Buddhism Quote by Henry Corbin

““But again we must be careful to bear in mind that for Ibn Arabi fana is never absolute annihilation ( the failure to do so has been a source of countless misunderstandings in regard both to Sufismm and to Buddhism ). Fana and baqa are always relative terms. Accord- ing to Ibn Arabi, one must always state toward what there is annihilation, and wherein there is survival, persistence. In the state of fana, of concentration, of "Koran," in which the essential unity of Creator and Creature is experienced, the Divine Attributes become predicables of the mystic ( discrimi- nation is suspended ). Then we may say not only that the mystic "creates" in the same sense as God Himself creates ( that is to say, causes something which already existed in the world of Mystery to be manifested in the sensible world ), but in addi- tion that God creates this effect through him. It is one and the same divine operation, but through the intermediary of the gnostic, when he is "withdrawn" (fana) from his human at- tributes and when he persists, survives ( baqa' ) in his divine attributes. The mystic is then the medium, the intermediary, through whom the divine creative power is expressed and manifested.””

— Henry Corbin