Frithjof Schuon
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Frithjof Schuon (June 18, 1907 – May 5, 1998) was a metaphysician, poet, painter, Sufi, and a leading figure of traditional metaphysics. Along with René Guénon and Ananda Coomaraswamy, Schuon is regarded as one of the three founders of the Traditionalist School.
Frithjof Schuon is best known as the foremost spokesman of the religio perennis and as a philosopher in the metaphysical current of Shankara and Plato. Over the past 50 years, he has written more than 20 books on metaphysical, spiritual and ethnic themes as well as having been a regular contributor to journals on comparative religion in both Europe and America. Schuon's writings have been consistently featured and reviewed in a wide range of scholarly and philosophical publications around the world, respected by both scholars and spiritual authorities. A considerable number of scholars of religion today who work with religious pluralism and esoteric mysticism regard Schuon as one of their most influential teachers.
| Frithjof Schuon | |
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| Born | June 18, 1907 Basle, Switzerland |
| Died | May 5, 1998 Bloomington, Indiana, USA. |
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[edit] Biography
Schuon was born in 1907 in Basle, Switzerland, of German parents. As a youth, he went to Paris, where he studied for a few years before undertaking a number of trips to North Africa, the Near East and India in order to contact spiritual authorities and witness traditional cultures. Following World War II, he accepted an invitation to travel to the American West, where he lived for several months among the Plains Indians, in whom he had always had a deep interest. Having received his education in France, Schuon has written all his major works in French, which began to appear in English translation in 1953. Of his first book, The Transcendent Unity of Religions (London, Faber & Faber) T.S. Eliot wrote: "I have met with no more impressive work in the comparative study of Oriental and Occidental religion."
[edit] The Transcendant Unity of Religions
The traditionalist or "perennialist" perspective began to be enunciated in the 1920s by the French philosopher Rene Guenon and, in the 1930s, by the German philosopher Frithjof Schuon. The Harvard orientalist Ananda Coomaraswamy and the Swiss art historian Titus Burckhardt also became prominent advocates of this point of view. Fundamentally, this doctrine is the Sanatana Dharma--the "eternal religion"--of Hindu Vedantists. It was formulated in ancient Greece, in particular, by Plato and later Neoplatonists, and in Christendom by Meister Eckhart (in the West) and Gregory Palamas (in the East), and is also to be found in Islam in the form of Sufism. Every religion has, besides its literal meaning, an esoteric dimension, which is essential, primordial and universal. This intellectual universality is one of the hallmarks of Schuon's works, and it gives rise to many fascinating insights into not only the various spiritual traditions, but also history, science and art. The dominant theme or principle of Schuon's writings was foreshadowed in his early encounter with a Black marabout who had accompanied some members of his Senegalese village to Switzerland in order to demonstrate their culture. When the young Schuon talked with him, the venerable old man drew a circle with radii on the ground and explained: "God is in the center, all paths lead to Him."
[edit] Metaphysics
For Schuon, the quintessence of pure metaphysics can be summerized by the following vedantic statment, although the Advaita Vedanta's perspective finds its equivalent in the teachings of Ibn Arabi, Meister Eckhart or Plotinus : Brahma satyam jagan mithya jivo brahmaiva na'parah (Brahman is real, the world is illusory, the self is not different from Brahman).
The metaphysics exposed by Schuon is based on the doctrine of the non-dual Absolute (the Beyond-Being) and the degrees of reality. The distinction between the Absolute and the relative corresponds for Schuon to the couple Atman/Maya. Maya is not only the cosmic illusion. From a higher standpoint, Maya is also the Infinite, the Divine Relativity or else the feminine aspect (mahashakti) of the Supreme Principle.
Said differently, being the Absolute, the Beyond-Being is also the Sovereign Good (Agathon), who wants to communicate himself through his Maya. The whole manifestation from the first Being (Ishvara) to matter (Prakriti), the lower degree of reality, is indeed the projection of the Supreme Principle (Brahman). The personal God, considered as the creative cause of the world, is only "relatively Absolute," a first determination of the Beyond-Being, at the summit of Maya. The Supreme Principle is not only the Beyond-Being. It is also the Supreme Self (Atman) and in its innermost essence, the intellect (buddhi) is a ray shining from Him, a refraction of Atman within Maya.
[edit] The Religio Perennis
After Guénon’s death in 1951, Schuon, in more than twenty books, has developed his own metaphysical perspective, developing the concept of religio perennis, he considers less ambiguous than Guénon’s Primordial Tradition. Schuon’s Religio Perennis cannot be called a new religion with its own dogma and practices. For Schuon, the Religio Perennis is the “underlying Religion,” the “Religion of the Heart” or the Religio Cordis. He claims that Esoterists in every orthodox tradition have a more or less direct access to it but, according to his perspective, it cannot be a question of practicing the Religio Perennis independently. Religious forms can be more or less transparent but religious diversity is not denied for its raison d’être is metaphysically explained. On the one hand, for Schuon, formal religions are upaya (“celestial strategy”), superimpositions on the core-essence of the Religio Perennis. On the other hand, religious forms correspond to as many archetypes in the divine Word itself. Religious forms are “willed by God” and each religion corresponds to a particular and homogenous cosmos, characterized by its own perspective on the Absolute. The Perennialist perspective itself, as it has been expressed in its definitive form by Schuon, can thus been characterized as essentially metaphysical, esoteric, primordial but also traditional. For Schuon, there is no spiritual path outside of a revealed religion, which provides spiritual seekers with a metaphysical doctrine and a spiritual method, but also with a spiritual environment of beauty and sacredness.
[edit] Sufism and the Tariqa Maryamiyya
Whereas both René Guénon and Ananda Coomaraswamy had almost exclusively a purely intellectual influence, Schuon was not only a genuine metaphysician but also a spiritual master. The latter claim, however, is disputed. Since 1932, when, moved by a desire to get in contact with Sufism, he spent several months in Mostaganem, he was the direct disciple of the Algerian Sufi Shaykh Ahmad Al-Alawi (1869 –1934). Followers of Schuon claim he organized in the mid-1930’s in Europe a new tariqa with the approval of Shaykh Adda Bentounès, the successor of the Shaykh Alawi. However, there is no evidence supporting the claim that Schuon received approval from Shaykh Adda Bentounès to establish his own tariqa. While most scholars of Sufism would question the likelihood or possibility of a novice, no matter how gifted, receiving permission from his master to establish a tariqa and share spiritual guidance after the novice only spent a few months with the master, the very highest Sufi authorities often point to illuminating Hadith from Abu Huyrarah on the possibilities of spiritual succession in very short periods of time or even over apparently impossible periods of time. Given the lack of evidence indicating Schuon received permission to guide others on a spiritual path, as noted above, Abu Huyrarah's ideas on quick spiritual succession do not seem to be applicable here, as undoubtedly Shaykh Alawi and Shaykh Adda would likely have recognized and acknowledged what many of Schuon's more chauvinistic followers consider to be Schuon's very special, elevated status.
Many Western readers of Guénon but also born Muslims have found in this teachings, a practical application of and a complement to the doctrine exposed by Guénon but also an opportunity to escape religious exclusivism. Whereas, many turuq in North Africa or the Middle East, particularly since the 19th century, remain very close to the exoteric and exclusivist mentality, Schuon’s teachings were by contrast clearly oriented toward pure esoterism and its message remains universal in its essence. But other thinkers have noticed the extreme - almost cartesian - dicotomy occurring between esoterism and exoterism in Schuon's schema that does not reflect actual practice or doctrine in any other known historical or contemporary spiritual community (except perhaps in cults, but such are not relevant or valid in Schuon's schema). Historical, sociological and anthropological studies all show a mingling or close vicinity of esoteric and exoteric elements and ideas in all valid spiritual communities occurring to a degree that is often so tightly bound together and ramified that it would be difficult or impossible to separate out instances of one category from the other, hence the rationalistic, almost academic nature of this dicotomy, which Schuon over-uses or over-extends. The impossibility or extreme difficulty of distinguishing neatly, precisely and "purely" esoteric from exoteric is very damaging and contradictory to Schuon's "system" in implying he represents a "pure" esoterism. Such a remarkable claim would make Schuon's tariqa quite unique in all Sufi and other religious history by radically disconnecting his tariqa from the exoteric elements that are necessary for transmitting and conditioning reception (tarbiyya = spiritual formation) of the esoteric message. The theoretical effect this all has on Schuon's master schemas is to undermine his claims to religious universalism. Something so extraordinarily unique as "pure esoterism" by its nature has nothing in common with any spiritual forms preceding it, that mingle exoteric and esoteric. It is not just unique; it is uniquely unique.
More seriously, however, and perhaps dangerously, the practical effect of this doctrine is to force spiritual seekers in Schuon's community to rely totally on what the master says for esoteric guidance, since the exoteric ("exclusivist mentality") has been forceably abandoned by the very "purity" of his esoterism, and by logical necessity. Hence the "checks and balances" offered by an exoteric framework (e.g., sharia in Islam) are no longer available to ascertain whether the Schuonian "master" has met any moral and other standards since all standards now originate in pure esoterism, controlled always by the master himself. In light of this, one would hope the partisans of Schuon could forgive less enthusiatic students of his writings for seeing this as the very definition of a cult. Schuon's troubles with the police (in various countries, as chronicled in Mark Sedgwick's book, mentioned below) regarding gatherings of his followers - including children - employing nudity is undoubtedly one of the many concrete manifestations of Schuon's jettisoning or disdain of "exoterism" as the price to pay for embracing an extremist but ultimately artificial, pedantic esoterism, that has very little if anything in common with authentic Sufi gnosis or marifah, to use an Islamic example.
[edit] The Spiritual Path
According to Schuon, spiritual path is essentially based on the discernment between the Real and the unreal (Atma/Maya), the concentration on the Real and the practice of virtues. Man must know the Truth. Knowing the Truth, he must will the Good and concentrate on it. These two aspects correspond to the metaphysical doctrine and the spiritual method. Knowing the Truth and willing the Good, he must finally love Beauty in his own soul through virtues, but also in Nature. In this respect, Schuon has insisted on the importance for the authentic spiritual seeker to be aware of what he called "the metaphysical transparency of phenomena."
Schuon's own spiritual discipline was centered on the Invocation of the divine Name (dhikr, Japa-Yoga, prayer of the Heart), considered by him as the best and providential mean of realization at the end of the Kali Yuga. For him, like for the Hindu Saint Ramakrishna, the secret of the invocatory path is that God and his Name are one.
[edit] Quintessential Esoterism
For Schuon, esoterism displays two aspects, one being an extension of exoterism and the other alien to it to the point of occasionally opposing it; for if it be true that the form “is” in a certain way the essence, the essence on the contrary is by no means the form; the drop is water, but water is not the drop. This second aspect is called by Schuon, Quintessential Esoterism, for it is not limited in its perspective by a particular framework of theology and, above all, by a particular religious upaya. Schuon himself considered that his teachings, although located in the frame of Islam and Sufism, were in a certain sense at the confluent of the great religious traditions of the world (Islam, Christianity, Hinduism primarily but also Mahayana Buddhism, Neoplatonism and the Native American Traditions).
According to Schuon, this “quintessential esoterism” and the Religio Perennis itself are personified by the Virgin Mary. He called her, following the Persian Sufi Ruzbehan Baqli, “the Mother of all the Prophets and the Prophecy and the Substance of the original Sainthood”. It is also particularly interesting to note that despite Schuon's brilliant analyses of both esoteric and exoteric religion and the fact that this immense contribution has placed him in a unique position viz. the study of both Religion and Philosophy in the twentieth century, serious academic understanding and approval have been at times somewhat controversial. In this respect, Schuon's emphasis on integral spiritual practice and quintessential esoterism mirrors the often misunderstood function of the Malamatiyya Sufis, Saints whose substantive spiritual legacy lies 'hidden' from the world.
[edit] "Beauty is the Brilliance of the Truth"
Unlike some spiritual masters, Schuon was also an artist and more precisely a gifted painter and a poet. The subject of Schuon’s art is on the one hand the Plains Indian world, and on the other hand the mystery of cosmic and human femininity. During the last three years of his life, he wrote approximately 3,500 short didactic poems in his mother tongue German.
Throughout his life, Schuon has also written extensively on sacred art and the traditional doctrine of Beauty. For him, like for Plato, "Beauty is the Brilliance of the Truth."
[edit] Published works
Some of Schuon's major publications are The Transcendent Unity of Religions, Esoterism as Principle and as Way, In the Tracks of Buddhism, Stations of Wisdom, Logic and Transcendence, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts, Light on the Ancient Worlds, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism (1986), The Feathered Sun: Plains Indians in Art and Philosophy (1990) and Understanding Islam (1994).
[edit] The Books of Frithjof Schuon
- The Transcendent Unity of Religions, 1953
Revised Edition, 1975, 1984, The Theosophical Publishing House, 1993
- Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts, 1954, 1969
New Translation, Perennial Books, 1987
- Gnosis: Divine Wisdom, 1959, 1978, Perennial Books 1990
- Language of the Self, 1959
Revised Edition, World Wisdom Books, 1999
- Stations of Wisdom, 1961, 1980
Revised Translation, World Wisdom Books, 1995
- Understanding Islam, 1963, 1965, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1981, 1986, 1989
Revised Translation, World Wisdom Books, 1994, 1998
- Light on the Ancient Worlds, 1966, World Wisdom Books, 1984
- In the Tracks of Buddhism, 1968, 1989
New Translation, Treasures of Buddhism, World Wisdom Books, 1993
- Logic and Transcendence, 1975, Perennial Books, 1984
- Esoterism as Principle and as Way, Perennial Books, 1981, 1990
- Castes and Races, Perennial Books, 1959, 1982
- Sufism: Veil and Quintessence, World Wisdom Books, 1981
- From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom Books, 1982
- Christianity/Islam, World Wisdom Books, 1985
- The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon (S.H. Nasr, Ed.) , 1986, Element, 1991
- Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom Books, 1986, 2000
- In the Face of the Absolute, World Wisdom Books, 1989, 1994
- The Feathered Sun: Plain Indians in Art & Philosophy, World Wisdom Books, 1990
- To Have a Center, World Wisdom Books, 1990
- Roots of the Human Condition, World Wisdom Books, 1991
- Images of Primordial & Mystic Beauty: Paintings by Frithjof Schuon, Abodes, 1992
- Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom Books, 1992
- The Play of Masks, World Wisdom Books, 1992
- Road to the Heart, World Wisdom Books, 1995
- The Transfiguration of Man, World Wisdom Books, 1995
- The Eye of the Heart, World Wisdom Books, 1997
The following collections of Schuon’s works have been published posthumously:
- Songs for a Spiritual Traveler: Selected Poems, World Wisdom, 2002
- Form and Substance in the Religions, World Wisdom, 2002
- Adastra & Stella Maris: Poems by Frithjof Schuon, World Wisdom, 2003
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- For an objective history of Schuon and his ideas, including an examination of many of his more radical ideas, such as "sacred nudity," by a non-partisan scholar of Traditionalism, see "Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century, by Mark Sedgwick, ISBN 0195152972. Oxford University Press, USA (June 3, 2004) See also this scholars web site, which has various studies in Traditionalism, http://www.aucegypt.edu/faculty/sedgwick/Trad/index.htm
- A web site on the Perennialist/Traditionalist School
- The official web site on Frithjof Schuon
- Frithjof Schuon biography at worldwisdom.com
