According to interpretations well-known in Sufism, the two seas symbolize respectively Quiddity and the Qualities[2] , or, according to other interpretations, the non-manifested and the manifested, the formless and the formal, immediate knowledge and theoretical knowledge, etc. In short the two seas can represent two more or less exalted, but always consecutive, degrees in the hierarchy of Being (wujūd).
It can thus be compared to a prism which breaks down the integral light of a higher world into the varied colors of a lower world, or again to a lens which concentrates the rays from above by filtering them through a single point of inversion.
Moreover, the physical aspect of the heart very clearly expresses the different characteristics of the barāzikh, for, according to Shaykh Tadilī, “these barāzikh of the human hierarchy can be symbolically represented as so many imperceptible points from which a luminous vibration emanates, alternately of concentration and of expansion, continuously and spontaneously. Each pulsation of the barzakh produces a transformation of the vital light. In order that this transformation does not become upset and does not, through individual negligence, become fatally ‘downward tending’, it must always be determined by spiritual orientation and sustained by means such as dhikr (invocation) or by methods that depend on the science of respiration. “These methods are based, from a certain point of view, on the analogy between the phases of respiration and the pulsation of the barāzikh.
This reversal is naturally not a simple question of the order of words, for, as we have just indicated, the particle in is the “point of reflection” for the grace of Allāh which reaches as far as the illusory ilāhun; one can see this if one replaces the term ilāha by any positive notion whatsoever; this will then be denied in so far as it affirms itself, at least illusorily, alongside the ipseity of Allāh, and it will be affirmed in so far as it is identified essentially or principally with the ipseity of Allāh. On the other hand, the second element of the illā, the negative particle lā, is in a sense the “point of reflection” of the first part of the Shahādah, namely the negation Lā ilāha:the first lā of the formula denies the notion of “divinity” expressed by the indeterminate form ilāhun, whereas the second lā singles out this same notion in the determinate form Allāh (“The Divinity”), which symbolizes here non-comparability, and not determination in the restrictive sense of this term.
Now when it is a question of consciously integrating these two phases into the universal order, they can no longer be related to something that could be conceived of as being exterior to themselves. When fear (al-khawf) and hope (ar-rajā) are orientated towards Allāh or Universal Essence, they are not for that reason effaced from the psychic domain, but they are in a certain sense rhythmized, being no longer subject to disordered impulses; it could be said that they are determined, in a certain fashion, by the “Present” in time and by the “Center” in space, the pole which rules them and the end towards which they tend having become one and the same reality.
If the phases of fear and hope are thus determined and absorbed by the permanent actuality of the immediate present, in such a way that the faqir[14] who realizes them has become “son of the moment” (ibnu ’l-waqt), they will manifest more essential aspects, and they can be denoted by expressions that have a more general cosmological meaning, such as “contraction” (qabd) and “expansion” (bast).[15]
alter the "other," in contrast to the
ego or individual self.
(more..) Amida BuddhaThe Buddha of Eternal Life and Infinite Light; according to the Pure Land teaching the Buddha who has established the way to Enlightenment for ordinary people; based on his forty-eight Vows and the recitation of his name
Namu-Amida-Butsu one expresses devotion and gratitude.
(more..) anthroposman; in Gnosticism, the macrocosmic
anthropos is regarded as the Platonic ‘ideal animal’,
autozoon, or a divine
pleroma, which contains archetypes of creation and manifestation.
(more..) 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..) avatara the earthly "descent," incarnation, or manifestation of God, especially of Vishnu in the Hindu tradition.
(more..) Ave Maria "Hail, Mary"; traditional prayer to the Blessed Virgin, also known as the Angelic Salutation, based on the words of the Archangel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth in Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42.
(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..) HonenFounder of the independent school of Pure Land (
Jodo) Buddhism in Japan. He maintained that the traditional monastic practices were not effective in the Last Age (
mappo) nor universal for all people, as intended by Amida’s Vow. He incurred opposition from the establishment Buddhism and went into exile with several disciples, including Shinran. His major treatise, which was a manifesto of his teaching, was
Senchaku hongan nembutsu shu (
Treatise on the Nembutsu of the Select Primal Vow, abbreviated to
Senchakushu).
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) paramahamsaA renunciate (
saṃnyāsin) who attains to liberation in this life.
(more..) pontifex“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.
(more..) prakritiLiterally, "making first" (see
materia prima); the fundamental, "feminine" substance or material cause of all things; see "purusha (
puruṣa)
."
(more..) prakritiIn Hinduism, literally, “making first” (see
materia prima); the fundamental, “feminine” substance or material cause of all things; see
guna,
Purusha.
(more..) 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..) 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..) RamanujaFounder of the
Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta (qualified non-dualism) was born in Śrīperumbudūr, Tamil Nadu, in 1027.
(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..) ShinranShinran (1173-1262): attributed founder of the Jodo Shin school of Buddhism.
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) alter the "other," in contrast to the
ego or individual self.
(more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
chit, "consciousness."
(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..) cit "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..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(more..) docta ignorantialiterally, "learned ignorance"; refers to the negative or apophatic way of knowing God.
(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..) KamiJapansese. In Shinto, the sacred, spiritual powers that animate all things; deities associated with eminent personages, sacred places, and the phenomena of nature.
(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..) materia prima "first or prime matter"; in Platonic cosmology, the undifferentiated and primordial substance serving as a "receptacle" for the shaping force of divine forms or ideas; universal potentiality.
(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..) pontifex“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(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..) Sria prefix meaning “sacred” or “holy” (in Hinduism)
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things.
(more..) ideain non-technical use the term refers to the visual aspect of anything; for Plato and Platonists, it is the highest noetic entity, the eternal unchanging Form, the archetype of the manifested material thing; in Plato,
idea is a synonim of
eidos, but in Neoplatonism these two terms have a slightly different meaning.
(more..) 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..) tawhid In common usage means the saying of the Muslim credo, the recognition of the Divine Unity. In Sufism it sums up all levels of the knowledge of Unity.
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) Amr In theology: the Divine command symbolized by the creative word
kun “be”: “His command (
amruhu), when He wills a thing, is that He says to it: ‘be’ and ‘it is’” (Qur’ān 36:82). The Command corresponds to the Word, and indeed in Aramaic the word
amr has this meaning. The Divine Command also corresponds to the Pure Act and, as such, is opposed to the pure passivity of Nature (
at-Ṭabī‘ah).
(more..) 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..) bast The expansion of the soul through hope or spiritual joy.
(more..) Brahma God in the aspect of Creator, the first divine "person" of the
Trimūrti; to be distinguished from
Brahma, the Supreme Reality.
(more..) buddhi "Intellect"; the highest faculty of knowledge, to be contrasted with
manas, that is, mind or reason; see
ratio.
(more..) fiat luxIn Latin, “Let there be light” (see Gen. 1:3).
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) nirgunaimpersonal aspect of God (in Hinduism)
(more..) ParabrahmaThe "supreme" (
para) or ultimate
Brahma, also called
Brahma nirguṇa; the Absolute as such; as distinguished from
Apara Brahma, the "non-supreme" or penultimate aspect of the Divinity.
(more..) ParabrahmaThe "supreme" (
para) or ultimate
Brahma, also called
Brahma nirguṇa; the Absolute as such; as distinguished from
Apara Brahma, the "non-supreme" or penultimate aspect of the Divinity.
(more..) prakritiLiterally, "making first" (see
materia prima); the fundamental, "feminine" substance or material cause of all things; see "purusha (
puruṣa)
."
(more..) prakritiIn Hinduism, literally, “making first” (see
materia prima); the fundamental, “feminine” substance or material cause of all things; see
guna,
Purusha.
(more..) purushaLiterally, "man;" the informing or shaping principle of creation; the "masculine" demiurge or fashioner of the universe; see "Prakriti (
Prakṛti)."
(more..) qabd A spiritual state following from fear of God; opposite of expansion (
al-basṭ).
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.
(more..) upanishadAmong the sacred texts of the Hindus, mostly
Upaniṣāds discuss the existence of one absolute Reality known as
Brahman. Much of Hindu
Vedānta derives its inspiration from these texts.
(more..) 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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) Rosa Mystica "Mystical Rose"; traditional epithet of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as found in the Litany of Loreto.
(more..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(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..) 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..) TalmudLiterally, “learning, study.” In Judaism, the Talmud is a body of writings and traditional commentaries based on the oral law given to Moses on Sinai. It is the foundation of Jewish civil and religious law, second in authority only to the Torah.
(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..) 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..) BonThe ancient, pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, which still exists today; adherents are called Bön-Pos.
(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..) Brahmana "Brahmin"; a member of the highest of the four Hindu castes; a priest or spiritual teacher.
(more..) celain Hinduism, a disciple, a pupil or student
(more..) celain Hinduism, a disciple, a pupil or student
(more..) celain Hinduism, a disciple, a pupil or student
(more..) celain Hinduism, a disciple, a pupil or student
(more..) chandala outcaste or "untouchable"; pariahs who stand outside the Hindu caste system
(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..) dhyanaa Sanskrit term meaning "meditation." In China it was pronounced as "Ch’an," and in Japan it became "Zen."
(more..) duo sunt in homine"there are two (natures) in man," viz., the spiritual and the corporeal; a saying of St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica II.2, q.26, art.4.
(more..) eidosvisible shape, form, a kind of thing, the intelligible Form, or the noetic Idea, of Platonism; the word is etymologically connected with
video, and the term
idea also comes from the same root as Greek verb
idein and the Latin verb
videre, both meaning ‘to see’; therefore
eidos is closely connected with contemplation
(theoria), transcendental or divine imagination, and mystical vision.
(more..) eroslove, sometimes personified as a deity, daimon, or cosmogonical, pedagogical and soteriological force, manifested in the process of demiurgy and within domain of providence; for Plato, philosophy is a sort of erotic madness (
mania), because Eros, though implying need, can inspire us with the love of wisdom; Diotima in Plato’s
Symposium describes education in erotics as an upward journey or ascent towards the perfect noetic Beauty; Plotinus uses the union of lowers as a symbol of the soul’s union with the One (
Enn.VI.7.34.14-16); Proclus distinguishes two forms of love: 1) ascending love which urges lower principles to aspire towards their superiors, 2) descending or providential love (
eros pronoetikos) which obligates the superiors to care for their procucts and transmit divine grace (
In Alcib.54-56); for Dionysius the Areopagite, who follows Proclus, the
eros ekstatikos becomes the unifying factor of the cosmos.
(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..) jatiOne of the many subdivisions of a
varna. By extension, birth into a certain clan, with all of the rites and responsibilities particular to it.
(more..) KalidasaThe most celebrated poet and dramatist of the "classical" period of Sanskrit. Among his works plays —
Abhijnana-Sakuntalam, Vikramorvaśīyam and
Mālavikāgnimitram; long poems:Raghuvansam,
Kumārasarhbliavam, Meghadūtam and
Rtusamhāram(?). We still do not know
for sure when he flourished — some historians believe that he belonged to the 1st century B.C.
(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..) 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..) laborare est orare"work is prayer."
(more..) le symbolisme qui saita symbolism that knows
(more..) mahatmagreat soul; sage (in Hinduism)
(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..) 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..) mimesisimitation, representation; in
Poetics 1447 ab Aristotle includes all the fine arts under
mimesis, among them epic, tragedy, comedy, painting and sculpture; the images produced by
mimesis are not at all like photographic images; according to H.Armstrong, the classical Hellenic artists images are mimetically closer to those of the traditional arts of the East than to those of nineteenth-century Europe: ‘if we establish in our imagination the figure of the masked singing actor as our image of
mimesis we shall not do too bad’ (
Platonic Mirrors, p.151); however, in a vocabulary used by Proclus the terms
mimesis and
mimema are usually reserved for art of an inferior type, though Proclus says that ‘the congenital vehicles (
ochemata) imitate (
mimeitai) the lives of the souls’ (
Elements of theology 209) and ‘each of the souls perpetually attendand upon gods, imitating its divine soul, is sovereign over a number of particular souls’ (ibid.,204).
(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..) nousintelligence, immediate awareness, intuition, intuitive intellect; Plato distinguished
nous from
dianoia – discursive reason;
Nous is the second hupostasis of Plotinus; every intelligence is its own object, therefore the act of intellection always involves self-consciousness: the substance of intelligence is its noetic content (
noeton), its power of intellection (
nous), and its activity – the act of
noesis; in a macrocosmic sense,
Nous is the divine Intellct, the Second God, who embraces and personifies the entire noetic cosmos (Being-Life-Intelligence), the Demiurge of the manifested universe; such
Nous may be compared to Hindu
Ishvara and be represented by such solar gods as the Egyptian Ra;
nous is independent of body and thus immune from destruction – it is the unitary and divine element, or the spark of divine light, which is present in men and through which the ascent to the divine Sun is made possible.
(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..) purushaLiterally, "man;" the informing or shaping principle of creation; the "masculine" demiurge or fashioner of the universe; see "Prakriti (
Prakṛti)."
(more..) RamIn 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..) sadhakaA spiritual aspirant; one who endeavors to follow a method of spiritual practice.
(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..) shudraA member of the lowest of the four Hindu castes; an unskilled laborer or serf.
(more..) siddhiAccomplishment, fulfillment; one of the eight superhuman faculties; liberation.
(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..) 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..) vaishyaa member of the third of the four Hindu castes, including merchants, craftsmen, farmers; the distinctive qualities of the vaishya are honesty, balance, perseverance.
(more..) varnaCaste; class; the four major social divisions in Hindu society include (in descending order):
brāhmaṇas (priests),
kṣatriyas (royals and warriors),
vaiśyas (merchants and farmers), and
śūdras (servants and laborers); situated outside the caste system are the
caṇḍālas (outcastes and "untouchables") and
mlecchas (foreigners and "barbarians"); members of the three upper castes are called "twice-born" (
dvijā) and are permitted to study the
Vedas.
(more..) 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..) vidyaKnowledge; learning; wisdom.
(more..) vrataA vow; religious act of devotion. There are
vratas observed according to the
Vedas and the
Purāṇas.
(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..) duo sunt in homine"there are two (natures) in man," viz., the spiritual and the corporeal; a saying of St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica II.2, q.26, art.4.
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) Cogito ergo sum"I think therefore I am"; a saying of the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes (1596-1650).
(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..) pontifex“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.
(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..) Advaita "non-dualist" interpretation of the
Vedānta; Hindu doctrine according to which the seeming multiplicity of things is regarded as the product of ignorance, the only true reality being
Brahman, the One, the Absolute, the Infinite, which is the unchanging ground of appearance.
(more..) 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..) bhakta a follower of the spiritual path of
bhakti; a person whose relationship with God is based primarily on adoration and love.
(more..) bhakti the spiritual "path" (
mārga) of "love" (
bhakti) and devotion.
(more..) Brahmin "Brahmin"; a member of the highest of the four Hindu castes; a priest or spiritual teacher.
(more..) daimonin the ancient Greek religion,
daimon designates not a specific class of divine beings, but a peculiar mode of activity: it is an occult power that drives man forward or acts against him: since
daimon is the veiled countenance of divine activity, every god can act as
daimon; a special knowledge of
daimones is claimed by Pythagoreans; for Plato,
daimon, is a spiritual being who watches over each individual, and is tantamount to his higher self, or an angel; whereas Plato is called ‘divine’ by Neoplatonists, Aristotle is regarded as
daimonios, meaning ‘an intermediary to god" – therefore Arisotle stands to Plato as an angel to a god; for Proclus,
daimones are the intermediary beings located between the celestial objects and the terrestrial inhabitants.
(more..) Dhammapadaa collection of 423 verses, composed in Pali, giving the foundation of Buddhist moral philosophy; considered to be a central text of Shakyamuni Buddha’s teaching.
(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..) 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..) tapasAusterity; intense mental concentration; literally warmth, fire; self-denial; ascetic endeavour; keeping the mind one-pointed in the search of truth or an ideal.
(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..) 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..) 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..) gnosis(A) "knowledge"; spiritual insight, principial comprehension, divine wisdom.
(B) knowledge;
gnosis is contrasted with
doxa (opinion) by Plato; the object of
gnosis is
to on, reality or being, and the fully real is the fully knowable (
Rep.477a); the Egyptian Hermetists made distinction between two types of knowledge: 1) science (
episteme), produced by reason (
logos), and 2)
gnosis, produced by understanding and faith (
Corpus Hermeticum IX); therefore
gnosis is regarded as the goal of
episteme (ibid.X.9); the -idea that one may ‘know God’ (
gnosis theou) is very rare in the classical Hellenic literature, which rather praises
episteme and hieratic vision,
epopteia, but is common in Hermetism, Gnosticism and early Christianity; following the Platonic tradition (especially Plotinus and Porphyry), Augustine introduced a distinction between knowledge and wisdom,
scientia and
sapientia, claiming that the fallen soul knows only
scientia, but before the Fall she knew
sapientia (
De Trinitate XII).
(more..) humanismThe intellectual viewpoint increasingly prevalent in the West since the time of the Renaissance; it replaced the traditional Christian view of God as the center of all things by a belief in man as the measure of all things.
(more..) 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..) nousintelligence, immediate awareness, intuition, intuitive intellect; Plato distinguished
nous from
dianoia – discursive reason;
Nous is the second hupostasis of Plotinus; every intelligence is its own object, therefore the act of intellection always involves self-consciousness: the substance of intelligence is its noetic content (
noeton), its power of intellection (
nous), and its activity – the act of
noesis; in a macrocosmic sense,
Nous is the divine Intellct, the Second God, who embraces and personifies the entire noetic cosmos (Being-Life-Intelligence), the Demiurge of the manifested universe; such
Nous may be compared to Hindu
Ishvara and be represented by such solar gods as the Egyptian Ra;
nous is independent of body and thus immune from destruction – it is the unitary and divine element, or the spark of divine light, which is present in men and through which the ascent to the divine Sun is made possible.
(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..) creatio ex nihilo "creation out of nothing"; the doctrine that God Himself is the sufficient cause of the universe, needing nothing else; often set in contrast to emanationist cosmogonies.
(more..) ex nihilo "out of nothing"; see
creatio ex nihilo.
(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..) 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..) 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..) AwwalThe “First”; in Islam, al-Awwal is a divine Name, as in the Koranic verse, “He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward” (Sūrah “Iron” [57]:3).
(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..) barzakh Symbol of an intermediate state or of a mediating principle.
(more..) cit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) fiat luxIn Latin, “Let there be light” (see Gen. 1:3).
(more..) Haqq In Sufism designates the Divinity as distinguished from the creature (
al-khalq).
(more..) materia prima "first or prime matter"; in Platonic cosmology, the undifferentiated and primordial substance serving as a "receptacle" for the shaping force of divine forms or ideas; universal potentiality.
(more..) nousintelligence, immediate awareness, intuition, intuitive intellect; Plato distinguished
nous from
dianoia – discursive reason;
Nous is the second hupostasis of Plotinus; every intelligence is its own object, therefore the act of intellection always involves self-consciousness: the substance of intelligence is its noetic content (
noeton), its power of intellection (
nous), and its activity – the act of
noesis; in a macrocosmic sense,
Nous is the divine Intellct, the Second God, who embraces and personifies the entire noetic cosmos (Being-Life-Intelligence), the Demiurge of the manifested universe; such
Nous may be compared to Hindu
Ishvara and be represented by such solar gods as the Egyptian Ra;
nous is independent of body and thus immune from destruction – it is the unitary and divine element, or the spark of divine light, which is present in men and through which the ascent to the divine Sun is made possible.
(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..) Sirr In Sufism, designates the intimate and ineffable center of consciousness, the “point of contact” between the individual and his Divine principle.
(more..) sufi In its strictest sense designates one who has arrived at effective knowledge of Divine Reality (
Ḥaqīqah); hence it is said:
aṣ-Ṣūfī lam yukhlaq (“the Sufi is not created”).
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) adam In Sufism this expression includes on the one hand the positive sense of non-manifestation, of a principial state beyond existence or even beyond Being, and on the other hand a negative sense of privation, of relative nothingness.
(more..) Wahdah Stands ontologically between the Supreme Unity (
al-Aḥadiyah) and the Distinctive Uniqueness (
al-Wāḥidiyah).
(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..) AvalokitesvaraThe Bodhisattva of Compassion, companion of Amida Buddha, as personification of his virtue of compassion, along with
Mahāsthāmaprāpta (Seishi), the personification of wisdom.
(more..) bhakti the spiritual "path" (
mārga) of "love" (
bhakti) and devotion.
(more..) Bodhidharmathe 28th patriarch of Buddhism and the 1st patriarch of Zen, he is said to have brought the meditation school of Buddhism to China around 520 C.E. A legendary figure whose face is painted by many Zen masters. (His original name was Bodhi-dhana.)
(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..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(more..) DharmakaraSanskrit name for the Bodhisattva who through five aeons of practice perfected his Vows to establish an ideal land where all beings can easily attain Enlightenment. On completion of his Vows he became Amida Buddha and established the western Pure Land.
(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..) HonenFounder of the independent school of Pure Land (
Jodo) Buddhism in Japan. He maintained that the traditional monastic practices were not effective in the Last Age (
mappo) nor universal for all people, as intended by Amida’s Vow. He incurred opposition from the establishment Buddhism and went into exile with several disciples, including Shinran. His major treatise, which was a manifesto of his teaching, was
Senchaku hongan nembutsu shu (
Treatise on the Nembutsu of the Select Primal Vow, abbreviated to
Senchakushu).
(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..) MahayanaThe Larger Vehicle in contrast to the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle. It claimed to be more universal in opening Enlightenment to all beings, and inspired the emergence of the Pure Land teaching directed to ordinary beings—denoted as all beings in the ten directions. This tradition is characterized by a more complex philosophical development, an elaborate mythic and symbolic expression which emphasizes the cosmic character of the Buddha nature, and its inclusion of the key virtues of compassion and wisdom.
(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..) 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..) 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..) NagarjunaA Buddhist philosopher and saint usually placed in the beginning of the second century C.E. He taught
Śūnyavāda, meaning that all reality is empty of any permanent essence. His thought is central to Zen philosophy.
(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..) Original VowA term referring to the Vows of Amida, which indicate that he worked for aeons and aeons in the past. "Original" is also translated as "Primal," or "Primordial" to suggest an event in the timeless past of eternity.
(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..) ratio literally, "calculation"; the faculty of discursive thinking, to be distinguished from
intellectus, "Intellect."
(more..) ShinranShinran (1173-1262): attributed founder of the Jodo Shin school of Buddhism.
(more..) smrtiLiterally, "what is remembered;" in Hinduism, a category of sacred writings understood to be part of inspired tradition, but not directly revealed, including the
Upavedas ("branches of the
Vedas"), the
Vedāṃgas ("limbs of the
Vedas"), the
Śāstras (classical "textbooks"), the
Purāṇas (mythological tales), and the epics
Rāmāyaṇa and
Mahābhārata; in contrast to shruti (
śruti).
(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..) Theravadaan early form of Indian Buddhism translated as "The Teachings (or "way") of the Elders." As a historical religious tradition, it was formed soon after the death of the Sakyamuni Buddha. (This form of Buddhism is still practiced in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia.)
(more..) Tradition(as the term is used by "Traditionalists" and in the "Perennial Philosopy":) Divine Revelation and the unfolding and development of its sacred content, in time and space, such that the forms of society and civilization maintain a "vertical" connection to the meta-historical, transcendental substance from which revelation itself derives.
(more..) alter the "other," in contrast to the
ego or individual self.
(more..) cit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(more..) ex cathedra literally, "from the throne"; in Roman Catholicism, authoritative teaching issued by the pope and regarded as infallible.
(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..) pontifex“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.
(more..) RamaIn Hinduism, one of the names by which to call God. In sacred history, Rama was the hero king of the epic Ramayana, and is one of the ten avatars of Vishnu. The term is also a form of address among
sadhus(more..) RamaThe seventh incarnation (
avatāra) of Vishnu and the hero of the epic tale,
Rāmāyaṇa.
(more..) theologydivine science, theology,
logos about the gods, considered to be the essence of
teletai; for Aristotle, a synonim of metaphysics or first philosophy (
prote philosophia) in contrast with physics (
Metaph.1026a18); however, physics (
phusiologia) sometimes is called as a kind of theology (Proclus
In Tim.I.217.25); for Neoplatonists, among the ancient theologians (
theologoi) are Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod and other divinely inspired poets, the creators of theogonies and keepers of sacred rites.
(more..) 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..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
chit, "consciousness."
(more..) apokatastasis“Restitution, restoration”; among certain Christian theologians, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa, the doctrine that all creatures will finally be saved at the end of time.
(more..) avatara the earthly "descent," incarnation, or manifestation of God, especially of Vishnu in the Hindu tradition.
(more..) caritasSelfless “love”, as of God for man and man for God; human compassion for one’s neighbor; equivalent of Greek agapē.
(more..) creatio ex nihilo "creation out of nothing"; the doctrine that God Himself is the sufficient cause of the universe, needing nothing else; often set in contrast to emanationist cosmogonies.
(more..) Deo volenteIn Latin, literally, “God willing”, or “if God should so will”.
(more..) ex nihilo "out of nothing"; see
creatio ex nihilo.
(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..) 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..) 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..) pontifex“bridge-maker”; man as the link between Heaven and earth.
(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..) 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..) 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..) Yahweh a transliteration of the supposed pronunciation, now lost, of the sacred Name of God in the Hebrew Bible or Christian Old Testament; revealed to Moses on Sinai and often translated as "I am" or "the One who is" (
cf. Exod. 3:14).
(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..) alter the "other," in contrast to the
ego or individual self.
(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..) 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..) bhakti the spiritual "path" (
mārga) of "love" (
bhakti) and devotion.
(more..) chaitanyaSpirit, life, vitality.
(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..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(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..) ex nihilo "out of nothing"; see
creatio ex nihilo.
(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..) 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..) 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..) Junayd Named “the leader of the troop.”
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) ananda "bliss, beatitude, joy"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
chit, "consciousness."
(more..) 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..) 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..) darshanLiterally, “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..) darshanLiterally, “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..) darshanLiterally, “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..) darshanLiterally, “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..) dharmaTruth, Reality, cosmic law, righteousness, virtue.
(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..) 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..) mahatmagreat soul; sage (in Hinduism)
(more..) MahayanaThe Larger Vehicle in contrast to the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle. It claimed to be more universal in opening Enlightenment to all beings, and inspired the emergence of the Pure Land teaching directed to ordinary beings—denoted as all beings in the ten directions. This tradition is characterized by a more complex philosophical development, an elaborate mythic and symbolic expression which emphasizes the cosmic character of the Buddha nature, and its inclusion of the key virtues of compassion and wisdom.
(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..) 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..) purna svarajComplete self-rule; total autonomy; self-government.
(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..) samsaraLiterally, "wandering;" in Hinduism and Buddhism, transmigration or the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth; also, the world of apparent flux and change.
(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..) 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..) Sria prefix meaning “sacred” or “holy” (in Hinduism)
(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..) tirthankaraLiterally, "ford-maker;" a title for the twenty-four Jain masters who conveyed the principles of Jain belief over the centuries, the last of whom was Mahāvīra (6th century B.C.E.).
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) nafs The subtle reality of an individual, the “I.” As opposed to the spirit (
rūḥ) or to the intellect (
‘aql), the
nafs appears in a negative aspect, because it is made up of the sum of individual or egocentric tendencies. But a distinction is made between: 1.
an-nafs al-ḥaywāniyah : the animal soul, the soul as passively obedient to natural impulsions; 2.
an-nafs al-ammārah : “the soul which commands (to evil),” the passionate, egoistic soul; 3.
an-nafs al-lawwāmah : “the soul which blames,” the soul aware of its own 4.
an-nafs al-mutma’innah : “the soul at peace,” the soul reintegrated in the Spirit and at rest in certainty. The last three expressions are from the Qur’ān.
(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..) sattvathe quality of harmony, purity, serenity
(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..) 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..) AwwalThe “First”; in Islam, al-Awwal is a divine Name, as in the Koranic verse, “He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward” (Sūrah “Iron” [57]:3).
(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..) 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..) nousintelligence, immediate awareness, intuition, intuitive intellect; Plato distinguished
nous from
dianoia – discursive reason;
Nous is the second hupostasis of Plotinus; every intelligence is its own object, therefore the act of intellection always involves self-consciousness: the substance of intelligence is its noetic content (
noeton), its power of intellection (
nous), and its activity – the act of
noesis; in a macrocosmic sense,
Nous is the divine Intellct, the Second God, who embraces and personifies the entire noetic cosmos (Being-Life-Intelligence), the Demiurge of the manifested universe; such
Nous may be compared to Hindu
Ishvara and be represented by such solar gods as the Egyptian Ra;
nous is independent of body and thus immune from destruction – it is the unitary and divine element, or the spark of divine light, which is present in men and through which the ascent to the divine Sun is made possible.
(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..) alter the "other," in contrast to the
ego or individual self.
(more..) cit "consciousness"; one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
sat, "being," and
ānanda, "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(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..) iman"Faith" or "belief"; its objects are God, the angels, the revealed books, the prophets, the Last Day of Judgment, and God’s measuring out (qadar). Typically, these are summarized in creedal statements (
‘aqā’id) and rigorously defined in
kalām.
(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..) 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..) sat"Being;" one of the three essential aspects of
Apara-Brahma, together with
cit, "consciousness," and ananda (
ānanda), "bliss, beatitude, joy."
(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..) 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..) Advaita "non-dualist" interpretation of the
Vedānta; Hindu doctrine according to which the seeming multiplicity of things is regarded as the product of ignorance, the only true reality being
Brahman, the One, the Absolute, the Infinite, which is the unchanging ground of appearance.
(more..) 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..) 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..) basmalatraditional 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..) bhakti the spiritual "path" (
mārga) of "love" (
bhakti) and devotion.
(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..) 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..) japa "repetition" of a
mantra or sacred formula, often containing one of the Names of God; see
buddhānusmriti,
dhikr.
(more..) Laylat al-Qadrliterally, “Night of Power”; the night in the year 610 A.D. during which the Koran descended in its entirety into the heart of the Prophet Muhammad.
(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..) mua Japanese term used to describe a non-ego self. The goal in Zen is to become
mu-no-hito, a person without ego.
(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..) 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..) 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..) 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..) sattvathe quality of harmony, purity, serenity
(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..) 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..) 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..) tawakkulComplete “reliance” on God and “trust” that He alone is sufficient for all one’s needs.
(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..) vacare Deo literally, "to be empty for God"; to be at leisure for or available to God; in the Christian monastic and contemplative tradition, to set aside time from work for meditation and prayer.
(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..) yogaunion of the jiva with God; method of God-realization (in Hinduism)
(more..) zuhd Asceticism envisaged as a privation of sensory satisfactions.
(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..) barzakh Symbol of an intermediate state or of a mediating principle.
(more..) bast The expansion of the soul through hope or spiritual 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..) 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..) Haqq In Sufism designates the Divinity as distinguished from the creature (
al-khalq).
(more..) haybah Terror in face of the Divine Majesty.
(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..) Junayd Named “the leader of the troop.”
(more..) nafs The subtle reality of an individual, the “I.” As opposed to the spirit (
rūḥ) or to the intellect (
‘aql), the
nafs appears in a negative aspect, because it is made up of the sum of individual or egocentric tendencies. But a distinction is made between: 1.
an-nafs al-ḥaywāniyah : the animal soul, the soul as passively obedient to natural impulsions; 2.
an-nafs al-ammārah : “the soul which commands (to evil),” the passionate, egoistic soul; 3.
an-nafs al-lawwāmah : “the soul which blames,” the soul aware of its own 4.
an-nafs al-mutma’innah : “the soul at peace,” the soul reintegrated in the Spirit and at rest in certainty. The last three expressions are from the Qur’ān.
(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..) qabd A spiritual state following from fear of God; opposite of expansion (
al-basṭ).
(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..) 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..) suraa chapter or division of the Koran, the holy book of Islam. There are 114
sūar (plural) in the Koran.
(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..)