain phrases echo the Tao-te Ching or are even taken from it as they stand; others are specifically Confucian, especially those relating to moral standards; others, and indeed almost predominantly when speaking of life’s transitoriness and of “Virtuous Acts”, are familiar Buddhist expressions. By contrast there appears to be very little specifically Muslim terminology:[18] the Prophet of Islam is not mentioned by name—which seems remarkable—and the word “Sage”, which is used instead—although here I translate it as “Prophet”—has Taoist and Confucian connotations; there appears to be no specific mention of the Qur’an; in the passage which, because of the obscurity of certain place-names and the difficulty of calculating Chinese dates, I have left un-translated, the only events mentioned are the birth of the Prophet, his “accession to his rank”, the Night Journey, the emigration to Medinah and the death of the Prophet; in this passage, which is filled—in the fashion of Chinese histories—with the complicated terminology of dynasties and their cycles, there is nothing of the events of the Prophetic Mission that one might have expected, nothing of the political vicissitudes, battles, the conquest of Mecca or the subsequent Muslim victories. Military matters are not highly regarded in the Chinese tradition.

Secondly, it is very Chinese in the sense that it begins, after a brief introduction on the nature of sanctity and a sage’s teaching, by describing the “foundation of the Path” (Tao) and the nature of God (Chu); in other words it touches first upon what is most principial and, as it were, abstract; it then moves on from first principles to their doctrinal and moral consequences in a manner that is both typically Chinese and, one might say, characteristically esoteric.

Is it then a work of esoterism? Is it a Chinese Sufi treatise? Certainly, one feels that the author must have belonged to a Sufi order. To whom then was the work addressed? Its three-character, rhymed form suggests that it was intended to be memorized by the young; the sections describing the Five Pillars of the Faith—the Five Virtuous Acts—and the fundamental moral principles read like an introductory text for the young or, again—and here is surely the clue—to the non-Muslim.

It has to be remembered that Islam in China is the religion of a minority, especially in the Han, i.e. the truly ethnic Chinese, areas. The fact that this work is written in Chinese and not in the language of one of the non-Chinese races within the Chinese Empire, who would constitute a Muslim majority in their own area, reinforces the picture of a minority surrounded by people whose faith is shaped by the Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist traditions. In such a situation it would be important to preserve the faith and practice of the young and to justify it vis-á-vis the non-Muslim, so powerful and compelling is the Chinese tradition and way of life.

The form of exposition which the author resorts to is such as to appeal to, and be respectfully received by, persons whose thinking and feeling are formed in, and by, Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist norms; it appears to be attuned, as it were, to the flexible Far Eastern mentality that is at home with the perennial and universal. The Confucian scholar is urged to see in the “doctrine of the Ka‘bah” the morality of the Confucian Canon; the Buddhist is reminded of the transience of this “world of floating dust”; the Taoist, living within the climate of Yin and Yang (the female and male principles) and Taoist cosmology is presented with concepts, and a vocabulary, of metaphysics that are familiar to him. Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist—the traditional Chinese is all these things and is constrained so to be by the very nature of the language he speaks; this does not preclude particular points of emphasis upon one or the other of them, but there are no rigid, fideist barriers; and this must be true also of a Muslim born and raised in the Chinese environment and speaking a language which in its daily vocabulary bears the imprint and flavor of China’s rich past.

For a Chinese Muslim this environment would bear both dangers and opportunities—the dangers of laxity and being assimilated to the point of losing his Muslim identity on the one hand, and the opportunities of broadening his faith to a perennial perspective, and thus to a deeper understanding, on the other.

I think that the present work is addressed to both eventualities, with an emphasis upon the latter and with an appeal to the non-Muslim, if not for adherence, at least for sympathetic understanding; the last four lines:

“So mark this well!
The doctrine of purity and Truth is good;
strive then with all your strength
to realize the Supreme Path”.

surely confirm this; in the last line of all, the word “realize” is Wu, which would be read in Japanese “satori”, the familiar designation for “realization” or “enlightenment” in Zen; the “Supreme Path” (Chihtao) refers to the spiritual path as such, whatever the perspective from which it is approached.

Nonetheless, it should not be thought that this work is simply “syncretist”, for it is quite orthodox in the following determining respects: it affirms without equivocation that the basis of the Spiritual Path is the acknowledgement of “God” (Chu, the “Lord” the “Principle”), the disciplined performance of the of the Canonical Rites and adherence to the prescribed norms of daily life; it condemns involvement in the inward Path without its necessary outward foundation, saying that this would lead to sorcery; it insists moreover upon the validity of each of the Four Schools of Law, without confusion between them. In this sense it demands Islamic conformity.

I wish I knew more about the author, but his work speaks for him, as does also his name, Ma Fu-ch’u. This is not immediately discernible as a Muslim name, for it is not Arabic or recognizably derived from Arabic, and it conforms to the Chinese convention of a family name followed by a given name consisting, as is usual, of two characters. Ma is the most common family name in Muslim China and corresponds to Muhammad of which it is a distant, monosyllabic contraction; Fu-ch’u means “restoring—or returning to—the beginning”. The name must surely bespeak the man.

And is it not moving to think that ultimately three great spiritual treasuries have contributed their gifts to fashion this work—the Revelations of the Indian, the Chinese and the Semitic worlds?

At the first glance we appear to be confronted simply with a sinicized Islam. Much as the beautiful mosques of China share the architectural vocabulary of soaring swallow-wing roofs, tipped eaves, beams of plain, carved or lacquered wood, pavilions, landscaped gardens and courtyards, so here we see Islam sharing the common vocabulary of the Chinese tradition and being expounded, with not a little beauty, in terms that are characteristically Chinese and, at the same time, redolent of the Religio Perennis.

If, at a first glance, this seems paradoxical, a second glance will surely show that the paradox is only apparent.

NOTES

[1] The Chinese word here translated as “God” is Chu, the primary meaning of which is given in Mathews’ Chinese Dictionary as: “A Lord, a master, an owner. A Ruler. To act as Lord.” It should be added, however, that the word is far more frequently used as an element meaning “principal, chief, subjective, essential”, etc., in various compounds. The standard word for “God” as used by Chinese Muslims is Chen Chu, “True Lord”; and as used by Catholics is T’ien Chu, “Lord of Heaven”.

[2] “Uniquely Sublime”: the Chinese is Tu-Sun which, to most if not all Chinese, has Buddhist associations since, in the Chinese translations of the Sutras, this is the expression used by the Buddha Gautama after his enlightment beneath the Bo-tree: “Above the Heavens and below the Heavens only I am Uniquely Sublime”—or, “worthy of veneration”.

[3] The “Great Command”: Ta-Ming; this must surely be a reference to the Divine Command “Be!” (Kun in Arabic.) In Chinese it has echoes of T’ienming, usually translated as the “Mandate of Heaven”, that is, the celestial authority upon which the rule of the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, is based.

[4] The “gate to all marvels”: a phrase taken from the first chapter of the Tao-te Ching.

[5] The Primal Spirit: (Yuan Ch’i) is a Taoist term sometimes translated as “primordial spirit” or “primeval influences”. (Chinese does not normally distinguish between singular and plural): it designates the first vitalizing influence in the process of manifestation, and is also conceived of as inhering in human individuals as their essential vitality; in this latter sense it is part of the vocabulary of modern Japanese where, meaning “health” or, “healthy” it is pronounced Genki. In the present work it is clearly intended to correspond to the Arabic ar-Rūh, the spirit.

[6] The Previous Heaven: (Hsien T’ien) is a Taoist term designating unmanifested creation, the complement of which is the Later Heaven (Hou T’ien) which refers to manifested creation, i.e. the present universe and not, as the word might suggest, a future state.

[7] P’an-Ku: In Taoist legend P’an-Ku was evolved from chaos and, in dying, gave birth to the universe; he therefore corresponds roughly to the Vedic Purusa, but is here equated with Adam.

[8] Tā’if: in Chinese T’o-yi-Fu with a marginal note to the effect that it is a place name.

[9] Sha-Mu: a marginal note indicates that this is a place name; it appears to be a transliteration of the Arabic Sham (more properly Ash-Sham), Syria.

[10] This extraordinary passage expresses the fact of cyclical decline with what appears to be, on the surface, a very confused reflection of Semitic historical tradition relating to the Mosaic Revelation and the line of Prophets; if its general import is clear, the few place-names it mentions are strange; even stranger perhaps by contrast, is the absence of personal names; not even the Prophet of Islam is mentioned by name. One can only say that to the Chinese, far removed in place and time from familiarity with the Semitic homelands, the metaphysical fact of cyclical decline which necessitated the Islamic Revelation, is more cogent than historical detail and accuracy; or again, that the institution of Sage-hood is more compelling than its personalities. As opposed to this, the obsession with detailed Chinese date cycles and dynasties (which I have not translated) shows how extremely Sinocentric the author is.

[11] A marginal note in the original here gives a Chinese transliteration of the Arabic Sharī‘ah.

[12] A marginal note in the original here gives a Chinese transliteration of the Arabic Tarīqah.

[13] A marginal note in the original here gives a Chinese transliteration of the Arabic Haqīqah. The word translated here as “vehicle” is the Chinese word used for the Sanskrit Yāna, in Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle) and Hinayāna (Lesser Vehicle).

[14] A “True Man”: Chen-Jen is a Taoist term corresponding to the Arabic al-insān al-Kāmil as defined in Sufism.

[15] “Purity and Truth”: the expression “Teaching of Purity and Truth” is a common Chinese designation for Islam.

[16] The “Scriptural Classics”: this is specifically plural, literally the “multitudinous Classics” (Ch’un Ching), perhaps referring to the collection of Hadith.

[17] “The oceans of the dead”: literally “proceed to the Eastern Ocean”, a reference to the Taoist tradition of the Isles of the Blessed that lie in the ocean off China.

[18] This observation has to be qualified: it may well be that many words and expressions of Taoist and Buddhist origin have simply been taken over to become, in the Islamic context, accepted Islamic terminology; such indeed are the expressions Chen-Chu (True Lord) for “God” and Sheng (Sage, or Saint) for “Prophet”. However there are no words that are based on, or taken from, the Arabic; and this is significantly different from the situation in the rest of the Islamic World where Arabic technical vocabulary has been absorbed into all the regional languages of Islam, viz. Persian, Urdu, Bengali, Malay, Hausa, Swahili etc., Arguably, the linguistic barriers between monosyllabic Chinese and the triconsonantal structure of Arabic were impassable. Nonetheless, a whole range of Buddhist terminology was brought into Chinese based upon the actual transliteration of polysyllabic Sanskrit; the linguist barriers did not prove impassable in that case. Of course the scale was different in two respects: firstly Buddhism became a universal creed in China and not that of a minority; secondly the sheer mass and complexity of the Sanskrit Mahayana corpus necessitated a task of translation that is probably unrivalled for sheer size. Since the Muslim rites are everywhere performed in Arabic, perhaps—paradoxically—there was no need to translate terms but simply, as appears to have happened, to use existing Chinese terminology to elucidate meanings outside the context of the actual rites of worship.

alter
the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self.

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Amida Buddha
The Buddha of Eternal Life and Infinite Light; according to the Pure Land teaching the Buddha who has established the way to Enlightenment for ordinary people; based on his forty-eight Vows and the recitation of his name Namu-Amida-Butsu one expresses devotion and gratitude.

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anthropos
man; in Gnosticism, the macrocosmic anthropos is regarded as the Platonic ‘ideal animal’, autozoon, or a divine pleroma, which contains archetypes of creation and manifestation.

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Atma
the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma.

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avatara
the earthly "descent," incarnation, or manifestation of God, especially of Vishnu in the Hindu tradition.

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Ave Maria
"Hail, Mary"; traditional prayer to the Blessed Virgin, also known as the Angelic Salutation, based on the words of the Archangel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth in Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42.

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barakah
Sheikh al-barakah is a phrase also used of a master who bears the spiritual influence of the Prophet or who has realized that spiritual presence which is only a virtuality in the case of most initiates.

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Honen
Founder of the independent school of Pure Land (Jodo) Buddhism in Japan. He maintained that the traditional monastic practices were not effective in the Last Age (mappo) nor universal for all people, as intended by Amida’s Vow. He incurred opposition from the establishment Buddhism and went into exile with several disciples, including Shinran. His major treatise, which was a manifesto of his teaching, was Senchaku hongan nembutsu shu (Treatise on the Nembutsu of the Select Primal Vow, abbreviated to Senchakushu).

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idea
in 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.

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Jodo
(A) Japanese term for "Pure Land." Though all Buddhas have their Pure Lands, the Land of Amida Buddha became the most well-known and desired in China and Japan because of its comprehensive nature, its popular propagation, and its ease of entry through recitation of his Name. (B) "pure land"; the untainted, transcendent realm created by the Buddha Amida (Amitabha in Sanskrit), into which his devotees aspire to be born in their next life.

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karma
action; 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.

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Maya
"artifice, illusion"; in Advaita Vedānta, the beguiling concealment of Brahma in the form or under the appearance of a lower reality.

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Mutatis mutandis
more 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…"

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nirvana
In 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.

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paramahamsa
A renunciate (saṃnyāsin) who attains to liberation in this life.

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pontifex
“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.

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prakriti
Literally, "making first" (see materia prima); the fundamental, "feminine" substance or material cause of all things; see "purusha (puruṣa)."

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prakriti
In Hinduism, literally, “making first” (see materia prima); the fundamental, “feminine” substance or material cause of all things; see guna, Purusha.

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quod absit
literally, "which is absent from, opposed to, or inconsistent with"; a phrase commonly used by the medieval scholastics to call attention to an idea that is absurdly inconsistent with accepted principles. (It is sometimes used in the sense of "Heaven forfend…" or "God forbid…")

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Rama
In 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

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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Ramanuja
Founder of the Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta (qualified non-dualism) was born in Śrīperumbudūr, Tamil Nadu, in 1027.

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samsara
Literally, "wandering;" in Hinduism and Buddhism, transmigration or the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth; also, the world of apparent flux and change.

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shakti
God’s power

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Shinran
Shinran (1173-1262): attributed founder of the Jodo Shin school of Buddhism.

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theology
divine 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.

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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.

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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.

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upanishad
Among 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.

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Veda
The 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.

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yin-yang
in Chinese tradition, two opposite but complementary forces or qualities, from whose interpenetration the universe and all its diverse forms emerge; yin corresponds to the feminine, the yielding, the moon, and liquidity; yang corresponds to the masculine, the resisting, the sun, and solidity.

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yoga
union of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)

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alter
the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self.

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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Brahma
God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the Trimūrti; to be distinguished from Brahma, the Supreme Reality.

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chit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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chit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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Chit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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dharma
Truth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.

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docta ignorantia
literally, "learned ignorance"; refers to the negative or apophatic way of knowing God.

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Kami
Japansese. In Shinto, the sacred, spiritual powers that animate all things; deities associated with eminent personages, sacred places, and the phenomena of nature.

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logos
(A) "word, reason"; in Christian theology, the divine, uncreated Word of God (cf. John 1:1); the transcendent Principle of creation and revelation. (B) the basic meaning is ‘something said’, ‘account’; the term is used in explanation and definition of some kind of thing, but also means reason, measure, proportion, analogy, word, speech, discourse, discursive reasoning, noetic apprehension of the first principles; the demiurgic Logos (like the Egyptian Hu, equated with Thoth, the tongue of Ra, who transforms the Thoughts of the Heart into spoken and written Language, thus creating and articulating the world as a script and icon of the gods) is the intermediary divine power: as an image of the noetic cosmos, the physical cosmos is regarded as a multiple Logos containing a plurality of individual logoi ( Enn.IV.3.8.17-22); in Plotinus, Logos is not a separate hupostasis, but determines the relation of any hupostasis to its source and its products, serving as the formative principle from which the lower realities evolve; the external spech ( logos prophorikos) constitutes the external expression of internal thought ( logos endiathetos).

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materia prima
"first or prime matter"; in Platonic cosmology, the undifferentiated and primordial substance serving as a "receptacle" for the shaping force of divine forms or ideas; universal potentiality.

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philosophy
love 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.

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pontifex
“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.

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sat
"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with cit, "consciousness," and ananda (ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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sri
Literally, "splendor, beauty, venerable one;" an honorific title set before the name of a deity or eminent human being; also a name of Lakshmi (Lakṣmī), the consort of Vishnu (Viṣṇu) and the goddess of beauty and good fortune.

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Sri
a prefix meaning “sacred” or “holy” (in Hinduism)

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Torah
"instruction, teaching"; in Judaism, the law of God, as revealed to Moses on Sinai and embodied in the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).

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Vedanta
"End or culmination of the Vedas," a designation for the Upanishads (Upaniṣāds) as the last portion ("end") of the Vedas; also one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy who have their starting point in the texts of the Upanishads (Upaniṣāds), the Brahma-Sūtras (of Bādarāyana Vyāsa), and the Bhagavad Gītā ; over time, Vedānta crystallized into three distinct schools: Advaita (non-dualism), associated with Shankara (ca.788-820 C.E.); Viśiṣṭādvaita (qualified non-dualism), associated with Rāmānuja (ca.1055-1137 C.E.); and Dvaita (dualism), associated with Madhva (ca.1199-1278 C.E.); see "Advaita."

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yuga
Age; Hindu cosmology distinguishes four ages: Kṛta (or Satya) Yuga, Tretā Yuga, Dvāpara Yuga, and Kali Yuga, which correspond approximately to the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron Ages of Greco-Roman mythology; according to Hindu cosmology humanity is presently situated in the Kali Yuga, the "dark age" of strife.

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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).

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humanism
The 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.

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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.

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tawhid
In common usage means the saying of the Muslim credo, the recognition of the Divine Unity. In Sufism it sums up all levels of the knowledge of Unity.

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Brahman
Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called Para-Brahma.

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guru
spiritual 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.

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swami
A title of respect set before the names of monks and spiritual teachers.

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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".

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Amr
In theology: the Divine command symbolized by the creative word kun “be”: “His command (amruhu), when He wills a thing, is that He says to it: ‘be’ and ‘it is’” (Qur’ān 36:82). The Command corresponds to the Word, and indeed in Aramaic the word amr has this meaning. The Divine Command also corresponds to the Pure Act and, as such, is opposed to the pure passivity of Nature (at-Ṭabī‘ah).

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apocatastasis
“Restitution, restoration”; among certain Christian theologians, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa, the doctrine that all creatures will finally be saved at the end of time.

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avyakta
hidden, unmanifest.

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bast
The expansion of the soul through hope or spiritual joy.

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Brahma
God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the Trimūrti; to be distinguished from Brahma, the Supreme Reality.

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buddhi
"Intellect"; the highest faculty of knowledge, to be contrasted with manas, that is, mind or reason; see ratio.

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fiat lux
In Latin, “Let there be light” (see Gen. 1:3).

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hypostases
literally, "substances" (singular, hypostasis); in Eastern Christian theology, a technical term for the three "Persons" of the Trinity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct hypostases sharing a single ousia, or essence.

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Ibn Arabi
Ash-Shaikh al-Akbar (“The greatest master”). Wrote numerous Sufi treatises of which the most famous is his Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam and the most rich in content his Futūḥāt al-Makkiyah.

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in divinis
literally, "in or among divine things"; within the divine Principle; the plural form is used insofar as the Principle comprises both Para-Brahma, Beyond-Being or the Absolute, and Apara-Brahma, Being or the relative Absolute.

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mantra
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.

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nirguna
impersonal aspect of God (in Hinduism)

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Parabrahma
The "supreme" (para) or ultimate Brahma, also called Brahma nirguṇa; the Absolute as such; as distinguished from Apara Brahma, the "non-supreme" or penultimate aspect of the Divinity.

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prakriti
Literally, "making first" (see materia prima); the fundamental, "feminine" substance or material cause of all things; see "purusha (puruṣa)."

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prakriti
In Hinduism, literally, “making first” (see materia prima); the fundamental, “feminine” substance or material cause of all things; see guna, Purusha.

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purusha
Literally, "man;" the informing or shaping principle of creation; the "masculine" demiurge or fashioner of the universe; see "Prakriti (Prakṛti)."

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qabd
A spiritual state following from fear of God; opposite of expansion (al-basṭ).

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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.

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saguna
personal God; God with attributes

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sat
"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with cit, "consciousness," and ananda (ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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satori
a Japanese term used to describe the enlightenment experience central to Zen. It is sometimes described as a flash of intuitive awareness, which is real but often incommunicable.

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shakti
God’s power

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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).

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Om
the most sacred syllable in Hinduism, containing all origination and dissolution; regarded as the "seed" of all mantras, its three mātrās or letters are taken to be symbolical of the Trimūrti, while the silence at its conclusion is seen as expressing the attainment of Brahma.

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bali
This is also one of the "panca-mahāyajnas" and vaiśvadeva or bhūtayajna rite to be performed by the householder. In this rite food is offered with the chanting of mantras to birds and beasts and outcastes. Bali is what is directly offered while "āhuti" is what is offered in the fire.

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Rosa Mystica
"Mystical Rose"; traditional epithet of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as found in the Litany of Loreto.

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sat
"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with cit, "consciousness," and ananda (ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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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”).

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Talmud
Literally, “learning, study.” In Judaism, the Talmud is a body of writings and traditional commentaries based on the oral law given to Moses on Sinai. It is the foundation of Jewish civil and religious law, second in authority only to the Torah.

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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Bhagavad Gita
lit. "the Song of the Lord"; a text of primary rank dealing with the converse of Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) and the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

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Bon
The ancient, pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, which still exists today; adherents are called Bön-Pos.

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Brahma
God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the Trimūrti; to be distinguished from Brahma, the Supreme Reality.

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Brahman
Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called Para-Brahma.

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Brahmana
"Brahmin"; a member of the highest of the four Hindu castes; a priest or spiritual teacher.

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cela
in Hinduism, a disciple, a pupil or student

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chandala
outcaste or "untouchable"; pariahs who stand outside the Hindu caste system

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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deva
a god, a celestial being

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dharma
Truth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.

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dhyana
a Sanskrit term meaning "meditation." In China it was pronounced as "Ch’an," and in Japan it became "Zen."

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duo sunt in homine
"there are two (natures) in man," viz., the spiritual and the corporeal; a saying of St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II.2, q.26, art.4.

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eidos
visible shape, form, a kind of thing, the intelligible Form, or the noetic Idea, of Platonism; the word is etymologically connected with video, and the term idea also comes from the same root as Greek verb idein and the Latin verb videre, both meaning ‘to see’; therefore eidos is closely connected with contemplation (theoria), transcendental or divine imagination, and mystical vision.

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eros
love, sometimes personified as a deity, daimon, or cosmogonical, pedagogical and soteriological force, manifested in the process of demiurgy and within domain of providence; for Plato, philosophy is a sort of erotic madness ( mania), because Eros, though implying need, can inspire us with the love of wisdom; Diotima in Plato’s Symposium describes education in erotics as an upward journey or ascent towards the perfect noetic Beauty; Plotinus uses the union of lowers as a symbol of the soul’s union with the One ( Enn.VI.7.34.14-16); Proclus distinguishes two forms of love: 1) ascending love which urges lower principles to aspire towards their superiors, 2) descending or providential love ( eros pronoetikos) which obligates the superiors to care for their procucts and transmit divine grace ( In Alcib.54-56); for Dionysius the Areopagite, who follows Proclus, the eros ekstatikos becomes the unifying factor of the cosmos.

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jati
One of the many subdivisions of a varna. By extension, birth into a certain clan, with all of the rites and responsibilities particular to it.

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Kalidasa
The most celebrated poet and dramatist of the "classical" period of Sanskrit. Among his works plays — Abhijnana-Sakuntalam, Vikramorvaśīyam and Mālavikāgnimitram; long poems:Raghuvansam, Kumārasarhbliavam, Meghadūtam and Rtusamhāram(?). We still do not know for sure when he flourished — some historians believe that he belonged to the 1st century B.C.

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karman
action; 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.

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kshatriya
a 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.

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laborare est orare
"work is prayer."

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le symbolisme qui sait
a symbolism that knows

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mahatma
great soul; sage (in Hinduism)

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mani
"jewel," often in the shape of a tear-drop; in Eastern traditions, understood to be powerful in removing evil and the causes of sorrow; see Om mani padme hum.

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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.

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mimesis
imitation, representation; in Poetics 1447 ab Aristotle includes all the fine arts under mimesis, among them epic, tragedy, comedy, painting and sculpture; the images produced by mimesis are not at all like photographic images; according to H.Armstrong, the classical Hellenic artists images are mimetically closer to those of the traditional arts of the East than to those of nineteenth-century Europe: ‘if we establish in our imagination the figure of the masked singing actor as our image of mimesis we shall not do too bad’ ( Platonic Mirrors, p.151); however, in a vocabulary used by Proclus the terms mimesis and mimema are usually reserved for art of an inferior type, though Proclus says that ‘the congenital vehicles ( ochemata) imitate ( mimeitai) the lives of the souls’ ( Elements of theology 209) and ‘each of the souls perpetually attendand upon gods, imitating its divine soul, is sovereign over a number of particular souls’ (ibid.,204).

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nous
intelligence, immediate awareness, intuition, intuitive intellect; Plato distinguished nous from dianoia – discursive reason; Nous is the second hupostasis of Plotinus; every intelligence is its own object, therefore the act of intellection always involves self-consciousness: the substance of intelligence is its noetic content ( noeton), its power of intellection ( nous), and its activity – the act of noesis; in a macrocosmic sense, Nous is the divine Intellct, the Second God, who embraces and personifies the entire noetic cosmos (Being-Life-Intelligence), the Demiurge of the manifested universe; such Nous may be compared to Hindu Ishvara and be represented by such solar gods as the Egyptian Ra; nous is independent of body and thus immune from destruction – it is the unitary and divine element, or the spark of divine light, which is present in men and through which the ascent to the divine Sun is made possible.

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philosophia
love 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.

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purusha
Literally, "man;" the informing or shaping principle of creation; the "masculine" demiurge or fashioner of the universe; see "Prakriti (Prakṛti)."

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Ram
In 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

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sadhaka
A spiritual aspirant; one who endeavors to follow a method of spiritual practice.

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sheikh
(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.

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shudra
A member of the lowest of the four Hindu castes; an unskilled laborer or serf.

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siddhi
Accomplishment, fulfillment; one of the eight superhuman faculties; liberation.

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vaishya
a member of the third of the four Hindu castes, including merchants, craftsmen, farmers; the distinctive qualities of the vaishya are honesty, balance, perseverance.

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varna
Caste; 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.

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vidya
Knowledge; learning; wisdom.

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vrata
A vow; religious act of devotion. There are vratas observed according to the Vedas and the Purāṇas.

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yoga
union of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)

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yogi
a practitioner of yoga (in Hinduism)

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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duo sunt in homine
"there are two (natures) in man," viz., the spiritual and the corporeal; a saying of St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II.2, q.26, art.4.

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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rishi
in Hinduism, a seer, saint, inspired poet; the Vedas are ascribed to the seven great seers of antiquity.

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sheikh
(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.

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Cogito ergo sum
"I think therefore I am"; a saying of the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650).

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pontifex
“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.

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rationalism
The 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."

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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.

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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ascesis
(A) "exercise, practice, training," as of an athlete; a regimen of self-denial, especially one involving fasting, prostrations, and other bodily disciplines. (B) in ancient philosophy, this term designates not an ‘asceticism’, but spiritual exercises, therefore philosophia is understood not as a theory of knowledge but as a lived wisdom, a way of living according to intellect ( nous); an askesis includes remembrance of God, the ‘watch of the heart’, or vigilance ( nepsis), prosoche, or attention to the beauty of the soul, the examination of our conscience and knowledge of ourselves.

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bhakta
a follower of the spiritual path of bhakti; a person whose relationship with God is based primarily on adoration and love.

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bhakti
the spiritual "path" (mārga) of "love" (bhakti) and devotion.

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Brahmin
"Brahmin"; a member of the highest of the four Hindu castes; a priest or spiritual teacher.

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daimon
in the ancient Greek religion, daimon designates not a specific class of divine beings, but a peculiar mode of activity: it is an occult power that drives man forward or acts against him: since daimon is the veiled countenance of divine activity, every god can act as daimon; a special knowledge of daimones is claimed by Pythagoreans; for Plato, daimon, is a spiritual being who watches over each individual, and is tantamount to his higher self, or an angel; whereas Plato is called ‘divine’ by Neoplatonists, Aristotle is regarded as daimonios, meaning ‘an intermediary to god" – therefore Arisotle stands to Plato as an angel to a god; for Proclus, daimones are the intermediary beings located between the celestial objects and the terrestrial inhabitants.

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Dhammapada
a collection of 423 verses, composed in Pali, giving the foundation of Buddhist moral philosophy; considered to be a central text of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching.

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modernism
The 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.

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tapas
Austerity; intense mental concentration; literally warmth, fire; self-denial; ascetic endeavour; keeping the mind one-pointed in the search of truth or an ideal.

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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creatio ex nihilo
"creation out of nothing"; the doctrine that God Himself is the sufficient cause of the universe, needing nothing else; often set in contrast to emanationist cosmogonies.

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ex nihilo
"out of nothing"; see creatio ex nihilo.

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Aql
Al-‘Aql al-awwal : the first Intellect, analogue of the Supreme Pen (al-Qalam), and of ar-Rūḥ. Corresponds to the Nous of Plotinus.

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Awwal
The “First”; in Islam, al-Awwal is a divine Name, as in the Koranic verse, “He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward” (Sūrah “Iron” [57]:3).

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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

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barzakh
Symbol of an intermediate state or of a mediating principle.

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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fiat lux
In Latin, “Let there be light” (see Gen. 1:3).

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Haqq
In Sufism designates the Divinity as distinguished from the creature (al-khalq).

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Qutb
In Sufism: the pole of a spiritual hierarchy. The “pole of a period” is also spoken of. This pole is often unknown to most spiritual men.

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Sirr
In Sufism, designates the intimate and ineffable center of consciousness, the “point of contact” between the individual and his Divine principle.

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Wahdah
Stands ontologically between the Supreme Unity (al-Aḥadiyah) and the Distinctive Uniqueness (al-Wāḥidiyah).

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Avalokitesvara
The Bodhisattva of Compassion, companion of Amida Buddha, as personification of his virtue of compassion, along with Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Seishi), the personification of wisdom.

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bhakti
the spiritual "path" (mārga) of "love" (bhakti) and devotion.

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Bodhidharma
the 28th patriarch of Buddhism and the 1st patriarch of Zen, he is said to have brought the meditation school of Buddhism to China around 520 C.E. A legendary figure whose face is painted by many Zen masters. (His original name was Bodhi-dhana.)

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Bodhisattva
Literally, "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.

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dharma
Truth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.

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Dharmakara
Sanskrit name for the Bodhisattva who through five aeons of practice perfected his Vows to establish an ideal land where all beings can easily attain Enlightenment. On completion of his Vows he became Amida Buddha and established the western Pure Land.

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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.

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Mahayana
The Larger Vehicle in contrast to the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle. It claimed to be more universal in opening Enlightenment to all beings, and inspired the emergence of the Pure Land teaching directed to ordinary beings—denoted as all beings in the ten directions. This tradition is characterized by a more complex philosophical development, an elaborate mythic and symbolic expression which emphasizes the cosmic character of the Buddha nature, and its inclusion of the key virtues of compassion and wisdom.

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mani
"jewel," often in the shape of a tear-drop; in Eastern traditions, understood to be powerful in removing evil and the causes of sorrow; see Om mani padme hum.

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Mara
a Sanskrit term that literally means "death"; the personification of evil in Buddhist mythology. He is said to have tempted the Buddha as he meditated under the bodhi tree. Māra is an epithet of Kāma

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Nagarjuna
A Buddhist philosopher and saint usually placed in the beginning of the second century C.E. He taught Śūnyavāda, meaning that all reality is empty of any permanent essence. His thought is central to Zen philosophy.

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nembutsu
(A) "The practice of reciting Namu-Amida-Butsu (the Name of Amida) is known as recitative nembutsu. There is also meditative nembutsu, which is a method of contemplation. Nembutsu is used synonymously with myogo, or the Name." (Unno) (B) "remembrance or mindfulness of the Buddha," based upon the repeated invocation of his Name; same as buddhānusmriti in Sanskrit and nien-fo in Chinese.

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Original Vow
A term referring to the Vows of Amida, which indicate that he worked for aeons and aeons in the past. "Original" is also translated as "Primal," or "Primordial" to suggest an event in the timeless past of eternity.

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Pure Land
"Translation from the Chinese ching-t’u (jodo in Japanese). The term as such is not found in Sanskrit, the closest being the phrase ‘purification of the Buddha Land.’ Shinran describes it as the ‘Land of Immeasurable Light,’ referring not to a place that emanates light, but a realization whenever one is illumined by the light of compassion." (Unno)

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ratio
literally, "calculation"; the faculty of discursive thinking, to be distinguished from intellectus, "Intellect."

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Shinran
Shinran (1173-1262): attributed founder of the Jodo Shin school of Buddhism.

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smrti
Literally, "what is remembered;" in Hinduism, a category of sacred writings understood to be part of inspired tradition, but not directly revealed, including the Upavedas ("branches of the Vedas"), the Vedāṃgas ("limbs of the Vedas"), the Śāstras (classical "textbooks"), the Purāṇas (mythological tales), and the epics Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata; in contrast to shruti (śruti).

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Theravada
an early form of Indian Buddhism translated as "The Teachings (or "way") of the Elders." As a historical religious tradition, it was formed soon after the death of the Sakyamuni Buddha. (This form of Buddhism is still practiced in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia.)

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alter
the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self.

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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ex cathedra
literally, "from the throne"; in Roman Catholicism, authoritative teaching issued by the pope and regarded as infallible.

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pontifex
“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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Torah
"instruction, teaching"; in Judaism, the law of God, as revealed to Moses on Sinai and embodied in the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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apokatastasis
“Restitution, restoration”; among certain Christian theologians, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa, the doctrine that all creatures will finally be saved at the end of time.

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avatara
the earthly "descent," incarnation, or manifestation of God, especially of Vishnu in the Hindu tradition.

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caritas
Selfless “love”, as of God for man and man for God; human compassion for one’s neighbor; equivalent of Greek agapē.

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Deo volente
In Latin, literally, “God willing”, or “if God should so will”.

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ex nihilo
"out of nothing"; see creatio ex nihilo.

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hic et nunc
"here and now."

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pontifex
“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.

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religio
"religion," often in reference to its exoteric dimension. (The term is usually considered to be from the Latin re + ligare, meaning to "to re–bind," or to bind back [to God] .)

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Yahweh
a transliteration of the supposed pronunciation, now lost, of the sacred Name of God in the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament; revealed to Moses on Sinai and often translated as "I am" or "the One who is" (cf. Exod. 3:14).

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alter
the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self.

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Aql
Al-‘Aql al-awwal : the first Intellect, analogue of the Supreme Pen (al-Qalam), and of ar-Rūḥ. Corresponds to the Nous of Plotinus.

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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

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bhakti
the spiritual "path" (mārga) of "love" (bhakti) and devotion.

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chaitanya
Spirit, life, vitality.

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chit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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Chit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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dharma
Truth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.

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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.

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ex nihilo
"out of nothing"; see creatio ex nihilo.

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faqr

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fiqh
The science or discipline of Islamic law whereby legal opinions (fatwās) are derived from the Qur’ān and the sayings of the Prophet Muḥammad (ḥadīth).

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Ghazzali
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.

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Junayd
Named “the leader of the troop.”

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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.

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rationalism
The 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."

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Rumi
Founder of the Mevlevī (Arabic: Mawlawīyyah) order of “whirling dervishes”; author of the famous mystical poem the Mathnawī, composed in Persian and which contains his whole doctrine.

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sat
"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with cit, "consciousness," and ananda (ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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sunnah
(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.

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Torah
"instruction, teaching"; in Judaism, the law of God, as revealed to Moses on Sinai and embodied in the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).

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yoga
union of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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darshan
Literally, “seeing” or “perceiving.” In Hinduism darshan refers to the perception of the ultimate Truth perhaps through one’s own experience or perhaps through such secondary means as seeing (thus experiencing the spiritual essence of) a guru, a saint , a holy site, or a sacred effigy. For example, Hindus speak of "having a darshan" when they are in the presence of a holy person and experience a state of interiorizing contemplation brought about by the presence of that person. Another meaning involves the various “points of view” or philosophical systems represented by the six main orthodox or classical schools of Hindu philosophy: (1) Nyāya (logic); (2) Vaisheshika (natural philosophy, or science); (3) Sānkhya (cosmology); (4) Yoga (science of union); (5) Pûrva-Mîmāmsā (meditation); and (6) Uttara-Mîmāmsā (Vedānta, or metaphysics); also the blessing derived from beholding a saint.

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dharma
Truth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.

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mahatma
great soul; sage (in Hinduism)

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moksha
liberation 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).

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purna svaraj
Complete self-rule; total autonomy; self-government.

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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samsara
Literally, "wandering;" in Hinduism and Buddhism, transmigration or the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth; also, the world of apparent flux and change.

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Sri
a prefix meaning “sacred” or “holy” (in Hinduism)

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tirthankara
Literally, "ford-maker;" a title for the twenty-four Jain masters who conveyed the principles of Jain belief over the centuries, the last of whom was Mahāvīra (6th century B.C.E.).

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yogin
Literally, "one who is yoked or joined;" a practitioner of yoga, especially a form of yoga involving meditative and ascetic techniques designed to bring the soul and body into a state of concentration or meditative focus.

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nafs
The subtle reality of an individual, the “I.” As opposed to the spirit (rūḥ) or to the intellect (‘aql), the nafs appears in a negative aspect, because it is made up of the sum of individual or egocentric tendencies. But a distinction is made between: 1. an-nafs al-ḥaywāniyah : the animal soul, the soul as passively obedient to natural impulsions; 2. an-nafs al-ammārah : “the soul which commands (to evil),” the passionate, egoistic soul; 3. an-nafs al-lawwāmah : “the soul which blames,” the soul aware of its own 4. an-nafs al-mutma’innah : “the soul at peace,” the soul reintegrated in the Spirit and at rest in certainty. The last three expressions are from the Qur’ān.

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sattva
the quality of harmony, purity, serenity

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tamas
In Hinduism and Buddhism, the lowest of the three cosmic qualities (gunas) that are a result of the creation of matter; tamas literally means "darkness" and this cosmic quality or energy is characterized by error, ignorance, heaviness, inertia, etc. Its darkness is related to the gloom of hell. In the Samkhya system of Hindu philosophy, tamas is seen as a form of ignorance (avidya) that lulls the spiritual being away from its true nature.

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Awwal
The “First”; in Islam, al-Awwal is a divine Name, as in the Koranic verse, “He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward” (Sūrah “Iron” [57]:3).

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alter
the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self.

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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iman
"Faith" or "belief"; its objects are God, the angels, the revealed books, the prophets, the Last Day of Judgment, and God’s measuring out (qadar). Typically, these are summarized in creedal statements (‘aqā’id) and rigorously defined in kalām.

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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sat
"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with cit, "consciousness," and ananda (ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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arif
Knower, gnostic.

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ba
the ancient Egyptian term which means ‘manifestation’ of certain divine qualities, arranged in the descending and ascending hierarchy; in the eschatological and soteriological context, it may be understood as ‘soul’ moving up and down, as an individual in an out-of-body state which is attained through initiation or death, when the physical body ( khat, soma) is experienced as a corpse; ba is the vehicle of ascent, pictured as a human-headed bird which flies into the spheres of light and finally becomes aware of oneself as an akh; the concept of ba influenced the Pythagorean and Platonic concept of soul ( psuche) who tries to restore her wings through anamnesis, initiation into philosophy, and when ascends to the divine realm.

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basmala
traditional Muslim formula of blessing, found at the beginning of all but one of the sūrahs of the Koran, the full form being Bismi ’Llāhi ’r-Rahmāni ’r-Rahîm (Arabic: بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم), “In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful”.

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bhakti
the spiritual "path" (mārga) of "love" (bhakti) and devotion.

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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.

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distinguo
literally, “I mark or set off, differentiate”, often used in the dialectic of the medieval scholastics; any philosophical distinction.

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faqr

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japa
"repetition" of a mantra or sacred formula, often containing one of the Names of God; see buddhānusmriti, dhikr.

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khalwa

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Laylat al-Qadr
literally, “Night of Power”; the night in the year 610 A.D. during which the Koran descended in its entirety into the heart of the Prophet Muhammad.

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mu
a Japanese term used to describe a non-ego self. The goal in Zen is to become mu-no-hito, a person without ego.

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qadr

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rajas
In Hinduism, the second of the three gunas, or cosmic forces that result from creation. Rajas literally refers to "colored" or "dim" spaces, and is the guna whose energy is characterized by passion, emotion, variability, urgency, and activity. In the Vedas, the word is also used to designate the division of the world which encompasses the vapors and mists of the atmosphere, and which is below "the ethereal spaces."

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sattva
the quality of harmony, purity, serenity

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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.

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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.

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tawakkul
Complete “reliance” on God and “trust” that He alone is sufficient for all one’s needs.

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vacare Deo
literally, "to be empty for God"; to be at leisure for or available to God; in the Christian monastic and contemplative tradition, to set aside time from work for meditation and prayer.

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yoga
union of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)

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zuhd
Asceticism envisaged as a privation of sensory satisfactions.

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barzakh
Symbol of an intermediate state or of a mediating principle.

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bast
The expansion of the soul through hope or spiritual joy.

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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.

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farq

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Haqq
In Sufism designates the Divinity as distinguished from the creature (al-khalq).

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haybah
Terror in face of the Divine Majesty.

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Junayd
Named “the leader of the troop.”

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qabd
A spiritual state following from fear of God; opposite of expansion (al-basṭ).

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Qutb
In Sufism: the pole of a spiritual hierarchy. The “pole of a period” is also spoken of. This pole is often unknown to most spiritual men.

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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.

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sura
a chapter or division of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. There are 114 sūar (plural) in the Koran.

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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zikr
"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.

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imam
In relation to ritual: he who presides when a number pray together; head of a religious community.

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murshid
Literally, “he who leads straight.”

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sheikh
(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.

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tariqa
Literally, “path” in Arabic. In exoteric Islam, it is a virtual synonym for sharî‘ah, equivalent to the “straight path” (mentioned in the Fatihah, the first verse of the Koran) that a believer must follow. However, in esoteric Islam, Sufism, tariqah refers to the mystical path which leads from the observance of the sharî‘ah to self-realization in God. In Sufism it also refers to a Sufi brotherhood.

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umma
"Community," or "people." A Qur’ānic term used to refer to the various peoples and nations of the earth. The Qur’ān speaks of the fact that God has sent a prophet to every umma, and it is understood in Islam that each prophet has his own umma, who follows his message. (Thus, in an Islamic context, umma refers to the "community" of Muslims spread throughout many nations.)

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hen
the one, which can mean: 1) Unity or Oneness in general; 2) the unity of anything that has unity or is one thing; 3) that which has unity, anything that is one; 4) the one thing we are speaking of, as opposed to ‘other ones’ (see: F.M. Cornford Plato and Parmenides, London, 1969, p.111); for Neoplatonists, the One is the ineffable source of Being, the Supreme Principle, explicitly regarded as God by Proclus; to hen transcends the demiurgic Intellect and constitutes the first divine hupostasis of Plotinus; it corresponds to Nun, the Father of the gods ( neteru) in the ancient Egyptian theology.

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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adaequatio rei et intellectus
"the intellect (of the knower) must be adequate to the thing (known)"; a medieval epistemological maxim.

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Aql
Al-‘Aql al-awwal : the first Intellect, analogue of the Supreme Pen (al-Qalam), and of ar-Rūḥ. Corresponds to the Nous of Plotinus.

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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

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jinn
Subtle beings belonging to the world of forms.

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mu
a Japanese term used to describe a non-ego self. The goal in Zen is to become mu-no-hito, a person without ego.

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Qutb
In Sufism: the pole of a spiritual hierarchy. The “pole of a period” is also spoken of. This pole is often unknown to most spiritual men.

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rationalism
The 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."

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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.

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surah
a chapter or division of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. There are 114 sūar (plural) in the Koran.

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wahy
"Divine Revelation," received by a prophet from God; applies especially to the Qur’ān and other sacred scriptures such as the Torah and the Gospel.

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alter
the "other," in contrast to the ego or individual self.

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Pater noster
In Latin, “Our Father”. In Christianity, it refers to the Lord’s Prayer, consisting of the words: “Our Father who art inHeaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matt. 6:9-13).

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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yoga
union of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)

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mani
"jewel," often in the shape of a tear-drop; in Eastern traditions, understood to be powerful in removing evil and the causes of sorrow; see Om mani padme hum.

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Maya
"artifice, illusion"; in Advaita Vedānta, the beguiling concealment of Brahma in the form or under the appearance of a lower reality.

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padma
Lotus; 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.

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faqr

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murshid
Literally, “he who leads straight.”

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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.

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tawakkul
Complete “reliance” on God and “trust” that He alone is sufficient for all one’s needs.

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kashf
Literally, “the raising of a curtain or veil.”

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rationalism
The 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."

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secularism
The 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.

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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Brahma
God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the Trimūrti; to be distinguished from Brahma, the Supreme Reality.

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Brahman
Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called Para-Brahma.

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bhakti
the spiritual "path" (mārga) of "love" (bhakti) and devotion.

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rationalism
The 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."

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Atman
the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, identical with Brahma.

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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prakriti
Literally, "making first" (see materia prima); the fundamental, "feminine" substance or material cause of all things; see "purusha (puruṣa)."

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prakriti
In Hinduism, literally, “making first” (see materia prima); the fundamental, “feminine” substance or material cause of all things; see guna, Purusha.

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prana
Vital breath.

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shakti
God’s power

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swami
A title of respect set before the names of monks and spiritual teachers.

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yoga
union of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)

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barzakh
Symbol of an intermediate state or of a mediating principle.

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bhakti
the spiritual "path" (mārga) of "love" (bhakti) and devotion.

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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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.

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faqr

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japa
"repetition" of a mantra or sacred formula, often containing one of the Names of God; see buddhānusmriti, dhikr.

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Junayd
Named “the leader of the troop.”

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Mevlevi

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mu
a Japanese term used to describe a non-ego self. The goal in Zen is to become mu-no-hito, a person without ego.

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sat
"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with cit, "consciousness," and ananda (ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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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.

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yoga
union of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)

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rationalism
The 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."

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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Deus ex machina
literally, "god from a machine"; to make of technology a god.

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sudra
A member of the lowest of the four Hindu castes; an unskilled laborer or serf.

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Sri
a prefix meaning “sacred” or “holy” (in Hinduism)

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latria
literally, "servitude, service"; the worshipful obedience owed only to God; to be distinguished from dulia, the respect shown to saints, and hyperdulia, the reverence paid to the Blessed Virgin. latria is the Latinized form of the Greek latreia.

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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ananda
"bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and chit, "consciousness."

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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rationem artis
the meaning of art.

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mu
a Japanese term used to describe a non-ego self. The goal in Zen is to become mu-no-hito, a person without ego.

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cit
"consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of Apara-Brahma, together with sat, "being," and ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."

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Rama
The seventh incarnation (avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale, Rāmāyaṇa.

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Hiranyagarbha
a manifestation of īshvara in association with the totality of subtle beings in the dream state;

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manvantara
The regnal period of a Manu. One thousand mahāyugas constitute the regnal period of the 14 Manus put together

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