MODERN scholarship has fairly succeeded in rescuing the term "scholasticism" from its pejorative connotations. But it has not yet attempted, it seems to me, to situate the phenomenon of scholasticism in an overall anthropological setting. A comparative study of eastern and western scholasticisms may help us to acquire a better understanding of the nature of scholasticism and ultimately of the nature of man himself.
We have here another instance of the importance of cross-cultural studies. They serve not just to compare phenomena from different cultures, but they contribute efficaciously both to understanding better the respective phenomena (envisioning them from different and possibly complementary perspectives) and to fecundating each other, so that a more comprehensive and mature synthesis may emerge from the encounter. Comparative Philosophy is not to compare philosophies (from where?a third "neutral" philosophical platform?) but to study "philosophical problems" with the aid of more than one philosophical system, well aware, however, that the "philosophical problems" are already seen under an underlying philosophical assumption.
"Progress", thus, is not achieved by "regression" into a more radical starting point, but by continuing and deepening the traditional line.[16] The "zurük zu den Sachen", the back "aux sources", "starting points" and "tabula rasa" attitudes are here excluded. Even today the consecrated "scholar" is not supposed to take the radical attitude of total contestation but rather that of investigating the "data".
It is not of our incumbency to evaluate such an attitude. It is sufficient to state it and to describe some of its corollaries:
When the scholastic is not of the opinion of the authority he is relying upon, he will not contradict it directly.[18] He will submit another interpretation, even if to do so he has to do a certain violence to the textual datum.[19] Properly speaking, he will not concede that he is twisting the text or belying the source; he will rather say that he is reading it correctly as he is extricating its real meaning which previous commentators had overlooked or which even the text or source itself did not express clearly enough.[20] The contexts of a text, he will say, is precisely the truth-contents, which he is now unfolding.[21]
The underlying assumption here is that "aggiornamento", "adaptation", "translation", "clarification" or hermeneutics is the proper method to follow. Needless to say, the different scholasticisms will have different opinions regarding the nature of the source to be thus interpreted.
This precise use of words is only possible within an almost univocal universe of discourse.[24] This makes possible the over-condensed statement, the sutras,[25] the mahavakyani,[26] the sententiae,[27] and also the catechisms and digests and abstracts.[28] Summaries of this type are possible only on the assumption that the more expanded material is homogeneous enough to allow such condensations without losing their fundamental meaning or quintessence.
It is again this character of semantic continuity which explains the constant use of refrains, common phrases and a great amount of formulations of principles which are supposed to be commonly accepted.[29]
At a certain point in the development of a culture, three phenomena appear as forming a kind of cultural invariant present in all scholasticisms.
No culture can subsist in a state of constant unassimilated change or in a state of permanent revolution. It cannot be all the time under the spell of a founder or the impact of a prophet. It needs to settle down. When a culture has reached its middle age (obviously always a relative term) it finds itself in need of systematization and mental organization. When there is enough human experience accumulated one or more personalities gather those materials, bringing the riches of the past together and triggering a movement of thought, which is seen as embracing the past.[36] It is the beginning of scholasticism.
Scholasticism tries to satisfy the holistic craving of man; it claims to give a synthetic and often systematic world-view, even if recognizing its unexplored fields; it links man with tradition and gives him a sense of continuity, not only with the past but also regarding the future; it provides man with a sense of kinship. After every new prophet a stabilizing period comes. It is the work of the priest with his "pastoral" concern to offer a complete and coherent intellectual frame of reference for man to move and live within. The summa is not a drawer where you find any thinkable gadget; it is supposed to offer a systematic worldview.
There is no need to stress here that such a framework can well provide orientation and directions of expansion, but that it can also stifle and thwart.
Scholasticism is a constant cultural factor because it is also an expression of man himself.
Scholastic man, in fact, east and west, ancient and modern, shows certain anthropological traits which explain the universal phenomenon of scholasticism. Scholasticism becomes then an almost necessary step for the consolidation of certain cultural values, which only in this way can permeate the whole of a concrete human society. Scholastic man is not the whole of man, but it embodies a part of him, which again and again feels the need to come to the foreground. This would be the ultimate reason why it is equally unsatisfactory to condemn all scholasticism as well as to extoll it without recognising that it expresses only part of human nature and of human culture. Though the three types we are going to describe have obvious sociological characteristics, we believe they also manifest something of the very nature of man.
Both are leaders, but in a different way; both are outstanding personalities, but in opposite directions. The prophet breaks through, innovates, reforms, takes the risks of the future. The priest keeps loyalty, consolidates, recovers and has the abyssal profundity of the past. Each prophet elicits his priest, but there would be no prophet if there were no priest to follow him.
Scholasticism is the regime of the priest; it cares for the general welfare, it organises, it systematizes, it knows that there are levels of understanding and degrees of reality. Each culture calls this double anthropological type by different names, of course
Scholasticism is a ritualistic period. The rites are performed and felt to be meaningful as rites and not only for their intellectual contents. Institutions are strong and are eventually reformed or modified but not radically challenged. There may be rebellions but not revolutions as long as the scholastic period is alive. The priest may be criticised and even fought, but priesthood remains still unchallenged. Brahmins, clerics (sacred and profane), administrators and establishments may be found unworthy, but the structure is respected. The prophecies are believed to be fulfilled in the scholastic age, but new prophecies are very badly tolerated.
Scholasticism has, paradoxically enough, a popular character; it is a worldview for the people, formulated by the philosophical, cultural or religious leaders of the time with a concern to offer a coherent and even practical view of reality which would permit man to move and act within the prescribed limits. Scholasticism has no room for "originals". It has no place for idiosyncracies; it claims universality.
Seen from the outside any scholastic period looks uniform or even mediocre. Scholasticism considers itself healthy and normal. It is the voice of the majority and the leader is only recognised as such because he leads according to an accepted canon, which the leader has not the power to alter but alone to challenge.
The scholastic man is the theoretically wise. But sometimes wisdom may be folly.
This third character does not contradict but complements and qualifies the second one. It is not a popular movement as some may interpret these words today. It is the popularity of the classics, in all senses of the word.
If this over-condensed study somewhat describes a real situation, the consequences for our times are far from being negligible. Not only men, but also peoples and cultures are passing their Middle Ages. To understand them properly may be a much better way than to educate, indoctrinate or even help them according to preconceived schemes.
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.
(more..) Brahma God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the
Trimūrti; to be distinguished from
Brahma, the Supreme Reality.
(more..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) jinn Subtle beings belonging to the world of forms.
(more..) nirgunaimpersonal aspect of God (in Hinduism)
(more..) 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…")
(more..) sagunapersonal God; God with attributes
(more..) secularismThe worldview that seeks to maintain religion and the sacred in the private domain; the predominant view in the West since the time of the French Revolution of 1789 C. E.
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.
(more..) Hallaj Crucified by the
sharī‘at authority for having said
Ana-l-Ḥaqq, “I am the Truth.”
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) rationalismThe philosophical position that sees reason as the ultimate arbiter of truth. Its origin lies in Descartes’ famous cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am."
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) dhikr "remembrance" of God, based upon the repeated invocation of His Name; central to Sufi practice, where the remembrance often consists of the single word
Allāh.
(more..) murshid Literally, “he who leads straight.”
(more..) Shadhili A renowned Sufi master. Founder of the north African Shādhiliyah spiritual order.
(more..) shaikh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
chit, "consciousness."
(more..) baliThis 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.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) 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.
(more..) purushaLiterally, "man;" the informing or shaping principle of creation; the "masculine" demiurge or fashioner of the universe; see "Prakriti (
Prakṛti)."
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) Brahman Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called
Para-Brahma.
(more..) darshanaLiterally, “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.
(more..) ex cathedra literally, "from the throne"; in Roman Catholicism, authoritative teaching issued by the pope and regarded as infallible.
(more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) 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.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) in divinisliterally, "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.
(more..) kshatriyaa member of the second highest of the four Hindu castes; a warrior or prince. (Also includes politicians, officers, and civil authorities.) The distinctive quality of the
kshatriya is a combative and noble nature that tends toward glory and heroism.
(more..) 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.
(more..) RamanujaFounder of the
Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta (qualified non-dualism) was born in Śrīperumbudūr, Tamil Nadu, in 1027.
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) 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] .)
(more..) sophia(A)wisdom; the term covers all spheres of human activity – all ingenious invention aimed at satisfying one’s material, political and religious needs; Hephaistos (like his prototypes – the Ugaritian Kothar-wa-Hasis and the Egyptian Ptah) is
poluphronos, very wise,
klutometis, renowned in wisdom – here ‘wisdom’ means not simply some divine quality, but wondrous skill, cleverness, technical ability, magic power; in Egypt all sacred wisdom (especially, knowledge of the secret divine names and words of power,
hekau, or demiurgic and theurgic mantras, which are able to restore one’s true divine identity) was under the patronage of Thoth; in classical Greece, the inspird poet, the lawgiver, the polititian, the magician, the natural philosopher and sophist – all claimed to wisdom, and indeed ‘philosophy’ is the love of wisdom,
philo-sophia, i.e. a way of life in effort to achieve wisdom as its goal; the ideal of
sophos (sage) in the newly established Platonic paideia is exemplified by Socrates; in Neoplatonism, the theoretical wisdom (though the term
sophia is rarely used) means contemplation of the eternal Forms and becoming like
nous, or a god; there are the characteristic properties which constitute the divine nature and which spread to all the divine classes: good (
agathotes), wisdom (
sophia) and beauty (
kallos).
(B) "wisdom"; in Jewish and Christian tradition, the Wisdom of God, often conceived as feminine (
cf. Prov. 8).
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) abd(A) In religious language, designates the worshiper, and, more generally, the creature as dependent on his Lord (
rabb. (B) "servant" or "slave"; as used in Islam, the servant or worshiper of God in His aspect of
Rabb or "Lord".
(more..) dhikr "remembrance" of God, based upon the repeated invocation of His Name; central to Sufi practice, where the remembrance often consists of the single word
Allāh.
(more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) 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).(more..) Umar Author of the famous Sufi poem the
Khamriyah (“Wine Ode”).
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) yogia practitioner of yoga (in Hinduism)
(more..) AvalokitesvaraThe Bodhisattva of Compassion, companion of Amida Buddha, as personification of his virtue of compassion, along with
Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Seishi), the personification of wisdom.
(more..) avatara the earthly "descent," incarnation, or manifestation of God, especially of Vishnu in the Hindu tradition.
(more..) batin The “inner learning” (
al-‘ilm al-bāṭin), which means esoteric or Sufic learning, is distinguished from the “outer learning” (
al-‘ilm aẓ-ẓāhir) of the Doctors of the Law.
Al-Bāṭin, “The Inner,” is one of the Names of God in the Qur’ān.
(more..) bhakti the spiritual "path" (
mārga) of "love" (
bhakti) and devotion.
(more..) chelain Hinduism, a disciple, a pupil or student
(more..) chelain Hinduism, a disciple, a pupil or student
(more..) dhikr "remembrance" of God, based upon the repeated invocation of His Name; central to Sufi practice, where the remembrance often consists of the single word
Allāh.
(more..) guruspiritual guide or Master. Also, a preceptor, any person worthy of veneration; weighty; Jupiter. The true function of a guru is explained in
The Guru Tradition. Gurukula is the household or residence of a preceptor. A brahmacārin stays with his guru to be taught the Vedas, the Vedāngas and other subjects this is
gurukulavāsa.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) japa "repetition" of a
mantra or sacred formula, often containing one of the Names of God; see
buddhānusmriti,
dhikr.
(more..) jiriki(A)Self power; the consciousness that one achieves Enlightenment through one’s own effort. In Pure Land Buddhism it is considered a delusory understanding of the true nature of practice and faith, which are supported and enabled through Amida’s compassion.
(B) One who is "liberated" while still in this "life"; a person who has attained to a state of spiritual perfection or self-realization before death; in contrast to
videha-muktav, one who is liberated at the moment of death..
(more..) 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.
(more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1)
sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2)
prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3)
āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future.
(more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1)
sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2)
prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3)
āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future.
(more..) koana Japanese word used to describe a phrase or a statement that cannot be solved by the intellect. In Rinzai Zen tradition,
koans are used to awaken the intuitive mind.
(more..) krama-muktigradual, or deferred, liberation; a state of partial deliverance obtained after death, corresponding to the Heaven of the Judeo-Christian tradition; total liberation is deferred to the
pralaya (dissolution) at the end of a kalpa (world-cycle); to be distinguished from
jîvan-mukti, the state of total and immediate liberation attained during this lifetime, and
videha-mukti, the state of total liberation attained at the moment of death.
(more..) mantram literally, "instrument of thought"; a word or phrase of divine origin, often including a Name of God, repeated by those initiated into its proper use as a means of salvation or liberation; see
japa.
(more..) 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.
(more..) nirvanaIn Buddhism (and Hinduism), ultimate liberation from
samsara (the cycles of rebirths or the flow of cosmic manifestation), resulting in absorption in the Absolute; the extinction of the fires of passion and the resulting, supremely blissful state of liberation from attachment and egoism.
(more..) 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)
(more..) samsaraLiterally, "wandering;" in Hinduism and Buddhism, transmigration or the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth; also, the world of apparent flux and change.
(more..) sannyasinmonk; one who has renounced worldly ties for realizing God
(more..) sannyasinA Renunciate; one who has renounced all formal ties to social life. See "sannyasa (
saṃnyāsa)."
(more..) secularismThe worldview that seeks to maintain religion and the sacred in the private domain; the predominant view in the West since the time of the French Revolution of 1789 C. E.
(more..) shariah Every divine Messenger (
rasūl) brings a new
sharī‘ah, according with the cyclic and human conditions.
Sharī‘ah is opposed to
Ḥaqīqah, i.e. the sacred Law to the divine Truth or Reality. The sacred Laws are different one from another, but their Divine Reality is always the same.
(more..) 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.
(more..) ShinranShinran (1173-1262): attributed founder of the Jodo Shin school of Buddhism.
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) tariki(A) literally, "power of the other"; a Buddhist term for forms of spirituality that emphasize the importance of grace or celestial assistance, especially that of the Buddha Amida, as in the Pure Land schools; in contrast to
jiriki.
(B) Other Power; "The working of the boundless compassion of Amida Buddha, which nullifies all dualistic notions, including constructs of self and other. According to Shinran, ‘Other Power means to be free of any form of calculations (
hakarai).’" (Unno)
(more..) Tasawwuf Designates the whole of the contemplative ways founded on the sacred forms of Islam. By transposition an Arab might speak of “Christian
taṣawwuf” or “Jewish
taṣawwuf” to indicate the esotericism of the respective traditions.
(more..) TendaiA major sect of Buddhism initated by Chih-I (538-597) in China on Mt. T’ien-t’ai and introduced to Japan by Saichō (767-822). It is centered on Mount Hiei from which it exerted great spiritual and social influence in Medieval Japan. Kamakura era (1185-1332) teachers such as Hōnen, Shinran, Dōgen and Nichiren came from Mount Hiei and had studied Tendai teaching based on the Lotus Sutra and the wholistic philosophy grounded in the Kegon teaching.
(more..) theoriacontemplation, theory; the contemplative virtue is called
theoretike; like the beholding of festivals of the gods and their epiphanies, philosophy introduces the beholding of the well ordered cosmos, still called by the same word,
theoria; in Neoplatonism, the creative power of the cosmos is contemplation (
theoria) and intellection
(noesis), therefore divine
praxis is
theoria; for Plotinus, on every level of reality creation is the result of the energy produced by contemplation
(Enn.8.3-4); every intellect contemplates directly itself; contemplation may be compared to the mystery-rites
(teletai).(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.
(more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) zahir Opposite of
bāṭin (inner, hidden).
Aẓ-Ẓāhir : the External, or the Apparent, is one of the Names of God in the Qur’ān.
(more..) abd(A) In religious language, designates the worshiper, and, more generally, the creature as dependent on his Lord (
rabb. (B) "servant" or "slave"; as used in Islam, the servant or worshiper of God in His aspect of
Rabb or "Lord".
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
chit, "consciousness."
(more..) Isa(A) literally, "possessing power," hence master; God understood as a personal being, as Creator and Lord; manifest in the
Trimūrti as
Brahmā,
Vishnu, and
Shiva.
(B) lit. "the Lord of the Universe"; the personal God who manifests in the triple form of
Brahmā (the Creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer), and
Shiva (the Transformer); identical with
saguna Brahman.
(more..) RamaIn Hinduism, one of the names by which to call God. In sacred history, Rama was the hero king of the epic Ramayana, and is one of the ten avatars of Vishnu. The term is also a form of address among
sadhus(more..) RamaThe seventh incarnation (
avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale,
Rāmāyaṇa.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) yugaAge; 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.
(more..) aqil In metaphysic the triad
al-‘āqil (the knower),
al-ma‘qūl (the known) and
al-‘aql (the intellect, knowledge) play an important part.
(more..) 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.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) ātmā the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) 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.
(more..) bhakti the spiritual "path" (
mārga) of "love" (
bhakti) and devotion.
(more..) Brahma God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the
Trimūrti; to be distinguished from
Brahma, the Supreme Reality.
(more..) chit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) chit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) Chit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) dhikr "remembrance" of God, based upon the repeated invocation of His Name; central to Sufi practice, where the remembrance often consists of the single word
Allāh.
(more..) distinguoliterally, “I mark or set off, differentiate”, often used in the dialectic of the medieval scholastics; any philosophical distinction.
(more..) Filioque "and (from) the Son"; a term added to the Nicene Creed by the Western Church to express the "double procession" of the Holy Spirit from the Father "and the Son"; rejected by the Eastern Orthodox Church.
(more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) 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.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) in divinisliterally, "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.
(more..) increatum et increabileLatin. “Uncreated and uncreatable”; transcending the domain of time and relativity, as the Absolute or its prolongations.
(more..) Ishvara(A) literally, "possessing power," hence master; God understood as a personal being, as Creator and Lord; manifest in the
Trimūrti as
Brahmā,
Vishnu, and
Shiva.
(B) lit. "the Lord of the Universe"; the personal God who manifests in the triple form of
Brahmā (the Creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer), and
Shiva (the Transformer); identical with
saguna Brahman.
(more..) Ishvara(A) literally, "possessing power," hence master; God understood as a personal being, as Creator and Lord; manifest in the
Trimūrti as
Brahmā,
Vishnu, and
Shiva.
(B) lit. "the Lord of the Universe"; the personal God who manifests in the triple form of
Brahmā (the Creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer), and
Shiva (the Transformer); identical with
saguna Brahman.
(more..) jiriki(A)Self power; the consciousness that one achieves Enlightenment through one’s own effort. In Pure Land Buddhism it is considered a delusory understanding of the true nature of practice and faith, which are supported and enabled through Amida’s compassion.
(B) One who is "liberated" while still in this "life"; a person who has attained to a state of spiritual perfection or self-realization before death; in contrast to
videha-muktav, one who is liberated at the moment of death..
(more..) 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).(more..) modernismThe predominant post-Renaissance and post-Enlightenment worldview of Western civilization marked by rationalism, scientism, and humanism. In the Muslim world, it refers to those individuals and movements who have sought to adopt Western ideas and values from the nineteenth century onwards in response to Western domination and imperialism.
(more..) nirgunaimpersonal aspect of God (in Hinduism)
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) rationalismThe philosophical position that sees reason as the ultimate arbiter of truth. Its origin lies in Descartes’ famous cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am."
(more..) 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] .)
(more..) sagunapersonal God; God with attributes
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) 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.
(more..) tariki(A) literally, "power of the other"; a Buddhist term for forms of spirituality that emphasize the importance of grace or celestial assistance, especially that of the Buddha Amida, as in the Pure Land schools; in contrast to
jiriki.
(B) Other Power; "The working of the boundless compassion of Amida Buddha, which nullifies all dualistic notions, including constructs of self and other. According to Shinran, ‘Other Power means to be free of any form of calculations (
hakarai).’" (Unno)
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) 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.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) 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.
(more..) abd(A) In religious language, designates the worshiper, and, more generally, the creature as dependent on his Lord (
rabb. (B) "servant" or "slave"; as used in Islam, the servant or worshiper of God in His aspect of
Rabb or "Lord".
(more..) 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.
(more..) BodhisattvaLiterally, "enlightenment-being;" in
Mahāyāna Buddhism, one who postpones his own final enlightenment and entry into
Nirvāṇa in order to aid all other sentient beings in their quest for Buddhahood.
(more..) 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.
(more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) guruspiritual guide or Master. Also, a preceptor, any person worthy of veneration; weighty; Jupiter. The true function of a guru is explained in
The Guru Tradition. Gurukula is the household or residence of a preceptor. A brahmacārin stays with his guru to be taught the Vedas, the Vedāngas and other subjects this is
gurukulavāsa.
(more..) 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.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) imam In relation to ritual: he who presides when a number pray together; head of a religious community.
(more..) Jilani One of the greatest saints in Islam (i.e. Sufism) and the founder of the
Qādiriyah order.
(more..) 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).(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) pneuma "wind, breath, spirit"; in Christian theology, either the third Person of the Trinity or the highest of the three parts or aspects of the human self (
cf. 1 Thess. 5:23); see
rūh.
(more..) Rahmah The same root RHM is to be found in both the Divine names
ar-Raḥmān (the Compassionate, He whose Mercy envelops all things) and
ar-Raḥīm (the Merciful, He who saves by His Grace). The simplest word from this same root is
raḥīm (matrix), whence the maternal aspect of these Divine Names.
(more..) 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.
(more..) Shadhili A renowned Sufi master. Founder of the north African Shādhiliyah spiritual order.
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) 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.
(more..) suraha chapter or division of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. There are 114
sūar (plural) in the Koran.
(more..) tawbahIn Islam, “repentance” from sin. Also "penitence." It is also the title of Surah 9, taken from verse 104: “Know they not that Allah is He who accepteth repentance from His bondsmen and taketh the alms, and that Allah is He who is Relenting, the Merciful.”
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.
(more..) 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.
(more..) yoginLiterally, "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.
(more..) basmalahtraditional 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”.
(more..) Brahman Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called
Para-Brahma.
(more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) imam In relation to ritual: he who presides when a number pray together; head of a religious community.
(more..) 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).(more..) madhhabA school of jurisprudence. There are four in Sunnī Islam: the Hanafī, Hanbalī, Malakī, and Shāfi‘ī schools of law. The majority of Shī‘i Muslims follow the Jaḥfarī school of law.
(more..) Maya "artifice, illusion"; in
Advaita Vedānta, the beguiling concealment of
Brahma in the form or under the appearance of a lower reality.
(more..) Mutatis mutandismore or less literally, "with necessary changes being made" or "with necessary changes being taken into consideration". This adverbial phrase is used in philosophy and logic to point out that although two conditions or statements may seem to be very analagous or similar, the reader should not lose sight of the differences between the two. Perhaps an even more easily understood translation might be "with obvious differences taken into consideration…"
(more..) Umar Author of the famous Sufi poem the
Khamriyah (“Wine Ode”).
(more..) Pax Romana“Roman peace”; the law and order imposed by ancient Rome on its territories.
(more..) QurayshThe dominant tribal group in Mecca. The Prophet of Islam was a member of this tribe, as were most of his early followers.
(more..) 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.
(more..) RamaIn Hinduism, one of the names by which to call God. In sacred history, Rama was the hero king of the epic Ramayana, and is one of the ten avatars of Vishnu. The term is also a form of address among
sadhus(more..) RamaThe seventh incarnation (
avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale,
Rāmāyaṇa.
(more..) rishiin Hinduism, a seer, saint, inspired poet; the Vedas are ascribed to the seven great seers of antiquity.
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) 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.
(more..) Sunnism(Derived from the Arabic word
sunna.) The larger of the two main branches of Islam, comprising about eighty-five percent of Muslims, as contrasted with Shī’ism.
(more..) Tasawwuf Designates the whole of the contemplative ways founded on the sacred forms of Islam. By transposition an Arab might speak of “Christian
taṣawwuf” or “Jewish
taṣawwuf” to indicate the esotericism of the respective traditions.
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) 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).
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) secularismThe worldview that seeks to maintain religion and the sacred in the private domain; the predominant view in the West since the time of the French Revolution of 1789 C. E.
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) avatar the earthly "descent," incarnation, or manifestation of God, especially of Vishnu in the Hindu tradition.
(more..) guruspiritual guide or Master. Also, a preceptor, any person worthy of veneration; weighty; Jupiter. The true function of a guru is explained in
The Guru Tradition. Gurukula is the household or residence of a preceptor. A brahmacārin stays with his guru to be taught the Vedas, the Vedāngas and other subjects this is
gurukulavāsa.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) 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).(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) psyche(usually transcribed as
psyche): soul; breath of life, life-stuff; Homer distinguishes between a free soul as a soul of the dead, corresponding with
psuche (and still regarded as an
eidolon), and body souls, corresponding with
thumos,
noos and
menos: following the Egyptian theological patterns, the Pythagoreans constituted the
psuche as the reflection of the unchanging and immortal principles; from Plato onwards,
psuchai are no longer regarded as
eidola, phantoms or doubles of the body, but rather the human body is viewed as the perishable
simulacrum of an immaterial and immortal soul; there are different degrees of soul (or different souls), therefore anything that is alive has a soul (Aristotle
De anima 414b32); in
Phaedrus 248b the soul is regarded as something to be a separate, self-moving and immortal entity (cf.Proclus
Elements of Theology 186);
Psuche is the third
hupostasis of Plotinus.
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) 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.
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) 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."
(more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) yogia practitioner of yoga (in Hinduism)
(more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
chit, "consciousness."
(more..) 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.
(more..) Brahman Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called
Para-Brahma.
(more..) ChittaThe consciousness, the mind
(more..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(more..) GayatriMantra held in great esteem and regarded as the essence of the Vedas; it is imparted to the brahmacārin during his investiture with the sacred thread. Also a Vedic metre of 24 syllable.
(more..) gunaA cosmic quality, of which there are three:
sattva (purity, harmony, essence),
rajas (passion, energy), and
tamas (obscurity, inertia) of which all of manifestation is constituted. The
guṇas are the dynamic forces of
prakriti (cosmic manifestation).
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) Kama Desire; one of the
purusārthas ; god of love
(more..) 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).(more..) mantram literally, "instrument of thought"; a word or phrase of divine origin, often including a Name of God, repeated by those initiated into its proper use as a means of salvation or liberation; see
japa.
(more..) Maraa 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
(more..) Maya "artifice, illusion"; in
Advaita Vedānta, the beguiling concealment of
Brahma in the form or under the appearance of a lower reality.
(more..) nirvanaIn Buddhism (and Hinduism), ultimate liberation from
samsara (the cycles of rebirths or the flow of cosmic manifestation), resulting in absorption in the Absolute; the extinction of the fires of passion and the resulting, supremely blissful state of liberation from attachment and egoism.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) rajasIn 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."
(more..) sama Also designates sessions of spiritual music.
(more..) SariputraA leading disciple of Śākyamuni Buddha
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) sattvathe quality of harmony, purity, serenity
(more..) srutiLiterally, "what is heard;" in Hindu tradition, a category of sacred writings understood to be the direct revelation of eternal Truth, including the
Vedas, the
Saṃhitās, the
Brāhmaṇas, the
Āraṇyakas and the Upanishads (
Upaniṣads); in contrast to smriti (
smṛti).
(more..) tamasIn 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.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) VedaThe sacred scriptures of Hinduism; regarded by the orthodox (
āstika) as divine revelation (
śruti) and comprising: (1) the
Ṛg,
Sāma, Yajur, and
Atharva Saṃhitās (collections of hymns); (2) the
Brāhmanas (priestly treatises); (3) the
Āranyakas (forest treatises); and (4) the
Upaniṣāds (philosophical and mystical treatises); they are divided into a
karma-kāṇḍa portion dealing with ritual action and a
jñāna-kāṇḍa portion dealing with knowledge.
(more..) 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."
(more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) yogia practitioner of yoga (in Hinduism)
(more..) 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.
(more..) dhikr "remembrance" of God, based upon the repeated invocation of His Name; central to Sufi practice, where the remembrance often consists of the single word
Allāh.
(more..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) gunaA cosmic quality, of which there are three:
sattva (purity, harmony, essence),
rajas (passion, energy), and
tamas (obscurity, inertia) of which all of manifestation is constituted. The
guṇas are the dynamic forces of
prakriti (cosmic manifestation).
(more..) guruspiritual guide or Master. Also, a preceptor, any person worthy of veneration; weighty; Jupiter. The true function of a guru is explained in
The Guru Tradition. Gurukula is the household or residence of a preceptor. A brahmacārin stays with his guru to be taught the Vedas, the Vedāngas and other subjects this is
gurukulavāsa.
(more..) henthe 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.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) mokshaliberation or release from the round of birth and death (
samsāra); deliverance from ignorance (
avidyā). According to Hindu teaching,
moksha is the most important aim of life, and it is attained by following one of the principal
mārgas or spiritual paths (see
bhakti, jnāna, and
karma).
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) psyche(usually transcribed as
psyche): soul; breath of life, life-stuff; Homer distinguishes between a free soul as a soul of the dead, corresponding with
psuche (and still regarded as an
eidolon), and body souls, corresponding with
thumos,
noos and
menos: following the Egyptian theological patterns, the Pythagoreans constituted the
psuche as the reflection of the unchanging and immortal principles; from Plato onwards,
psuchai are no longer regarded as
eidola, phantoms or doubles of the body, but rather the human body is viewed as the perishable
simulacrum of an immaterial and immortal soul; there are different degrees of soul (or different souls), therefore anything that is alive has a soul (Aristotle
De anima 414b32); in
Phaedrus 248b the soul is regarded as something to be a separate, self-moving and immortal entity (cf.Proclus
Elements of Theology 186);
Psuche is the third
hupostasis of Plotinus.
(more..) qalb The organ of supra-rational intuition, which corresponds to the heart just as thought corresponds to the brain. The fact that people of today localize feeling and not intellectual intuition in the heart proves that for them it is feeling that occupies the center of the individuality.
(more..) ratio literally, "calculation"; the faculty of discursive thinking, to be distinguished from
intellectus, "Intellect."
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) tamasIn 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.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) yogia practitioner of yoga (in Hinduism)
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) cit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) modernismThe predominant post-Renaissance and post-Enlightenment worldview of Western civilization marked by rationalism, scientism, and humanism. In the Muslim world, it refers to those individuals and movements who have sought to adopt Western ideas and values from the nineteenth century onwards in response to Western domination and imperialism.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) 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).(more..) Mutatis mutandismore or less literally, "with necessary changes being made" or "with necessary changes being taken into consideration". This adverbial phrase is used in philosophy and logic to point out that although two conditions or statements may seem to be very analagous or similar, the reader should not lose sight of the differences between the two. Perhaps an even more easily understood translation might be "with obvious differences taken into consideration…"
(more..) rationalismThe philosophical position that sees reason as the ultimate arbiter of truth. Its origin lies in Descartes’ famous cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am."
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) abd(A) In religious language, designates the worshiper, and, more generally, the creature as dependent on his Lord (
rabb. (B) "servant" or "slave"; as used in Islam, the servant or worshiper of God in His aspect of
Rabb or "Lord".
(more..) ayn al-‘ayn ath-thābitah, or sometimes simply
al-‘ayn, is the immutable essence, the archetype or the principial possibility of a being or thing
(more..) ayn al-‘ayn ath-thābitah, or sometimes simply
al-‘ayn, is the immutable essence, the archetype or the principial possibility of a being or thing
(more..) bathe 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.
(more..) batin The “inner learning” (
al-‘ilm al-bāṭin), which means esoteric or Sufic learning, is distinguished from the “outer learning” (
al-‘ilm aẓ-ẓāhir) of the Doctors of the Law.
Al-Bāṭin, “The Inner,” is one of the Names of God in the Qur’ān.
(more..) cit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) dhakir“the one who invokes” or “remembers”; in Sufism, dhākir usually means the human devotee who practices invocation as a spiritual method; it can also mean the supreme Self as the sole agent of consciousness; see dhikr, Madhkūr.
(more..) dhikr "remembrance" of God, based upon the repeated invocation of His Name; central to Sufi practice, where the remembrance often consists of the single word
Allāh.
(more..) fiqhThe science or discipline of Islamic law whereby legal opinions (
fatwās) are derived from the Qur’ān and the sayings of the Prophet Muḥammad (
ḥadīth).
(more..) hajjThe rite of pilgrimage to Mecca; the fifth of the "five pillars" of Islam. It is required that all Muslims perform this rite once in their life, so long as they possess the health and wealth to complete the journey.
(more..) Haqq In Sufism designates the Divinity as distinguished from the creature (
al-khalq).
(more..) imam In relation to ritual: he who presides when a number pray together; head of a religious community.
(more..) khalifa(1) Vicegerent or representative of God. The Qur’ān teaches that human beings were created to be God’s vicegerents on earth. For many this refers to the proper role of the human being in relation to creation. In Islamic political thought, the
khalīfas or Caliphs are the vicegerents or the successors of the Prophet. (2) Literally, "successor"; a representative or vicar, often used in reference to the successors of the Prophet Muhammad; in Sufism, every man is in principle a
khalīfah of God.
(more..) madrasaLiterally, "a place of study." From the third Islamic century it has referred to places set aside for religious learning. In the modern period it has come to mean any type of school.
(more..) Nur Particularly the uncreated Divine Light, which includes all manifestation and is identified with Existence, considered as a principle. “God is the Light (
Nūr) of the heavens and the earth…” (Qur’ān 24:35).
(more..) pirIn Persian, literally, "old"; the term is used in Sufism to refer to a spiritual master, a
shaykh (in Arabic). A
pir commonly refers to the head of a Sufi order who is a spiritual guide for disciples following the esoteric path.
(more..) pirIn Persian, literally, "old"; the term is used in Sufism to refer to a spiritual master, a
shaykh (in Arabic). A
pir commonly refers to the head of a Sufi order who is a spiritual guide for disciples following the esoteric path.
(more..) qalb The organ of supra-rational intuition, which corresponds to the heart just as thought corresponds to the brain. The fact that people of today localize feeling and not intellectual intuition in the heart proves that for them it is feeling that occupies the center of the individuality.
(more..) 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.
(more..) sadhanaA method of spiritual practice.
(more..) secularismThe worldview that seeks to maintain religion and the sacred in the private domain; the predominant view in the West since the time of the French Revolution of 1789 C. E.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) shaykh(1) In Islam, a Sufi or other spiritual leader or master. (2) The term is also used more generally as an honorific title for a chief or elder of a group.
(more..) sriLiterally, "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.
(more..) Sirr In Sufism, designates the intimate and ineffable center of consciousness, the “point of contact” between the individual and his Divine principle.
(more..) Sria prefix meaning “sacred” or “holy” (in Hinduism)
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) sunna(A) Wont; the model established by the Prophet Muḥammad, as transmitted in the
ḥadīth.
(B) "custom, way of acting"; in Islam, the norm established by the Prophet Muhammad, including his actions and sayings (see
hadīth) and serving as a precedent and standard for the behavior of Muslims.
(more..) swamiA title of respect set before the names of monks and spiritual teachers.
(more..) swamiA title of respect set before the names of monks and spiritual teachers.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.
(more..) 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.)
(more..) zahir Opposite of
bāṭin (inner, hidden).
Aẓ-Ẓāhir : the External, or the Apparent, is one of the Names of God in the Qur’ān.
(more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
chit, "consciousness."
(more..) 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.
(more..) BonThe ancient, pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, which still exists today; adherents are called Bön-Pos.
(more..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) psyche(usually transcribed as
psyche): soul; breath of life, life-stuff; Homer distinguishes between a free soul as a soul of the dead, corresponding with
psuche (and still regarded as an
eidolon), and body souls, corresponding with
thumos,
noos and
menos: following the Egyptian theological patterns, the Pythagoreans constituted the
psuche as the reflection of the unchanging and immortal principles; from Plato onwards,
psuchai are no longer regarded as
eidola, phantoms or doubles of the body, but rather the human body is viewed as the perishable
simulacrum of an immaterial and immortal soul; there are different degrees of soul (or different souls), therefore anything that is alive has a soul (Aristotle
De anima 414b32); in
Phaedrus 248b the soul is regarded as something to be a separate, self-moving and immortal entity (cf.Proclus
Elements of Theology 186);
Psuche is the third
hupostasis of Plotinus.
(more..) ratio literally, "calculation"; the faculty of discursive thinking, to be distinguished from
intellectus, "Intellect."
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) satoria 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.
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) upanishadAmong the sacred texts of the Hindus, mostly
Upaniṣāds discuss the existence of one absolute Reality known as
Brahman. Much of Hindu
Vedānta derives its inspiration from these texts.
(more..) Âtmâ the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) avatara the earthly "descent," incarnation, or manifestation of God, especially of Vishnu in the Hindu tradition.
(more..) distinguoliterally, “I mark or set off, differentiate”, often used in the dialectic of the medieval scholastics; any philosophical distinction.
(more..) philosophialove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) rationalismThe philosophical position that sees reason as the ultimate arbiter of truth. Its origin lies in Descartes’ famous cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am."
(more..) 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] .)
(more..) sophia(A)wisdom; the term covers all spheres of human activity – all ingenious invention aimed at satisfying one’s material, political and religious needs; Hephaistos (like his prototypes – the Ugaritian Kothar-wa-Hasis and the Egyptian Ptah) is
poluphronos, very wise,
klutometis, renowned in wisdom – here ‘wisdom’ means not simply some divine quality, but wondrous skill, cleverness, technical ability, magic power; in Egypt all sacred wisdom (especially, knowledge of the secret divine names and words of power,
hekau, or demiurgic and theurgic mantras, which are able to restore one’s true divine identity) was under the patronage of Thoth; in classical Greece, the inspird poet, the lawgiver, the polititian, the magician, the natural philosopher and sophist – all claimed to wisdom, and indeed ‘philosophy’ is the love of wisdom,
philo-sophia, i.e. a way of life in effort to achieve wisdom as its goal; the ideal of
sophos (sage) in the newly established Platonic paideia is exemplified by Socrates; in Neoplatonism, the theoretical wisdom (though the term
sophia is rarely used) means contemplation of the eternal Forms and becoming like
nous, or a god; there are the characteristic properties which constitute the divine nature and which spread to all the divine classes: good (
agathotes), wisdom (
sophia) and beauty (
kallos).
(B) "wisdom"; in Jewish and Christian tradition, the Wisdom of God, often conceived as feminine (
cf. Prov. 8).
(more..) 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.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) Mutatis mutandismore or less literally, "with necessary changes being made" or "with necessary changes being taken into consideration". This adverbial phrase is used in philosophy and logic to point out that although two conditions or statements may seem to be very analagous or similar, the reader should not lose sight of the differences between the two. Perhaps an even more easily understood translation might be "with obvious differences taken into consideration…"
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) RamaIn Hinduism, one of the names by which to call God. In sacred history, Rama was the hero king of the epic Ramayana, and is one of the ten avatars of Vishnu. The term is also a form of address among
sadhus(more..) RamaThe seventh incarnation (
avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale,
Rāmāyaṇa.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) ayain Islam, a “sign” or “mark” of Allah’s existence or power, especially a miracle; also refers to a "verse" of the Koran
(more..) Brahmin "Brahmin"; a member of the highest of the four Hindu castes; a priest or spiritual teacher.
(more..) cit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1)
sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2)
prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3)
āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future.
(more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1)
sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2)
prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3)
āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future.
(more..) kshatriyaa member of the second highest of the four Hindu castes; a warrior or prince. (Also includes politicians, officers, and civil authorities.) The distinctive quality of the
kshatriya is a combative and noble nature that tends toward glory and heroism.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) prakrtiLiterally, "making first" (see
materia prima); the fundamental, "feminine" substance or material cause of all things; see "purusha (
puruṣa)
."
(more..) prakrtiIn Hinduism, literally, “making first” (see
materia prima); the fundamental, “feminine” substance or material cause of all things; see
guna,
Purusha.
(more..) rajasIn 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."
(more..) rajasicIn 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."
(more..) rajasicIn Hinduism, pertaining to
rajas, which is the quality of activity or restlessness
(more..) sattvathe quality of harmony, purity, serenity
(more..) sattvicpertaining to sattva, which is the quality of harmony, purity, serenity
(more..) tamasIn 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.
(more..) tamasicIn 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.
(more..) varnaCaste; class; the four major social divisions in Hindu society include (in descending order):
brāhmaṇas (priests),
kṣatriyas (royals and warriors),
vaiśyas (merchants and farmers), and
śūdras (servants and laborers); situated outside the caste system are the
caṇḍālas (outcastes and "untouchables") and
mlecchas (foreigners and "barbarians"); members of the three upper castes are called "twice-born" (
dvijā) and are permitted to study the
Vedas.
(more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) acharyaA teacher or spiritual Master; learned in philosophy and realized in knowledge (
jñāna).
(more..) alter the "other," in contrast to the
ego or individual self.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) Atma the real or true "Self," underlying the ego and its manifestations; in the perspective of
Advaita Vedānta, identical with
Brahma.
(more..) bhasyaCommentary or exposition, especially of sūtras
(more..) Brahma God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the
Trimūrti; to be distinguished from
Brahma, the Supreme Reality.
(more..) Brahman Brahma considered as transcending all "qualities," attributes, or predicates; God as He is in Himself; also called
Para-Brahma.
(more..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) jnanaKnowing or understanding. Though usually translated into English as "knowledge", "jñāna" does not mean proficiency in a subject like history or physics. It is not mere learning but inward
experience or awareness of a truth. In Advaita it is the realization that one is inseparably united with the Supreme.
(more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1)
sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2)
prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3)
āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future.
(more..) karmanaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1)
sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2)
prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3)
āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future.
(more..) karmaaction; the effects of past actions; the law of cause and effect ("as a man sows, so shall he reap"); of three kinds: (1)
sanchita karma: actions of the past that have yet to bear fruit in the present life; (2)
prārabdha karma: actions of the past that bear fruit in the present life; and (3)
āgāmi karma :actions of the present that have still, by the law of cause and effect, to bear fruit in the future.
(more..) 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).(more..) Maya "artifice, illusion"; in
Advaita Vedānta, the beguiling concealment of
Brahma in the form or under the appearance of a lower reality.
(more..) philosophylove of wisdom; the intellectual and ‘erotic’ path which leads to virtue and knowledge; the term itself perhaps is coined by Pythagoras; the Hellenic
philosophia is a prolongation, modification and ‘modernization’ of the Egyptian and Near Eastern sapiential ways of life;
philosophia cannot be reduced to philosophical discourse; for Aristotle, metaphysics is
prote philosophia, or
theologike, but philosophy as
theoria means dedication to the
bios theoretikos, the life of contemplation – thus the philosophical life means the participation in the divine and the actualization of the divine in the human through the personal
askesis and inner transformation; Plato defines philosophy as a training for death (
Phaed.67cd); the Platonic
philosophia helps the soul to become aware of its own immateriality, it liberates from passions and strips away everything that is not truly itself; for Plotinus, philosophy does not wish only ‘to be a discourse about objects, be they even the highest, but it wishes actually to lead the soul to a living, concrete union with the Intellect and the Good’; in the late Neoplatonism, the ineffable theurgy is regarded as the culmination of philosophy.
(more..) pramanaAuthority; source of knowledge; a measure or standard; perception.
(more..) sriLiterally, "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.
(more..) srutiLiterally, "what is heard;" in Hindu tradition, a category of sacred writings understood to be the direct revelation of eternal Truth, including the
Vedas, the
Saṃhitās, the
Brāhmaṇas, the
Āraṇyakas and the Upanishads (
Upaniṣads); in contrast to smriti (
smṛti).
(more..) Sria prefix meaning “sacred” or “holy” (in Hinduism)
(more..) suraa chapter or division of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. There are 114
sūar (plural) in the Koran.
(more..) sutraLiterally, "thread;" a Hindu or Buddhist sacred text; in Hinduism, any short, aphoristic verse or collection of verses, often elliptical in style; in Buddhism, a collection of the discourses of the Buddha.
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) 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."
(more..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..)