المفاهيم
Fundamental concepts
The metaphysical framework of the commentary, to know before the board: where we come from, what brings things into being, the degrees of being, extinction and subsistence.
knowledge
The divine knowing in which all things are known before they are: the origin of everything, within the thought of God.
non-being
The absence of being of one's own. The creature, in itself, is nothing; it holds only through the One who sustains it.
the unmanifested
That which is possible but has not yet come into existence: a reality waiting within the knowledge of God.
existence, being
Real being. Strictly speaking, it belongs to God alone; the creature receives only a reflection of it, a loan.
the existent
That which actually exists: the creature insofar as it has received being.
the journeying
The march of the soul through the degrees: not a movement in space, but a transformation of being.
the degrees of being
Being is not flat: from the most subtle (the Essence) to the most dense (the mineral), a hierarchy of reality that the traveller ascends.
the stations
The stable dwellings, acquired through effort and kept: patience, contentment, certainty… One abides in them.
the states
The passing gifts that descend upon the heart without our prompting: fear, joy, contraction. They come and go — we do not possess them.
extinction
The effacement of the self: ceasing to see oneself act, so as to see only God at work. Not the disappearance of being, but of the pretension of the self.
subsistence
After extinction, to subsist through God: to return to the world, living by His life, acting without claiming the act as one's own.
the interworld
The threshold between two worlds: neither one nor the other, the place of passage where realities become images.
the invisible world
The world of subtle realities, of angels and hidden meanings, behind the visible.
the world of power
The degree of the divine attributes and power, between the divine world and the invisible kingdom.
the divine world
The degree of pure Lordship, beyond all form.
the human world
The sensible, bodily world, where the way is walked concretely, day after day.
The four servanthoods
The same human being may believe himself free while serving his desire, his image or his comfort. The way leads from an unconscious servanthood to a lucid servanthood before God.
Servant through existence
Every creature depends on God in its very being: it does not hold itself by itself.
Servant through worship
The one who knows himself to be a servant, and freely submits to the divine order.
Servant of subsistence
Dependent on the gifts received — bread, health, goods — which he sometimes believes to be his own.
Servant of the world and passion
The one who believes himself free while obeying his desire, his image, his ambition.