INDEX

advaita 31, 90 agnosticism 83 [^n7] ahankāra 42, 48 Akasha 23 Alexandrian Gnosticism 25 [^n10] angelic states 49, 70 [^n1] angels 49, 70 Aristotle 67 [^n3], 77–78 Asuras 71 atomist(s) 18, 23

Being (defined) 20 Brahma 81 Brahmā 12 [^n13] Brahmanda ('World Egg'), 67 [^n7] Buddhi 42, 50, 52, 82 [^n3]

Cartesian 'animal machines' 47 China 51 [^n7] Chuang Tzu 36–37, 89 [^n3]

darshana 51 Descartes 18, 40 [^n10], 56 [^n5] determinism 89 Devas 70 Dragon, Far-Eastern symbolism of 68 [^n10] dream state 35–36, 39, 41, 44, 76 dualism 56, 65 duality 32, 51, 90, 95

ens et unum convertuntur 91 [^n4] ens rationis 11 [^n10] ether 23 Euclidean geometry 14 [^n3]

Fiat Lux 68

Greece 23 [^n5] Greek 24 [^n8] gunas 64

hallucination 38 [^n7] Hindu doctrine 12 [^n13], 29 [^n6], 31, 42, 95 [^n15] symbolism 67 [^n7] tradition 50 [^n4], 67 [^n8], 71 Hiranyagarbha 67 [^n7]

immanentism 87 [^n1] India 23 [^n5], 51 [^n7] Islamic esoterism 28, 57 [^n1], 72 [^n8], 92 [^n6], 95 [^n15]

jīvan-mukta 73, 95 [^n15] jīvan-mukti 71

Khien 12 Khouen 12 knowledge, Aristotelian definition of 78

Leibnitz 14, 16–17, 38 [^n8], 91 [^n4] Logos, Platonic and Alexandrian 50

man, Aristotelian and Scholastic definition of 48 manas 42, 48 Manu 50 māyāvi-rūpa 36 metaphysics 17, 39, 42, 55, 69, 78, 80, 85 Moksha (Mukti) 71 Muhyi'd Din ibn al-'Arabī 72 n8, 83 n6 multorum in uno expressio 38 n8 Nārāyana 67 n8 Non-Being 20–27, 31–32, 34, 65, 90–91, 93–94 non-duality 31, 83, 90–91 ontogeny 44 ontology 34 pantheism 10 n9, 87 n1 phylogeny 44 Pascal 32 n1 polypsychism 44 positivists 83 n7 psychologists 29 n10, 41–43, 52 psychology 18, 27, 41–42, 54 n1 rationalism 84 reincarnationist hypothesis 44 Saint Thomas Aquinas 70 n2, 82 n2 Satchidānanda 84 Scholastic doctrine 82 n2 philosophers 11 n10, 50 n5 Shakti 12 n13 Shankarāchārya 73 n10, 79 n8 Spencer, Herbert 83 n7 subconscious 43 successive existences 44 superconscious 43 svechchhāchāri 95 tamas 68 Tao 37 n6 Taoist text 36 theology 69, 82 n5, 85 n12 transformism 44 transformist theories 45 universal Possibility 7, 9, 11–14, 17, 21, 44, 81, 83, 86, 90, 94 Upanishads 76 n2 Vaishvānara 78 Vedānta 81 videha-mukti 71 Vishnu 67 n8 Wahdat al-wujūd 28 wu-wei 93 Yoga 71 Yogi 71, 95 n15 Zero, metaphysical 24, 31–33, 90 René Guénon (1886-1951) was one of the great luminaries of the twentieth century, whose critique of the modern world has stood fast against the shifting sands of intellectual fashion. His extensive writings, now finally available in English, are a providential treasure-trove for the modern seeker: while pointing ceaselessly to the perennial wisdom found in past cultures ranging from the Shamanistic to the Indian and Chinese, the Hellenic and Judaic, the Christian and Islamic, and including also Alchemy, Hermeticism, and other esoteric currents, they direct the reader also to the deepest level of religious praxis, emphasizing the need for affiliation with a revealed tradition even while acknowledging the final identity of all spiritual paths as they approach the summit of spiritual realization.

The Multiple States of the Being is the companion to, and the completion of, The Symbolism of the Cross, which, together with Man and His Becoming according to the Vedanta, constitute René Guénon's great trilogy of pure metaphysics. In this work, Guénon offers a masterful explication of the metaphysical order and its multiple manifestations—of the divine hierarchies and what has been called the Great Chain of Being—and in so doing demonstrates how jñāna, intellective or intrinsic knowledge of what is, and of That which is Beyond what is, is a Way of Liberation. Guénon the metaphysical social critic, master of arcane symbolism, comparative religionist, researcher of ancient mysteries and secret histories, summoner to spiritual renewal, herald of the end days, disappears here. Reality remains.

The Collected Works of René Guénon brings together the writings of one of the greatest prophets of our time, whose voice is even more important today than when he was alive. Huston Smith, The World's Religions

In the exercise of the central function of restoring the great principles of traditional metaphysics to Western awareness this true jñānin gave proof of a universality of understanding that for centuries had had no parallel in the Western world. Frithjof Schuon, Language of the Self