Frithjof Schuon - Knowledge

1876:, in Arabic) – "the marrow of Islam" – is essentially "sincerity of faith". "On the doctrinal level" this sincerity arises from an "intellectual vision" which draws "from the idea of Unity its most rigorous consequences; its ultimate conclusion is not only the idea of the nothingness of the world but also that of supreme Identity". Patrick Laude underlines the distinction made by Schuon between a "quintessential", purely esoteric, Sufism and a "moderate" Sufism which, though tending towards esoterism, remains dependent on the exoteric mentality, whence a propensity to the "intensification of pious acts, emotional exteriorization, obediential zeal, and an inordinate emphasis on formal scruples and the perspective of fear". For Laude, "the most accurate and succinct definition" of quintessential Sufism – as of every other spirituality in its essential dimension – is "Schuon's fundamental doctrinal dyad, entailing discernment between the Absolute and the relative, along with the corresponding method of exclusive concentration on the Absolute". 2181:

and the world; it does not know that the supra-sensible, which is beyond space and time, is the concrete principle of the world, and that it is consequently also at the origin of that contingent and changeable coagulation called 'matter'". Thus, still according to Schuon, the contradiction of scientism is to "want to give an account of reality without the help of this initial science that is metaphysics, thus ignoring that only the science of the Absolute gives meaning and discipline to the science of the relative". This conception of a universe which ignores as much the principle of "creative emanationism" as much as that of the "hierarchy of the invisible worlds", has engendered "that most typical offspring of the modern spirit", the theory of evolution, with its corollary: the illusion of "human progress".

2229: 1368: 3202:"...it is thus as far removed as can be from intellectual contemplation and takes into consideration sentimentality only; on the other hand, sentimentality itself becomes degraded in proportion as it fulfils the needs of the masses, until it finishes up in a sickly sweet and pathetic vulgarity. It is strange that no one has understood to what a degree this barbarism of forms, which reached a zenith of empty and miserable boastfulness in the period of Louis XV, contributed — and still contributes — to driving many souls (and by no means the least) away from the Church; they feel literally suffocated in surroundings which do not allow their intelligence room to breathe." Schuon, 1386: 3114:"The origin of a creature is not a material substance, it is a perfect and non-material archetype: perfect and consequently without any need of a transforming evolution; non-material and consequently having its origin in the Spirit, and not in matter. Assuredly, there is a trajectory; this starts not from an inert and unconscious substance, but proceeds from the Spirit — the matrix of all possibilities — to the earthly result, the creature; a result which sprang forth from the invisible at a cyclic moment when the physical world was still far less separate from the psychic world than in later and progressively 'hardened' periods." Schuon, 2053:, the Absolute and the relative, God and the world; 2) concentration on the Real, and 3) intrinsinc morality, virtue. This discernment would remain purely mental in the absence of concentration on the Real through rites and prayer, i.e. without an effective link with God, the Sovereign Good, based on an authentic piety and sufficient detachment from the ego and from the world. The way towards God, as Schuon points out, "always involves an inversion: from outwardness one must pass to inwardness, from multiplicity to unity, from dispersion to concentration, from egoism to detachment, from passion to serenity." 2266:, which formerly was sacred, symbolical, spiritual", gave way to the advent of neo-classical art, with its naturalistic and sentimental character, which only responded "to collective psychic aspirations". Amugen, referring to Schuon, reports that art, having broken with tradition, became "human, individualistic, and therefore arbitrary", infallible signs of decline, and any desire to restore its sacred character must necessarily involve abandoning individualistic relativism in order to go back to its sources, which lie in the timeless and the immutable. 1947:. To the question "why invoke?", Schuon answers: "the most profound reason would no doubt be 'because I exist', for Existence is in a certain way the Word of God, by which He names Himself. God pronounces His Name in order to manifest Himself – to 'create' – in the direction of 'nothingness', and the relative being pronounces this Name in order to 'be', that is to say, to 'become once again what he is' in the direction of Reality". "The supreme Name", whatever the spiritual path practised, "is both metaphysical Truth and saving Presence". 2275:

prefiguration of the masculine and feminine poles". Schuon sees in the human body a "message of ascending and unitive verticality ; in rigorous, transcendent, objective, abstract, rational and mathematical mode" in man, "and in gentle, immanent, concrete, emotional and musical mode" in woman. As Patrick Laude points out, feminine beauty "plays a preponderant role in the spiritual alchemy that issues from the oeuvre and spiritual personality of Schuon". This role answers to "the highest expressions of gnostic Sufism", as evidenced by "

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that of the Sufis – signifies for Schuon not only "that God alone is real, in contrast to the world, which, being contingent, is illusory", but also "that no existence can be situated outside God, that everything that exists 'is not other than He', otherwise the world would not exist". Laude notes that this second meaning also emerges from the second testimony, which esoterically enounces the unitive relationship between "the conditioned and the Unconditioned, the relative and the Absolute".

259: 1276:), which combine metaphysics and spiritual counsel, as well as reminiscences of his life. Like the poems of his youth, these were written in his native German, following a series in Arabic and another in English. They are a poetic synthesis of his philosophical and spiritual message, which is articulated around four key elements: "truth, prayer, virtue and beauty". Less than two months before his death on May 5, 1998 at the age of 90, Frithjof Schuon wrote his last poem: 1976:, "Schuon emphasizes that the meaning of life is nothing less than the quest for God, for the Truth that resides within each of us; it is the return to the heart-consciousness of the Divine Presence." For Schuon, man is "a bridge between Earth and Heaven"; on the other hand, "the notion of the Absolute and the love of God constitute the very essence of subjectivity; this subjectivity is a proof both of immortality and of God; is, properly speaking, a theophany." 3027:"Some will no doubt point out that Buddhism proves that the notion of God has nothing fundamental about it, and that one can very well dispense with it both in metaphysics and spirituality. They would be right if the Buddhists did not possess the idea of the Absolute or that of transcendence, or that of immanent Justice with its complement, Mercy; this is all that is needed to show that Buddhism, if it does not possess the word for God — or if it does not possess 5896: 1923:(the heart) "is the existential and intellectual centre" of the human being, "the seat of the divine Presence and thus also of metaphysical certitude", and also, more commonly, the seat of faith. "It represents the Intellect with respect to both knowledge and love" and "thanks to the miracle of immanence, it opens onto the divine Self and onto the infinitude, both extinctive and unitive, of the knowable, hence of the Real". Thus truth ( 707:. Like them, he affirmed the reality of an absolute Principle – God – from which the universe emanates, and maintained that all divine revelations, despite their differences, possess a common essence: one and the same Truth. He also shared with them the certitude that man is potentially capable of supra-rational knowledge, and undertook a sustained critique of the modern mentality severed, according to him, from its 2219:

objective elements", which must respect the canonical rules specific to the religion of its author. The latter, according to Martyn Amugen quoting Schuon, must be "sanctified or in a state of grace" because the language of the sacred "cannot spring simply from profane tastes, nor from genius, but must proceed essentially out of religion", which "cannot be replaced, far less can it be surpassed, by human resources".

2073:; it reconciles the transcendence and the immanence of Truth, because if, on the one hand, Truth transcends us infinitely, the gnostic, asserts Schuon, knows that it is also "inscribed in an eternal script in the very substance of spirit"; God is both the highest and the deepest, and the knowledge the realized being has of God is in reality the knowledge that God has of Himself through that being. 1124: 979: 2110:

foreign to the whims of modernity. "Beauty, whatever use man may make of it, belongs fundamentally to its Creator, Who thereby projects into the world of appearances something of His Being." For Schuon, these considerations find their source and justification in the theomorphic nature of man, a changeless, non-evolutive nature, contrary to what modern science may think.

2337:, Schuon remarks "how contemptible is the neo-pagan and atheistic cult of the body and of nudity. What is in itself noble in nature is good for us only in its function as a support for the supernatural; cultivated apart from God, it readily loses its nobility and becomes a humiliating fatuity, as the stupidity and ugliness of worldly nudism precisely prove". 1079: 1471:. For Patrick Laude, a perennialist author is "one who claims the universality and primordiality of fundamental metaphysical principles and the perennity of the wisdom that actualizes these principles in man, as expressed in all great revelations and major teachings of sages and saints throughout the ages". 3061:"It is true that metaphysical truth transcends all forms, and thus all religions by definition; but man is a form, and he cannot attain to the non-formal except from within form; otherwise religions would not exist. The religious form must be transcended within religion itself, in its esoterism." Schuon, 1332: 2109:

To the awareness of divine beauty must correspond not only inner beauty, that is to say virtues, but also the sense of outer beauty, whether in the contemplation of nature or in artistic sensibility, without forgetting the interiorizing role of a traditional home ambiance made of beauty and serenity,

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For Schuon, humility, charity and veracity, that is to say effacement of the ego, gift of self and attachment to truth, are essential virtues, corresponding to the three stages of the spiritual path: purification, expansion and union. Moreover, the sense of our littleness, the sense of the sacred and

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In 1991, one of Schuon's followers accused him of misconduct during collective gatherings. A preliminary investigation was begun, but the chief prosecutor concluded that there was no proof, noting that the plaintiff was of extremely dubious character and had been previously condemned for making false

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Schuon did not consider his affiliation to Islam as a conversion, since he did not disavow Christianity; in each revelation he saw the expression of one and the same truth, in different forms. But for him, in the Guenonian perspective that he held at the time, Western Christianity no longer seemed to

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regarding the spiritual significance of nudity, Jean-Baptiste Aymard quotes this excerpt from a letter by Schuon: "Given the spiritual degeneration of humanity, the highest possible degree of beauty, which belongs to the human body, could not play a part in ordinary piety; however this theophany may

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vision of the human condition and the universe took shape, before it affected the other continents a few centuries later. By reducing man more and more to his rational and animal aspects, to the detriment of his spiritual dimension and the purpose of earthly life, modernism has influenced philosophy

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Although Schuon considers that the foundations of any spiritual path are truth, prayer and virtue, he also insists upon the importance of a fourth element: beauty. For him, the interiorization of beauty presupposes nobility of character and at the same time produces it. Its function "is to actualize

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is the envoy of God"), which enounces "metaphysical, cosmological, mystical and eschatological Truth". Summarizing Schuon, Laude notes that the first testimony means theologically or exoterically that there is only one God, and metaphysically, that He is the only reality. This latter meaning –

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Thomas Yellowtail remained Schuon's intimate friend until his death in 1993, visiting him every year and adopting him into the Crow tribe in 1984. During these sojourns, Schuon and some of his followers organized what they called "Indian Days", in which Native American dances were performed, leading

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In 1949 Schuon married Catherine Feer, a German Swiss with a French education who, besides being deeply interested in religion and metaphysics, was also a gifted painter. He received Swiss citizenship shortly after his marriage. While always continuing to write, Schuon and his wife travelled widely.

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Summarizing Schuon, Scott reminds us that nudity represents the norm – primordial man was naked, primitive peoples are also naked – and that it "symbolizes quintessential esoterism , the Truth unveiled", the ordinary garment then representing exoterism. In his biography of Schuon, after

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For Schuon, there are ultimately only two possibilities: "integral, spiritual civilization, implying abuses and superstitions, and fragmentary, materialistic, progressivist civilization, implying – quite provisionally – certain earthly advantages, but excluding that which constitutes the sufficient

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In the human being (the microcosm) the five degrees, ordered inversely, correspond to the body and the sensorial, mortal soul (5); the supra-sensorial, immortal soul (4); the created spirit (or intellect) (3); the uncreated spirit (or intellect) (2); the absolute and infinite Self (1). The presence

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and logician", versed in "comparative religion", in "traditional art and civilization", as well as in "the science of man and society"; he is also known as "a critic of the modern world in not only its practical but also its philosophical and scientific aspects". In his writings, Schuon's principal

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Echoing Schuonian thought, Cutsinger notes that the various forms of sacred art have as their object the "transmission of intellectual intuitions", thus conferring "a direct aid to spirituality", and he notes that this art "is able to transmit simultaneously metaphysical truths, archetypal values,

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Regarding modern science, in spite of the scale of its discoveries on the physical plane, Schuon reproaches it for being "a totalitarian rationalism, which eliminates both Revelation and Intellect, and at the same time a totalitarian materialism, which ignores the metaphysical relativity of matter

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Schuon emphasizes that the exoteric and esoteric rites of the religion practised – and of that one alone – are the basis for the spiritual method. Prayer is its central element, for without it – and without divine grace – the heart cannot assimilate or realize what the mind has been able to grasp.

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The esoteric perspective is not reducible to a conceptual understanding, since it is essentially an intellective and "existential" conformity to Reality or a spiritual and moral assimilation of the nature of things. As Frithjof Schuon has often reminded us, to know is to be. Lived esoterism is, at

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is above all to be without the fault that is contrary to it, for God created us virtuous. He created us in His image; faults are superimposed. Moreover, it is not we who possess virtue, it is virtue which possesses us. Virtue is like a reverberation of the Sovereign Good, in which we participate

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Author of a study on human theomorphism in Schuon's oeuvre, Timothy Scott notes this initial comment by Schuon: "The distinction between the Absolute and the Infinite expresses the two fundamental aspects of the Real, that of essentiality and that of potentiality; this is the highest principial

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In his writings, Schuon insists that the two requirements of doctrine and method would remain inoperative without a third element, virtue, since the spiritual path must necessarily integrate the three fundamental human faculties, namely intelligence (doctrine, truth, discernment), will (method,

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ambiguity because of the passional nature of man; but there is not only the passional nature, there is also the gift of contemplativity, which can neutralize this, as is precisely the case with "sacred nudity". Thus there is not only the seduction of appearances, there is also the metaphysical

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is "humility as the absence of all egocentricity and an emptiness for God." Schuon sees "spiritual virtue par excellence" in this attitude of "holy poverty" or "effacement", an attitude that implies "detachment, sobriety, patience, contentment", "resignation to the Will of God and trust in His

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vesture". This art communicates "on the one hand, spiritual truths and, on the other hand, a celestial presence". James Cutsinger emphasizes that, for Schuon, an art is sacred "not through the personal aims of the artist, but through its content, its symbolism, and its style, that is, through

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painters, for example, "were monks who, before setting to work, prepared themselves by fasting, prayer, confession, and communion", in order to overcome the two pitfalls that threaten every artist: "a virtuosity tending towards the outward and the superficial, and a conventionalism without

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Throughout his life, Schuon had great respect for and devotion to the Virgin Mary, and expressed this in his writings. As a result, his teachings and paintings are imbued with a particular Marian presence. His reverence for the Virgin Mary has been studied in detail by American professor

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Schuon's criticism extends to philosophy – "the love of wisdom" – which was originally the fact of "thinking according to the immanent Intellect and not by reason alone". It "is the science of all fundamental principles". It operates with intellectual intuition – intellection – "which

3101:"Esoterism, with its three dimensions of metaphysical discernment, mystical concentration and moral conformity, contains in the final analysis the only things that Heaven demands in an absolute fashion, all other demands being relative and therefore more or less conditional." Schuon, 1786:

As did Plato in ancient Greece, Adi Shankara in Hinduism, Meister Eckhardt and St Gregory Palamas in Christianity and Ibn Arabī in Islam – to name some examples –, Schuon attests that the essential discernment in metaphysics is that between the Real and the non-real (the illusory),

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to indicate that this is not a matter of "philosophy" in the standard and approximative meaning of the word – suggesting mere mental constructions springing from ignorance, doubt, and conjectures, indeed from the taste for novelty and originality – or we could also use the term

2069:), which "is already a death and a meeting with God and places us already in Eternity; it is already something of Paradise and even, in its mysterious and 'uncreated' quintessence, something of God". This form of prayer is the invocation of a divine name, a sacred formula, a 3176:"A sacred work of art has a fragrance of infinity, an imprint of the absolute. In it individual talent is disciplined; it blends with the creative function of the tradition as a whole; this cannot be replaced, far less can it be surpassed, by human resources." Schuon, 2296:

be a support in esoteric spirituality, and this is shown in the sacred art of the Hindus and the Buddhists. Nakedness signifies inwardness, essentiality, primordiality and consequently universality ; the body is the form of the Essence and thus the essence of form".

3127:"We live in a scene-shifter's world in which it has become almost impossible to make contact with the primordial realities of things; prejudices and reflexes dictated by an irreversible slide intervene at every step; it is as if before the Renaissance or the 1783:

of the three superior degrees in man "made in the image of God" confers upon him the possibility of a knowledge that transcends the limitations of subjectivity, thus in principle allowing him to "see things as they are", that is, objectively: this is gnosis.

1467:, "the central idea of the perennial philosophy is that Divine Truth is one, timeless and universal, and that the different religions are but different languages expressing that one Truth" – hence the title given by Schuon to his first book in French, 2096:

notes that perfect virtues coincide with metaphysical truths; they realize these truths existentially. In other words, as Schuon points out: "truth is necessary for the perfection of virtue, just as virtue is necessary for the perfection of truth".

3084:), and on the other, that God himself pronounces his Name in himself, hence in eternity and outside all creation, so that his unique and uncreate word is the prototype of jaculatory prayer and even, in a less direct sense, of all orison." Schuon, 792:). His father, an amiable and distinguished man, was a concert violinist, and the household was one in which not only music but literary and spiritual culture were present. The Schuons, themselves raised as Catholics, brought their sons up as 1859:

There is therefore continuity between exoterism and esoterism when the latter appears as the inner dimension of the former and consequently adopts its "language", and there is discontinuity when esoterism transcends all religion: this is the

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some to accuse him of practising ritual nudity. These gatherings were understood by disciples as a sharing in Schuon's personal insights and realization, not as part of the initiatic method he transmitted, centered on Islamic prayer and the

874:, which served to confirm his intellectual intuitions and provided support for the metaphysical principles he had begun to discover. Schuon would later say of Guénon that he was "the profound and powerful theoretician of all that he loved". 2057:

Schuon recalls the three modes of prayer: personal prayer in which the worshipper opens himself spontaneously and informally to God; canonical, impersonal prayer, prescribed by his tradition; and invocatory prayer or "prayer of the heart" (

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wrote: "I have met with no more impressive work in the comparative study of Oriental and Occidental religion." All his subsequent works – more than twenty – would be written in French, apart from a major reworking in German of the text of

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prayer, concentration) and soul (character, virtue, moral conformity). For Schuon, virtue is indeed "the initial form of spiritual union; without it, our knowing and our willing are of no use to us." According to him, to have a virtue

1864:, the timeless, essential, primordial and universal esoterism. It constitutes "the transcendent unity of religions" and is based, methodically, on one of the revelations while having as its object the one Truth common to all of them. 1953:(spiritual poverty) is "simplicity and purity of soul, rendering possible" the actualization of faith or gnosis "by conferring upon it the sincerity without which no act is valid". For Laude, commenting on the Schuonian perspective, 3013:

Schuon reminds us that the distinction "Beyond-Being/Being" only applies in metaphysics, and never in the relationship between man, as a contingent subject, and God. William Stoddart, "Lossky's Palamitism in the Light of Schuon",

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and an esoteric dimension. This religious esoterism is qualified as "relative" by Schuon, to differentiate it from "absolute" or "quintessential" esoterism, which is neither limited nor totally expressed by a particular religious

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school. Living in Paris also gave him the opportunity to be exposed to various forms of traditional art to a much greater degree than before, especially the arts of Asia with which he had had a deep affinity since his youth.

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Frithjof Schuon was born in Basel, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, on 18 June 1907. He was the younger of the two sons of Paul Schuon and Margarete Boehler, both of whom were of German origin (the former from

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formalism"; and 3) "universal", in that it "encompasses all intrinsically orthodox symbolism" and "can therefore be combined with any religious language". For him, pure metaphysics can be summarized by the following

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In an altogether general way, nudity expresses – and virtually actualizes – a return to the essence, the origin, the archetype, thus to the celestial state: "And it is for this that, naked, I dance", as

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and esoteric, and based on intellection supported by revelation. Just as the path of love cannot do without good works and reverential fear, so the esoteric or metaphysical path cannot exclude the two other modes.

870:; this call of Hinduism sustained him for ten years, though he was perfectly aware that he could not become Hindu himself. In 1924, while still living in Mulhouse, he discovered the works of the French philosopher 1271:

Schuon continued to receive visitors and maintain a correspondence with followers, scholars and readers. At the very end of his life, he wrote a major collection of over three thousand lyrical "teaching-poems"

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and had the opportunity to witness many aspects of their sacred traditions. During the first of these visits, Schuon and his wife were adopted into the Sioux family of Chief James Red Cloud, grandson of Chief

1284: 1242:, Schuon became known, through his many books, articles and letters, "as the principal spokesman of the intellectual current sometimes referred to in English speaking countries as perennialism", or the 3189:"... it even happened that the colours were mixed with holy water and the dust from relics, as would not have been possible had the icon not possessed a really sacramental character." Schuon, 1021:, who were planning to incorporate all soldiers of Alsatian origin into the German army to fight on the Russian front. Schuon escaped to Switzerland, which was to be his home for forty years. 994:. This was confirmed, he later related, by visionary dreams that several of his disciples reported having had the same night. The differences of perspective between Schuon and the Mostaganem 1795:. He emphasizes that the Real, or Beyond Being, which is absolute and infinite, is the essence of all good (the Sovereign Good). As St Augustine reminds us, it is in the nature of the Good ( 1260:

statements in another similar affair in California. The prosecutor declared that there were no grounds for prosecution, and the local press made amends. Some articles and books, including

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encompasses all practices directed towards God, Harry Oldmeadow emphasizes that Schuon, when he speaks of Sufism, always uses this term in its highest sense: the invocation of the name "

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Schuon cultivated close relationships with a large number of personages of diverse religious and spiritual horizons. He had a particular interest in the traditions of the North American

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offer the possibility of following a "path of knowledge" under the guidance of a spiritual master, whereas such a path was still open within the framework of Sufism, Islamic esoterism.

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Schuon reminds us that religious or spiritual life offers three fundamental paths, which correspond to as many human temperaments: 1) the path of action, works, asceticism, fear (the

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One night towards the end of 1936, after a spiritual experience, Schuon sensed, without a shadow of a doubt, that he had been invested with the function of spiritual master, of

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principles; a science that is immutable like these principles themselves, and primordial by the very fact of its universality and infallibility. We would readily use the term

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took possession of his being, and that for three days he could do nothing but invoke it ceaselessly. Shortly afterwards, he learned that his Sheikh had died on the same day.

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According to Schuon, the path of knowledge or of gnosis, which is present at the heart of every religion, is essentially: 1) discernment between the Real and the illusory,

1943:". According to Laude, this rite – subject to authorization –, is considered by Schuon, in accordance with the Sufi tradition, to be "the central practice of 1089:

Between 1950 and 1975, the couple visited Morocco about ten times, as well as numerous European countries, including Greece and Turkey, where they visited the house near

933:. The Sheikh gave him initiation and named him `Īsā Nūr ad-Dīn. However, Schuon was soon forced to return to Europe under pressure from the French colonial authorities. 1588:

Schuon characterizes "pure" metaphysics as 1) "essential", i.e. "independent of all religious formulation"; 2) "primordial", namely "the truth that existed before all

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entering the baptismal pool naked, he praised God that He had not put into human beauty just a cause of downfall, but also an opportunity for elevation towards God.

1933:(remembrance, mention, invocation) is for Schuon "the actualization of faith or gnosis by means of the sacramental word", whose seat is the heart. Although the word 1145:

The 1970s saw the publication of three works considered as particularly important by his biographers composed of articles previously published in the French journal

5677: 2228: 5584: 1229: 927:. Schuon saw the sign of his destiny in these encounters, and embarked for Algeria. In Mostaganem he entered Islam, and spent nearly four months in the Sheikh's 2971:

This was also the case for the investiture of Sheikh al-Alawī – Schuon's master –, since Sheikh al-Būzīdī had not designated a successor. Jean-Baptiste Aymard,

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For Laude, it is not the notion of the "transcendental unity of religions" that primarily characterizes Schuon's teaching, but rather "a reformulation of the

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Thus it was that in 1959 and again in 1963, at the invitation of their Indian friends, the Schuons journeyed to the American West, where they visited various

6073: 919:, the great port of departure for the East. There he made the acquaintance of two key personages, both of them disciples of Sheikh Ahmad al-Alawī, a Sufi in 2408:, Routledge, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1986, 1989, 1993; World Wisdom, 1994, 1998, 2003; new translation with selected letters, foreword by 1385: 5838: 2106:

in the intelligent and sensitive creature the recollection of essences, and thus to open the way to the luminous Night of the one and infinite Essence".

1005:, where he met Guénon, with whom he had been in correspondence for 7 years. In 1939, he embarked for India with two disciples, making a long stopover in 837:. Schuon would later say that in his early youth four things had always moved him most profoundly: "the holy, the great, the beautiful, the childlike". 5902: 6579: 1209:, where there was already a large community of disciples. The first years in Bloomington saw the publication of a number of important works including 6955: 6211: 2372:, Faber & Faber, 1954; Perennial Books, 1969; new translation, Perennial Books, 1987; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2007 6136: 6131: 3074:"The most diverse traditions agree in this, that the best support for concentration and the best means to obtain Deliverance at the end of the 1434:

ramifications, spirituality in the broadest sense, intrinsic morals and aesthetics, traditional principles and phenomena", religions and their

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tradition than was contained in the book. He asked his American friends to seek out the old chief. Following this initiative, the ethnologist

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word — in any case possesses the reality itself. 'Extinction' or the 'Void' is 'God' subjectivized; 'God' is the objective 'Void'." Schuon,

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of metaphysical doctrine, along with the necessity of practising a religion; he also insists on the importance of the virtues and of beauty.

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Notes on the Light of the Eastern Religions, with Special Reference to the Writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy, René Guénon, and Frithjof Schuon

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on military service in the French army, Schuon settled in Paris. There he resumed his profession as a textile designer, and began to study

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transparency of phenomena which permits us to perceive the archetypal essence through the sensory experience. When the saintly bishop

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Summarizing Schuon's thought, Seyyed Hossein Nasr reminds us that it was in Europe, during the Renaissance, that the "modernist" or

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is the invocation of a revealed Divine Name. The foundation of this mystery is, on the one hand, that 'God and his Name are one' (

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Scott, Timothy (2004). "The Elect and the Predestination of Knowledge: ‘Esoterism’ and ‘Exclusivism’: A Schuonian Perspective" in

6940: 6066: 6038: 6026: 6294: 2779: 2363: 6620: 5816: 6935: 5998: 2682:, Allen & Unwin, 1968; Unwin Hyman, 1989); World Wisdom, 1993; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2018 803:, who remained a lifelong friend. From the age of ten, his search for truth led him to read not only the Bible but also the 770:

tribe. Having spent a large part of his life in France and Switzerland, at the age of 73 he emigrated to the United States.

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Timothy Scott, "The Elect and the Predestination of Knowledge: ‘Esoterism’ and ‘Exclusivism’: A Schuonian Perspective" in

1120:, where 60 Sioux were giving performances on the theme of the Wild West. New friendships were made on this occasion also. 911:. His desire to leave the West, whose modern values were so contrary to his nature, combined with his growing interest in 343: 171: 5804: 1821:). Every good offered by the world comes from the radiation of the Sovereign Good, every evil comes from Its remoteness. 2378:, Perennial Books, 1959, 1978; revised, Perennial Books 1990; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2006 6399: 6191: 6173: 6126: 6105: 6059: 731:

and other metaphysicians, Schuon sought to affirm the metaphysical unity between the Principle and its manifestation.

258: 1039:

by John G. Neihardt, Schuon, who had always been deeply interested in the North American Indians, was convinced that

6706: 5798:

Quintessential Esoterism and the Wisdom of Forms: Reflections on Frithjof Schuon's Intellectual and Spiritual Legacy

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Coomaraswamy R., Cutsinger J., Laude P., Lings M., Nasr S.H., Oldmeadow H., Perry M., Smith H., Stoddart W. Video:

830: 1078: 6960: 6896: 5090:, World Wisdom, 2006, pp. 19 (relativism), 51 (individualism), 109 (atheism), 118 (scientism), 136 (evolutionism) 752: 611: 5973: 5971: 1228: 6886: 6237: 5762: 1373: 1094: 963:, thus authorizing him to initiate aspirants into the Alawī brotherhood. Returning to Europe, Schuon founded a 708: 670: 520: 5548: 1100:

In the winter of 1953, Schuon and his wife travelled to Paris to attend performances organized by a group of

690:

and art, which have been translated into English and many other languages. He was also a painter and a poet.

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of Mostaganem, where Sheikh Adda ben Tounes, Sheikh al-Alawī's successor, conferred on him the function of

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In 1920, Schuon's father died and his mother decided to return with her young sons to her family in nearby

6856: 6806: 6801: 6767: 6635: 6462: 6452: 6284: 6046: 5103:, World Wisdom, 2005, pp. 3 (skepticism), 47 (progressivism), 49 (existentialism, empiricism, agnosticism) 2424:, Harper & Row, 1975; Perennial Books, 1984; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2009 857:

monastery, and Schuon left school in order to provide for the family, finding work as a textile designer.

565: 6891: 6640: 6559: 5562: 2706:, World Wisdom, 1992; new translation with selected letters, edited by Patrick Casey, World Wisdom, 2012 2385: 1243: 1169:, who relates the two episodes in 1965 when Schuon experienced an especial Marian grace. Hence the name 679: 378: 180: 2193:", hence the abyss that separates the certainty of the sage from the opinion of the modern philosopher. 1660:, basing himself on the Sufi doctrine of the degrees of reality, known as "The Five Divine Presences": 5977: 5668: 2418:, Perennial Books, 1965; World Wisdom, 1984; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2006 6985: 6970: 6930: 6925: 6871: 6747: 6681: 6630: 6625: 6554: 6544: 5979: 5616: 3128: 2022: 1206: 928: 850: 703: 683: 604: 482: 308: 242: 176: 96: 6762: 5654:

Oldmeadow, Harry (2012). "Frithjof Schuon on Culturism + Frithjof Schuon on Eastern Traditions", in

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man had not been wholly man, or as if in order to be man it were necessary to have passed by way of

229: 6831: 6742: 6701: 6178: 6143: 5775:"Nigra sum sed Formosa (I am Black but Beautiful)": Death and the Spiritual Life in Frithjof Schuon 5604: 3160: 2881: 2795: 2787: 2689: 2437: 1656:

the illusory, the relative, manifestation. Schuon develops this metaphysical principle, notably in

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also became prominent advocates of this intellectual current. According to the perennialist writer

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through our nature or through our will, easily or with difficulty, but always by the grace of God.

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The traditionalist or perennialist spiritual perspective was initially enunciated in the 1920s by

1051:

collected from Black Elk the description of the seven Sioux rites which would form the content of

6841: 6696: 6457: 6229: 6082: 6003: 5659: 2916: 2761: 2539: 2409: 1580:, conceived as the conjunction of a metaphysical doctrine and a means of spiritual realization". 834: 5932: 5912: 5645:

Oldmeadow, Harry (2004). "The Heart of the Religio Perennis: Frithjof Schuon on Esotericism" in

2946: 1500: 877: 686:. He was the author of more than twenty works in French on metaphysics, spirituality, religion, 560: 5779:

Vol. 20 (2007) dedicated to Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) on the Occasion of his Birth Centenary

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James Cutsinger, "Colorless Light and Pure Air: The Virgin in the Thought of Frithjof Schuon",

1017:

broke out, forcing him to return to Europe. Serving in the French army, he was interned by the

853:. One year later, when he was 14, he was baptized as a Catholic. In 1923 his brother entered a 6811: 6757: 6676: 6600: 5880: 5870: 5767:

Frithjof Schuon and Sri Ramana Maharshi: A survey of the spiritual masters of the 20th century

5745: 5698: 3762: 3681: 3285: 2876: 2783: 2481: 2388:, Ganesh Madras, 1959; Select Books Bangalore, 1998; revised and augmented, World Wisdom, 1999 2316:

saint, said after having found the Divine Self in her heart. To be sure, in nudity there is a

2092:

piety are indispensable conditions for the blossoming of the virtues. Summarizing the author,

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As did his own sheikh, Ahmad al-Alawī, with regard to the Darqāwīyyah tariqa. Martin Lings,

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when referring to the operative side of this wisdom, thus its mystical or initiatic aspect.

1464: 1460: 1035: 800: 762:, maintaining firm friendships with a number of their leaders and being adopted into both a 747: 637: 535: 510: 500: 50: 1927:) "must not be accepted with the mind alone but with the Heart, thus with all that we are". 446: 6866: 6861: 6277: 6262: 6257: 6042: 6030: 5985:

Early influences on Frithjof Schuon's understanding of the transcendent unity of religions

5690: 5588: 5552: 2926: 2891: 2886: 2841: 2739: 2719: 2093: 1623: 1611: 1475: 1431: 1268:, discuss this event and the related "primordial" practices of the Bloomington community. 1166: 724: 477: 413: 2359: 4226:

Harry Oldmeadow, "The Heart of the Religio Perennis, Frithjof Schuon on Esotericism" in

2430:, Perennial Books, 1981, 1990; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2019 2049: 6796: 6772: 6752: 6732: 6267: 6148: 6024:

Frithjof Schuon Swiss metaphysician, theologian and philosopher Oxford University Press

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as much as religion, science or art. According to Schuon, its main characteristics are

1710: 1180: 1134: 759: 735: 585: 505: 466: 6023: 5743:“Signposts to the suprasensible”: Notes on Frithjof Schuon's understanding of “Nature” 2607:, introduction by William Stoddart, foreword by Annemarie Schimmel, World Wisdom, 2006 2601:, introduction by William Stoddart, foreword by Annemarie Schimmel, World Wisdom, 2006 2595:, introduction by William Stoddart, foreword by Annemarie Schimmel, World Wisdom, 2006 2589:, introduction by William Stoddart, foreword by Annemarie Schimmel, World Wisdom, 2006 2206:

Along with Ananda Coomaraswamy and Titus Burckhardt, Frithjof Schuon reminds us that "

6919: 6686: 6610: 6584: 6518: 5538: 2951: 2901: 2861: 2816: 2697: 2643: 2614: 2497: 2474:, World Wisdom, 1989, 1994; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2014 2394:, John Murray, 1961; Perennial Books, 1980; new translation, World Wisdom, 1995, 2003 2263: 2251: 2153: 1261: 1239: 975:. He resumed his profession as a textile designer in Alsace for the next four years. 907:, which would be published in 1935 and later translated into English under the title 810: 793: 763: 540: 441: 366: 31: 5601:

Religion of the Heart: Essays presented to Frithjof Schuon on his eightieth birthday

1607:

is real, the world is illusory, the individual soul is not different from Brahman).

6876: 6821: 6645: 6574: 6330: 6315: 6153: 5905: 5863: 5855: 5847: 5788:"Standing Unshakably in the True": A Commentary on the Teachings of Frithjof Schuon 5611:, Washington D.C.: Foundation for Traditional Studies (1991). Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2931: 2896: 2871: 2866: 2836: 2821: 2799: 2749: 2523: 2519: 2292: 2288: 2233:

Cover of an illustrated anthology of Schuon's writings on art, edited by his wife:

2157: 2137: 2124: 1678: 1677:: Beyond-Being, Impersonal Divinity, Supreme Principle, Absolute Reality, Essence, 1505: 1427: 1391: 1109: 1014: 720: 687: 525: 408: 204: 6508: 5831: 5735:

Formal Diversity, Essential Unity: Frithjof Schuon on the Convergence of Religions

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Keys to the Beyond: Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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Keys to the Beyond, Frithjof Schuon's Cross-Traditional Language of Transcendence

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He settled in Lausanne, where he continued contributing to the Guénonian journal

6737: 6661: 6467: 5783: 5780: 3081: 2326: 2309: 2247: 2169: 2133: 2129: 1994: 1973: 1548: 1414: 1101: 1063: 944:, he experienced an extraordinary spiritual event. He said that the divine Name 888: 767: 675: 451: 313: 298: 196: 192: 78: 2490:, World Wisdom, 1990; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2015 2462:, World Wisdom, 1985; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2008 2446:, World Wisdom, 1982; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2013 1666:

Degrees 1 and 2, taken together, correspond to God, the Principle, the Absolute

1610:

The metaphysics expounded by Schuon is based on the doctrine of what the Hindu

701:, Schuon is recognized as one of the major 20th-century representatives of the 6666: 6569: 6488: 6403: 6247: 5987: 5962: 5954: 2911: 2259: 2211: 2207: 2165: 2145: 2141: 2000: 1980: 1509: 1422: 1186: 920: 916: 805: 575: 570: 403: 398: 393: 373: 200: 5751: 5729: 5683:

Remembering in a World of Forgetting: Thoughts on Tradition and Postmodernism

1842:

For Schuon, integral metaphysics – which starts from the distinction between

1504:", etc. Schuon points out that primordial wisdom is expressed in the work of 6727: 6615: 6549: 6493: 6442: 6310: 6252: 6242: 5557:

Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon

5338:

Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon

5247:

Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon

5033:

Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon

4910:

Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon

4676:

Advice to the Serious Seeker: Meditations on the Teaching of Frithjof Schuon

4213:

Patrick Laude, "Remarques sur la notion d’ésotérisme chez Frithjof Schuon",

3132: 3075: 2851: 2276: 2161: 2025:

and exoteric, and are based on revelation, whereas the path of knowledge is

1879:

Schuon considers that "the whole of Sufism summed up in these four words:

1760:

4. Subtle or animic manifestation: the world of the soul and the "spirits" (

1733: 1455:

and in the 1930s by Frithjof Schuon. The metaphysicians and art specialists

1139: 1113: 1040: 854: 728: 555: 550: 461: 423: 383: 338: 323: 288: 5681:

Stoddart, William (2008). "Frithjof Schuon and the Perennialist School" in

940:

Schuon reported that one night in July 1934, while immersed in reading the

5930:

Colorless Light and Pure Air: The Virgin in the Thought of Frithjof Schuon

799:

At primary school, Schuon met the future metaphysician and art specialist

17: 6564: 6503: 6498: 6422: 6320: 5794:

Beauty and the Sense of the Sacred: Schuon's Antidote to the Modern World

5469:

Timothy Scott, "“Made in the Image”: Schuon's theomorphic anthropology",

5456:

Timothy Scott, "“Made in the Image”: Schuon's theomorphic anthropology",

5414:

Timothy Scott, "“Made in the Image”: Schuon's theomorphic anthropology",

5018:

Timothy Scott, "“Made in the Image”: Schuon's theomorphic anthropology",

4843:

Jesús García-Varela, "The Role of Virtues According to Frithjof Schuon",

4616:

Jesús García-Varela, "The Role of Virtues According to Frithjof Schuon",

3140: 3136: 2436:, World Wisdom, 1981; new translation with selected letters, foreword by 1990: 1913: 1834: 1556: 1517: 1418: 1205:

In 1980, Schuon and his wife emigrated to the United States, settling in

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Frithjof Schuon, par "l'amour qui meut le soleil et les autres étoiles"

4817:

Patrick Laude, "Remarks on Esoterism in the Works of Frithjof Schuon",

4661:

Patrick Laude, "Remarks on Esoterism in the Works of Frithjof Schuon",

2313: 2215: 2173: 2043: 1904: 1816: 1715: 1604: 1594: 1117: 1090: 924: 865: 333: 283: 100: 6014:

Frithjof Schuon: Collection of excerpts on philosophers and philosophy

2663:

Images of Primordial & Mystic Beauty: Paintings by Frithjof Schuon

998:

gradually led to Schuon's assuming independence, supported by Guénon.

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Vol. 4, N° 2 (1998) In Memory: Frithjof Schuon. Seyyed Hossein Nasr,

2026: 2006: 1744: 1174: 1018: 1010: 991: 972: 896: 892: 789: 785: 739: 472: 328: 293: 3475:

Huston Smith, "Providence Perceived: In Memory of Frithjof Schuon",

3464:

Black Elk, Lakota Visionary. The Oglala Holy Man and Sioux tradition

1815:) and "earthly", the latter including the domain of transmigration ( 849:, France, where Schuon became a French citizen, consequent upon the 5695:

American Gurus: From American Transcendentalism to New Age Religion

5533: 5403:

The Transcendental Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

5390:

The Transcendental Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

5377:

The Transcendental Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

5299:

The Transcendental Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

5273:

The Transcendental Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

5260:

The Transcendental Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

5205:

The Transcendental Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

3652:

Frithjof Schuon Messenger of the Perennial Philosophy, World Wisdom

3048:

In fact, "the second extends from exoterism to esoterism". Schuon,

2768:

Letters of Frithjof Schuon: Reflections on the Perennial Philosophy

2140:, which reduces the spiritual and the intellectual to the psychic, 1636:) is the Self, both transcendent and immanent; in correlation with 6380: 6370: 6365: 6335: 5663:

Oldmeadow, Harry (2019). "Gnosis: A Perennialist Perspective", in

4713:

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "Frithjof Schuon et la tradition islamique",

3156: 2227: 2065: 1939: 1773: 1765: 1738: 1589: 1513: 1384: 1366: 1252: 1227: 1122: 1077: 1044: 1006: 1002: 977: 945: 912: 876: 822: 817: 712: 74: 6018: 5574:

Pathways to an Inner Islam: Massignon, Corbin, Guénon, and Schuon

5530:

The Transcendent Unity of Religions and the Decline of the Sacred

4934:

Ali Lakhani, "A Commentary on the Teachings of Frithjof Schuon",

4804:

Ali Lakhani, "A Commentary on the Teachings of Frithjof Schuon",

4765:

Ali Lakhani, "A Commentary on the Teachings of Frithjof Schuon",

4548:

Ali Lakhani, "A Commentary on the Teachings of Frithjof Schuon",

2526:, 1997; new translation with selected letters, World Wisdom, 2021 2242:

historical facts, spiritual states, and psychological attitudes".

1726:

Degrees 3 to 5 correspond to manifestation, the cosmos, creation:

6711: 6605: 6360: 6350: 6340: 6163: 4062:

William Stoddart, "Lossky's Palamitism in the Light of Schuon",

3148: 3144: 2802:, and many others) which dealt with religious symbolism and the 2220: 2059: 1761: 1644:

designates the Real, the Absolute, the Principle, Beyond Being,

1527:, Schuon comments on the three notions of perennial philosophy ( 6397: 6055: 5583:, Albany/NY: State University of New York Press, presentation: 1708:"): Being, Personal God, creating Principle, uncreated Spirit, 1520:

and several other representatives of quintessential esoterism.

1426:

themes are "essential and hence universal metaphysics with its

2287:

noting the convergences of views that unite Schuon, Rūzbehān,

2132:, which denies the possibility of a supra-rational knowledge, 212: 646: 4036:

Jean Biès, "Frithjof Schuon et la primordialité hindoue" in

3734: 3730:

News articles on Schuon's 1991 legal ordeal can be found on

1539:) to show both their concordance and their particularities: 6009:

Frithjof Schuon and the message of the Perennial Philosophy

2778:

Schuon was a frequent contributor to the quarterly journal

2299:

In an interview published in 1996 by the American magazine

1478:, this primordial truth or wisdom has "carried many names: 5910:

Some Thoughts on Reading Frithjof Schuon's Writings on Art

5894:

Frithjof Schuon's Role in Preserving the Red Indian Spirit

2730:

Prayer Fashions Man: Frithjof Schuon on the Spiritual Life

1958:

Mercy"; it is "like an anticipation of extinction in God".

1855:

its apex, the wisdom in which being and knowing coincide.

1555:, designates the science of the fundamental and universal 1009:, where he saw Guénon again. Shortly after his arrival in 649: 643: 6008: 2657:

The Feathered Sun: Plains Indians in Art & Philosophy

2478:

The Feathered Sun: Plains Indians in Art & Philosophy

4717:

Journal, Numéro Hors Série Frithjof Schuon, 1999, p. 124

3719:

Frithjof Schuon: The Shining Realm of the Pure Intellect

3665:

Frithjof Schuon: The Shining Realm of the Pure Intellect

2382:

Language of the Self: Essays on the Perennial Philosophy

2136:, according to which only matter gives meaning to life, 1999:); and 3) the path of gnosis, of unitive contemplation ( 30:"Schuon" redirects here. For the German footballer, see 3708:

Journal, Numéro Hors Série Frithjof Schuon, 1999, p. 61

2659:, introduction by Thomas Yellowtail, World Wisdom, 1990 1779:

5. Gross or material manifestation: the visible world.

5802:“Made in the Image”: Schuon's theomorphic anthropology 2774:, introduction by Catherine Schuon, World Wisdom, 2022 2460:

Christianity/Islam: Perspectives on Esoteric Ecumenism

5952:

Origins of the Perennial Philosophy School of Thought

5945: