Individuality



Individual(ity)



Being - when understood from the metaphysical point of view[1] as individual - does not represent any (special) interest.

This is so because "the individual does in reality constitute but a relative and fragmented unity," far from constituting an autonomous, independant unity.


René Guénon adds concerning this point that "the individual - even if it were considered in all its possible extension to which it is susceptible, is not a total being, but only a particular state of the manifestation of a being, a state which is subject to certain conditions specified and determined by existence, and occupying a certain place in the indefinite series of the states of total being."


This explains why the Individual by its limitedness and tightness does not constitute - far from it we can say - a fundamental given for the metaphysical perspective, but (is) only a simple contingent[2], a very limited state regarding the hierarchy of the "multiple states of being."


...


It is advisable however, while speaking of being and its individual state, to distinguish or at least to consider that "corporal individuality in reality only is a limited portion or a simple modality of human individuality, and that this one - in its fullness - is susceptible to an indefinite development, which manifests itself in ways in which multiplicity is equally indefinite, however where its wholeness does only constitute a particular state of being (which is) situated fully at one and the same level of universal Existence." 


DRG211 ff



"We have seen that the individual ("I") in reality per se[3] is an illusory unity and that its reality takes from the higher states and lastly the highest unity, which is God. We have further seen that every being carries those higher states within itself, not consciously, or if it has trod the way of realisation, ever more consciously.
SS57: RG, Stufen des Seins





[1] the metaphysical point of view is also the universal point of view.

[2] contingent: dependent on conditions or occurrences, accidental 

[3] by itself; in itself; intrinsically



see also modernity, tradition, religion, intelligence, mysticism, Non-Duality, 

metaphysics, freedom of thought, creation, Non-Being, initiation, rites


More Texts And Explanations:

antitradition
creation
dualism
freedom of thought
his personal traits
index
individuality
initiation
intellect
intelligence
intuition
Islamic tradition
knowledge
metaphysical zero
metaphysics
metaphysics 2
modernity
mysticism
non-being
non-duality
religion
revelation
rites
role of spiritual master
sentimental
The Source - the Supreme Center
spiritual teachers
spiritual
sunnah
symbolism
tasawwuf
the end of time
tolerance
tradition


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