Knowledge of the Sacred
According To to S H Nasr
From His Book 'Knowledge And The Sacred'
Control-Questions And Answers:
( for those numbers see below at NB )
The answers are quotes from the book 'Knowledge And The Sacred'
What was Reality in the beginning at once? KS1 o
What has happened with knowledge over time? KS1-11
What has become well-nigh unattainable to the vast majority of humans? KS1-7
What is is the very substance of knowledge? KS1-2
Intelligence is endowed with the possibility of what?KS2+3
What is is symbolized by the tree of Life, and
What happened to man after having tasted from the Tree of Good and Evil? KS2+10
What remains the supreme way to gain access to the Sacred? KS2+18
Modern man has lost the sense of what? KS2-8
To what mystery has man become oblivious to? KS2-3
What is man's long journey in time? KS3+15
With what continues the human conciousness to be blessed? KS3+18
What is the principle of adequation of the medieval scholastics? KS49fn6
What can happen to the rational faculty if divorced from intellect and revelation? KS3-2
How can man be defined - rather than being a 'rational animal' ? KS4+6
What is to be human? KS4+7
What is the supreme Substance ? KS4+9
To what is the supreme Substance related? KS4+11
This intellectual faculty has been replaced by what? KS4+13
What has to be discovered in order to rediscover the Sacred? KS4+17
How can this process be facilitated? KS4+18
What was the consequence of the reduction of intellect to reason ? KS4-9
What was the consequence of the limitation of intelligence to cunning and cleverness in the modern world? KS4-10
What was theologia for Plato? KS49fn7
What possibility has the traditional doctrine envisaged man to be possessing? KS6+9
What has the reduction of man's intellectual faculty to only the extroverted and analytical function of the mind led many religiously sensitive persons? KS6+16
What is the relationship of faith and knowledge ? KS6-17
How does Shankara explain the Upanishads (lit. 'near-sitting')?KS7+2
What was the supreme experience of Buddha and what does it imply? KS7-12
What is the gnostic or illuminated sage called (in Islam) KS12+10
Paul asserted sacred knowledge to be one of Christ's what? KS15-7
What happened during the last 2000 years to this sapiential dimension of the Christian tradition ?KS16+1
How can a mind totally depleted of the Sacred grasp the significance of the Sacred as sacred? KS16+18
What is the central depository of sacred knowledge for Origen? KS17-1
What is (according to him) the function of spiritual beings (concerning sacred Scripture)? KS18+9
What is the spiritual life of man? KS18+12
What makes it possible for man to grasp the inner meaning of scripture and to become illuminated by this knowledge ? KS18+14
What is the Logos? KS18c KS21+6
What is hermeneutics ? KS18-8
What does the 'kiss of his mouth' from the songs of songs (OT) allude to? KS19c
What change of perspective took place in Christianity concerning the role of the Christ? KS19-19
What did St. Augustine (in spite of Christianity's emphasis of Christ's role as the saviour of fallen man from his sins) accept concerning the intellect? KS19-13
What elements of later Western Christian thought does one not find with St. Augustin? KS19-7
What did Erigena see at the heart of Christianity? KS20-3
Why is divine knowledge no longer immediately available to man, although the Logos is ever present in him? KS21+11
ST21: In wisdom psychology and religion become united and wisdom is a virtue common to man and angel.
What is the Logos? KS21+6
Through what does this light of God remain accessible (and available) to man even now-a-days? KS21+15
What saw Erigena in the book of nature? KS21-18
What is the beginning of human perfection and the quest for the attainment of sacred knowledge according to Erigena? KS21-14
What happens to scientia after this first stage? KS21-12
What does this illumination in turn enable man to realize concerning the essence of things? KS21-9
The intellect becomes transformed into what? KS21-7
Why is this knowledge of the Divinity [sacred knowledge] not immediately accessible to man in his present state, according to Erigena? KS21-5
What has the soul to do to regain that sacred knowledge? KS21-1
What were the drawbacks of the metaphysical system of St. Thomas? KS22-12
The philosophical agnosticism after St. Thomas could not have come about had the intellectual life of Christianity remained impregnated by what? KS23+9
In this context Eckhart, is what? KS23cl
Why is - according to Eckhart - the root of the intellect grounded in Divinity? KS23-14
What is the seat of conciousness through which man can reach knowledge of the Divinity (or Grund) according to Eckhart? KS23-12
What is , according to Eckhart the eye with which man sees God and with which God sees man? KS23-3
What is humanism ? KS24-14
The knowledge [of the Divinity] can be attained - according to Cusa except through what? KS25-9
What realization does Cusa's doctrine constitute concerning our "positive knowledge"? KS26+2
What did Luther state concerning faith? KS26cl
But Christian love is (or can be) related to knowledge through what? KS26+19
What is man's natural language according to Böme? KS27-3
Answers:
KS1o In the beginning Reality was at once being, knowledge,
and bliss or qudrah, Hikma, and rahma
KS1-11 it has become separated from being, bliss
or extasy which characterizes the union of
knowledge and being.
KS1-7 knowledge and bliss, which is an aspect of
the perfume of the Sacred
KS1-2 it is the knowledge of that reality, which
is the supreme Substance, the Sacred as such
KS2+3 it is endowed with the possibility of knowing the Absolute
KS2+10 The fruit of the Tree of Life symbolizes
unitive knowledge (see KS49fn3), but by tasting
the Tree of Good and Evil, man came to see things as
externalized in a state of otherness and separation.
The vision of duality blinded him to the primordial
knowledge which lies at the heart of his intelligence.
KS2+18 knowledge - and sacred knowledge remains the
supreme path of union with that Reality wherein
knowledge, being and bliss are united.
KS2-8 he has lost the sense of wonder
which results from his loss of the sense of the Sacred
KS2-3 that he can turn inwardly upon the infinite
world within himself and also objectivize the
world outside, to possess inner subjective knowledge
as well as knowledge of a totally objective order
KS3+15 It is none other than the history of
forgetfulness with occasional reversals of the downward
flow; the latter are brought about by divine
intervention in the cosmic and historical process
KS3+18 with the possibility of contemplating Reality...
KS49fn6 that knowledge comes out in so far as the object
known is within the knower
KS3-2 the rational faculty can become a luciferan [satanic] force
KS4+6 He can be defined as being endowed with a total
intelligence centered upon the Absolute
and created to know the Absolute.
KS4+7 It is to know and to transcent one-self
KS4+9 It is at once the source of all that comprises
the objective world and the supreme Self which shines at
the center of human consciousness.
KS4+11 it is related to intelligence as the sun is related
to its rays
KS4+13 it has been replaced by reason
KS4+17 the sacred quality of principal knowledge
KS4+18 by tracing the trajectory which knowledge followed
in its fall from being the fruit of the Tree of Life to
becoming limited to the realm of profane knowledge
KS4-9 sacred knowledge (did not only) become inaccessible and to + some even meaningless, but it also destroyed that natural
theology (sapientia by Plato)
KS4-10 it destroyed that natural theology, which in the
Christian context represented at least a reflection of
knowledge of a sacred order, of the wisdom or sapientia which
was the central means of spiritual perfection and deliverance.
KS49fn7 It was the highest form of philosophy which was to
know the Supreme Good through the intellect.
KS6+9 of knowing things in principle and the principles of all
things leading finally to the knowledge of Ultimatel Reality.
KS6+16 it has lead them to take refuge in faith alone, leaving belief or doctrinal creed to the mercy of ever-changing paradigms or theories caught in the progress of relativization and constant transformation.
6-17, x answer cc
KS7+2 faith is inseparable from knowledge
KS7+2 as that science or knowledge of Brahma, which 'sets to
rest' or destroys what appears as the world along with the ignorance
which is its root. The cause of all separation, division, otherness, and
ultimately suffering is ignorance (avidyā)
and the cure is knowledge.
KS7-12 illumination, which implies knowledge. (Its beginning is
the) 'birth of awareness that all things are void.'
cc 7+12
KS12+10 al-`arif bi-llah, which means in the gnostic who knows
through or by God and not only the gnostic who knows God.
KS15-7 to be one of Christ's precious gifts, to be sought
earnestly by those qualified to receive and to transmit it.
KS16+1 it gradually eclipsed, ... leading to the secularization
of the concept of knowledge itself.
KS17-1 it is sacred Scripture which nourishes the soul of man
and provides for his need to know.
KS18+9 it is to discover (the) inner meaning of revealed truth,
and to use their intelligence in the contemplation of spiritual realities.
KS18+12 it is none other than the gradual development of the power
of the soul to grasp the spiritual intelligence of Scripture which like
Christ himself, feeds the soul.
KS18+14 it is the presence of the Logos in the heart of man and at
the root of his intelligence.
KS18c it is the illuminator of souls or the light which makes intellectual vision possible.
(fn le logos est présent, en l'homme, chez qui il
est l'intelligence. Parcequ'il se trouve à la fois
en Dieu et en l'homme, comme en deux extrémités,
il peut les relier et il le fait… Lumiere de l'object et du sujet,
intermediare de vision ...)
KS18-8 it is the science of penetration into the inner meaning of
sacred Scripture on the basis of a veritable sciencia sacra (sacred
knowledge) and with the aid of an intelligence which is already
illuminated by the Word or Logos.
KS19c it alludes to the transmission of inner knowledge through
that organ which is endowed with the power to invoke his Name and to
utter his Word (dhikr)
KS19-19 from Christ as source of knowledge and the illuminator of
the human mind (to the role) as the saviour of man from his sins
KS19-13 he accepted the innate power of the intellect as given by God
to man to receive divine illumination. To think the truth man needs
illumination which proceeds from God.
KS19-7 the antithesis between knowledge and faith
KS20-3 (it was) a sacred knowledge or wisdom which was for him ... the
authentic philosophy: 'true religion is true psychology'.
KS21+11 because man has become separated from God...The men of this
age can no longer 'speak to God' and see things
in divinis
as did Adam in paradise or as did men in the Golden Age.
KS21+6 it is not only .. the origin of revealed truth (but also) the
source of sacred knowledge here and now; (ie. in the beginning w a s
the Word and in the beginning i s the [everpresent] Word)
KS21+15 it is accessible through Scripture and nature.
KS21-18 (he saw in it) the means of discovering that sacred
knowledge which lies within the very substance of human microcosm.
KS21-14 it begins with the awareness of the human mind.
KS21-12 it becomes transformed into sapientia and the soul of man
becomes illuminated by God, who ... contemplates Himself in those whom
He has illumined. fn Trouillard, J.
KS21-9 that the very essence of things is Gods knowledge of them and
that there is a reciprocity and finally, identity between knowledge
and being.
KS21-7 the intellect becomes transformed into what it knows, and the
highest object of that knowledge is God.
KS21-5 before the fall man possessed knowledge of everything
in divinis, in an inward manner as reflected in and
reflecting God. But after the fall his knowledge became externalized.
KS21-1 the soul must pass through eight stages.
KS22-12 it tended to become overrationalistic in imprisoning
intuitions of a metaphysical order in syllogistic categories.
KS23+9 impregnated by gnosis; had not the reality of knowledge as
theosis become transformed into the question of using
rational knowledge to preserve faith from being corroded or weakened
by the attacks of rationalism...
KS23cl he is the most powerful and majestic expression of
Christian gnosis in the medieval period.
KS23-14 (because) the intellect is
i n c r e a t u s
and
i n c r e a b i l i s ( ie. uncreated and not to be created)
KS23-12 it is the spark in the soul = das Seelenfünklein
KS23-3 this eye is none other than that supernal intellect or intelligence
which relates man to the Sacred in a direct manner and which enables
knowledge to become the central means of access to the Sacred.
KS24-14 it is ignorance s.p.112, 181, 212, 258
KS25-9 except through being experienced and tasted (lat. sapere)
KS26+2 that our "positive knowledge" is ignorance, so he
confirms the wisdom that .. all limited and limiting knowledge
i s ignorance.
KS26cl he emphazised faith above everything else
(as love in Catholicism)
KS26+19 through union which is the goal of both love and knowledge,
so is faith related to knowledge through the fact that without some
knowledge there cannot be faith, for were there no knowledge one
could just have faith in just anything and the object of faith
would not matter.
KS27-3 it is at once the language of paradise and the essential
knowledge of all things.
NB:
KS = Knowledge And The Sacred, Seyyed Hossein Nasr; NY. 1989
KS3+2 = page 3; row 2 from above
KS4-9 = page 4; row 9 from bottom
- More texts by [S. H. Nasr]