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Terms Used by Frithjof Schuon Editor’s Note Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) is the foremost expositor of the Sophia Perennis . His written corpus is thus like a living body of writings. The more one reads it the more it gives of itself to the reader. Schuon either says all there is so say about a given subject, rendering the reader passive, or he provides keys to unlock doors allowing the reader an active role, with the help of virtue, prayer and grace, to participate in the life of what is being said. There is, therefore, some risk in quoting Schuon out of context. The original context of a passage contributes to its ‘ barakah’ and shade of meaning. Also, it has been said, that the editor of Schuon is like someone working with gold leaf: that which he cuts out is gold as well as that which is left behind is gold. For these reasons I have provided the full chapter as a reference. In some cases adding other chapters and books, germane to a given subject, for further study. (The only exception being Echoes of Perennial Wisdom which is a book of random extracts, here page numbers are supplied.) Deon Valodia Cape Town June 2007 “All expression is of necessity relative, but language is nonetheless capable of conveying the quality of absoluteness which has to be conveyed; expression contains all, like a seed; it opens all, like a master-key; what remains to be seen is to which capacity of understanding it is addressed.” Frithjof Schuon [SW, Orthodoxy and Intellectuality] LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Books by Frithjof Schuon: CI – Christianity / Islam: Essays on Esoteric Ecumenicism DI – Dimensions of Islam EchPW – Echoes of Perennial Wisdom EH – The Eye of the Heart EPW – Esoterism as Principle and as Way FDH – From the Divine to the Human FS – The Feathered Sun FSR – Form and Substance in the Religions GDW – Gnosis: Divine Wisdom IFA – In the Face of the Absolute LAW – Light on the Ancient Worlds LS – Language of the Self LT – Logic and Transcendence PM – The Play of Masks RH – Road to the Heart RHC – Roots of the Human Condition SME – Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism SPHF – Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts SVQ – Sufism: Veil and Quintessence SW – Stations of Wisdom TB – Treasures of Buddhism THC – To Have a Center TM – The Transfiguration of Man TUR – The Transcendent Unity of Religions UI – Understanding Islam Other: EW – The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr FG – The Fullness of God, ed. James S. Cutsinger SCR – Studies in Comparative Religion SG – Sword of Gnosis, ed. Jacob Needleman SJ – Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies UT – Unanimous Tradition, ed. Ranjit Fernando 2 Absolute: “In the Absolute, I am not, and you are not, and God (in His personal determination) is not, because He (the Absolute) is beyond the reach of all word and all thought.” {Sri Ramakrishna} [LS, A View of Yoga] In relation to Intelligence, it will be said that the Absolute is the Self, which is expressed by the term Atma ; thus viewed, the Absolute is the Subject as such, the real and only Subject; extrinsically and combined with Maya , this Subject will be the root of all possible subjectivities, it will be the immanent “divine I.” [SME, Dimensions, Modes and Degrees of the Divine Order] If we were to be asked what the Absolute is, we would reply first of all that it is necessary and not merely possible Reality; absolute Reality, hence infinite and perfect, precisely; and we would add – in conformity with the level of the question asked – that the Absolute is that which, in the world, is reflected as the existence of things. Without the Absolute, there is no existence; the aspect of absoluteness of a thing is what distinguishes it from inexistence, if one may so put it. Compared to empty space, each grain of sand is a miracle. [FDH, The Interplay of the Hypostases] The Absolute, or the Essence, intrinsically comprises Infinitude; it is as the Infinite that it radiates. Divine Radiation projects the Essence into the “void,” but without there being any “going out” whatsoever, for the Principle is immutable and indivisible, nothing can be taken away from it; by this projection on the surface of a nothingness that in itself is inexistent, the Essence is reflected in the mode of “forms” or “accidents.” But the “life” of the Infinite is not only centrifugal, it is also centripetal; it is alternately or simultaneously – depending on the relationships envisaged – Radiation and Reintegration; the latter is the apocatastatic “return” of forms and accidents into the Essence, without nevertheless there being anything added to the latter, for it is absolute Plenitude. Moreover, and even above all, Infinitude – like Perfection – is an intrinsic characteristic of the Absolute: it is as it were its inward life, or its love which by overflowing, so to speak prolongs itself and creates the world. [SVQ, Hypostatic Dimensions of Unity] Only the definition of the Absolute as such is absolute, and every explanatory description belongs to relativity precisely on account of the differentiated nature of its content, which is not for that reason incorrect, to be sure, but rather, is limited and therefore replaceable; so that if one wishes to give an absolute definition of the Absolute, one has to say that God is One. “The testimony of Unity is one” ( At-Tawhidu wahid ), say the Sufis, and by this they mean that an expression, within the limits of its possibility, must be one with its content and its cause. [CI, Alternations in Semitic Monotheism] If God is the Absolute, there is nothing which could be He. God is continually suppressing whatever in creation appears to assume an absolute or infinite character. Were this not so, the relative would itself be God. [SPHF, Love and Knowledge] He who conceives the Absolute – or who believes in God – cannot stop short de jure at this knowledge, or at this belief, realized by thought alone; he must on the contrary integrate all that he is into his adherence to the Real, as is demanded precisely by Its absoluteness and infinitude. Man must “become that which he is” because he must “become That which is”; “the soul is all that it knows,” said Aristotle. [SME, Introduction: Epistemological Premises] The Absolute is not the Absolute inasmuch as it contains aspects, but inasmuch as It transcends them. [UI, The Quran Cf. GDW, The Sense of the Absolute in Religions] 3 Absolute / Infinite: In metaphysics, it is necessary to start from the idea that the Supreme Reality is absolute, and that being absolute it is infinite. That is absolute which allows of no augmentation or diminution, or of no repetition or division; it is therefore that which is at once solely itself and totally itself. And that is infinite which is not determined by any limiting factor and therefore does not end at any boundary; it is in the first place Potentiality or Possibility as such, and ipso facto the Possibility of things, hence Virtuality. Without All-Possibility, there would be neither Creator nor creation, neither Maya nor Samsara . The Infinite is so to speak the intrinsic dimension of plenitude proper to the Absolute; to say Absolute is to say Infinite, the one being inconceivable without the other. We can symbolize the relation between these two aspects of Supreme Reality by the following images: in space, the absolute is the point, and the infinite is extension; in time, the absolute is the moment, and the infinite is duration. On the plane of matter, the absolute is the ether – the underlying and omnipresent primordial substance – whereas the infinite is the indefinite series of substances; on the plane of form, the absolute is the sphere – the simple, perfect and primordial form – and the infinite is the indefinite series of more or less complex forms; finally, on the plane of number, the absolute will be unity or unicity, and the infinite will be the unlimited series of numbers or possible quantities, or totality. The distinction between the Absolute and the Infinite expresses the two fundamental aspects of the Real, that of essentiality and that of potentiality; this is the highest principial prefiguration of the masculine and feminine poles. Universal Radiation, thus Maya both divine and cosmic, springs from the second aspect, the Infinite, which coincides with All-Possibility. [SME, Summary of Integral Metaphysics] Absolute / Infinite / Perfection: On the one hand, the Absolute is “necessary” Being, that which must be, which cannot not be, and which for that very reason is unique; on the other hand, the Infinite is “free” Being, which is limitless and which contains all that can be, and which for that very reason is total. This reality, absolute and infinite, necessary and free, unique and total, is ipso facto perfect: for it lacks nothing, and it possesses in consequence all that is positive; it suffices unto itself. This means that the Absolute, as well as the Infinite which is as it were its intrinsic complement or its shakti , coincides with Perfection; the Sovereign Good is the very substance of the Absolute. [SME, Dimensions, Modes and Degrees of the Divine Order] The Absolute, imperceptible as such, makes itself visible through the existence of things; in an analogous manner, the Infinite reveals itself through their inexhaustible diversity; and similarly, Perfection manifests itself through the qualities of things, and in so doing, it communicates both the rigor of the Absolute and the radiance of the Infinite, for things have their musicality as well as their geometry. [CI, Atomism and Creation; Cf. SVQ, Hypostatic Dimensions of Unity] God is the Absolute, and being the Absolute, He is equally the Infinite; being both the Absolute and the Infinite, intrinsically and without duality, He is also the Perfect.
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