HONR 101 - Final Prep: Vocabulary

sura

discourse (chapter)

aya

sign (verse)

diacritics

phonetic pronunciation

mukham

school of Arabic thought of one meaning

mutashabih

school of Arabic thought of many meanings

moksha [URGENT]

liberation from samsara, goal of schools of Indian Philosophy

Orthodox schools of Indian Philosophy

“Hindu” schools, consider the Vedas to be the source of knowledge

Sāṅkhya

OIP, non-theistic, dualistic, concerned with classifying the universe & nature

Yoga (school of thought)

OIP, like Sāṅkhya, but practice-oriented, personal God

Vedānta

OIP, monistic, impersonal God, concerned with rituals

Heterodox schools of Indian Philosophy

later, non-Hindu, reject Vedas as source of knowledge

Buddhism

HIP, non-self, non-dualistic

Kṣatriya [URGENT]

or “kshatriya”; elite warrior class, means “to fight”

Vyasa

“arranger, compiler”; possible author of Bhagavad Gita

śruti

authorless, divinely relayed, heard

smrti

a remembered text, human-created

kuladharma

timeless laws of family

dharma [URGENT]

respect for one’s caste/social duties

adharma

chaos, lawlessness

Brahman [URGENT]

highest reality, eternal consciousness and bliss, unchanging & cause of all changes, binding unity behind diversity

Ātman [URGENT]

self, soul; eternal, unchanging core of the human individual

samsara

reincarnation, cycle of birth & death

svadharma

caste duty, specific dharma in society

buddhi [URGENT]

insight, synonymous with jñāna (knowledge)

yoga [URGENT]

active, even-minded skillfulness, detachment from desire, focus, mental composure via discipline, commitment to eternal self

jñāna yoga [URGENT]

yoga of knowledge or wisdom

karma yoga [URGENT]

yoga of action or work

bhakti yoga [URGENT]

yoga of devotion, universally accessible

karman

attached action

yoga of action

sacrificial action, action as duty

yajña

to offer up

prakrti [URGENT]

forces of nature that make up the world, made of of three conditions (gunas); universe moves forward when gunas combine with external creative force (purusha)

sattva guna

source of potential consciousness, lightness, joy, pleasure; clarity, light, good health, binds through attachment to pleasure/knowledge

rajas guna

source of activity, dynamism, passion, stimulating, unstable; desire, craving, attachment to action

tamas guna

source of resistance to activity, restrictive obscurity, heaviness, inertia, indifference or delusion; dark inertia, ignorance, induces attachment to carelessness

gunas [URGENT]

psychological drives; strands of nature

action (karman)

consciously attached to the fruits of action & desire

action w/ non-action

delinquent yogi; absentmindedly attached to the fruits of action & desire

non-action within action

performing your svadharma or dharma; yoga of action; non-attached to the fruits of action

sanyasi practice

renunciate, jñāna-yoga practitioner, focused on study, asceticism

yogi practice

non-renunciate, karma-yoga practitioner, focused on pranayama, non-ascetic

pranayama

breath control

maya [URGENT]

veil of illusion; illusion of the reality/truth of the phenomenal finite world of experience; using gunas to create illusion of separating finite self from Brahman

purusha [URGENT]

spirit; cosmic first primordial man

principle of Karma

choices/actions in past lives and present life affect you in your future lives (after death and rebirth)

samskara

karmic impression, impact, imprint

achieving moksha

bhakti yoga over karma yoga and jñāna yoga (devotion over wisdom and action)

Om

sonic representation of the divine, Brahman as sound, primordial vibration of universe

unmanifest eternal state

meta-unmanifest, non-differentiated, Brahman

unmanifest world

potential manifest, non-material but on the cusp of material, the metaphorical soil of the material world, purusha

manifest world

material world, samsara, prakrti

Brahma

the creator

Vishnu

the preserver

Shiva

the destroyer

henotheistic

worshiping of a single God but not denying the existence or possible existence of other Gods

theopany

when a deity appears before a mortal

demonic ones

desire, anger, greed

sradha

faith

theory of forms

there is something more real than what our perceptions tell us; “forms” are the things that are real; the world around us is a copy of the “forms”

elenchus

conversation focused on breaking belief systems (i.e. contradictions in arguments)

dialectic

dialogue that tries to find the truth, to build a more proper understanding (opposite of elenchus)

aporia

the puzzle, the silence, the perplexity, when you cannot figure out which direction to go

eidos (or idea or form)

the standard, the most real and unchanging version of a thing (not an example)

philos

friend

echthros

enemy

epistemology

the study of knowledge

pre-socratics

philosophers that came before Socrates, obsessed with nature

apologia

defense speech

kalon

noble

sophists

teachers of virtue

daimonia

spiritual signs

platonic warrior

citizen philosopherga

gadfly

annoying gnat, used to describe Socrates

cantata

cantari, something that is sung

cyclicism

repeating the same musical idea across movements to create unity & a sense of return; three strophes of text (first two set to same music, third same melody but different character)

pedal point

a long sustained note under changing chords

conjunct melody

sung by baritone (deep tone) voice but the part later asks the soloist to sing higher & lower than a baritone (into tenor/bass registers)

strophic

melodic lines & rhythmic freedom

fanfare

a short and loud musical announcement played by brass and percussion to signal something important

fortuna

philosophical symbol for the unpredictability of fate

syncopation

rhythmic stress being placed “off” the beat/pulse of music; has effect of energetically driving the music forward

asymmetrical rhythm

a musical structure that uses unequal grouping beats within a measure

wasf

an Arabic style of love poetry that figuratively describes the beloved’s body parts, usually beginning at the head and working its way down

Mimetic desire

desire grows when you see other people want it

versets

parallelism between individual portions of a line (second verset may: advance a narrative, paraphrase, or intensify/elaborate on something from the first verset)

epithumia

yearning, longing, passion, sexual desire, lust

martus

witness

marturia

bear witness

ascetic

self-discipline, abstaining from worldly pleasures

catechumen

young convert before baptism

conventus

to come together

monastus

to live alone

matins

during the night, shortly after midnight

lauds

at dawn

vespers

about 6pm

1st category of approach to performance

style of music sung by virtues: monophonically, no instruments

2nd category of approach to performance

lament of souls: monophonic singing over instrumental drone

3rd category of approach to performance

patriarchs & prophets: organum - second verse replicates melody in parallel fashion, 2 melodic lines follow each other at a certain interval

4th category of approach to performance

improvised instrumental interludes

5th category of approach to performance

spoken text, the devil doesn’t have the gift of music