Frithjof Schuon ( ; ; 18 June 1907 – 5 May 1998) was a Swiss philosopher and spiritual leader, belonging to the
Traditionalist School
Traditionalism, also known as the Traditionalist School, is a school of thought within perennial philosophy. Originating in the thought of René Guénon in the 20th century, it proposes that a single primordial, metaphysical truth forms the so ...
of
Perennialism. He was the author of more than twenty works in French on metaphysics, spirituality, religion, anthropology and art. He was also a painter and a poet.
With
René Guénon
René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as Abdalwahid Yahia (; ), was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from esoterici ...
and
Ananda Coomaraswamy, Schuon was one of the major 20th-century representatives of the ''
philosophia perennis''. 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
traditional roots. Following
Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
,
Plotinus
Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...
,
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara (8th c. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (, ), was an Indian Vedanga, Vedic scholar, Hindu philosophy, philosopher and teacher (''acharya'') of Advaita Vedanta. Reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scant, and h ...
,
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart (), Master Eckhart or Eckehart, claimed original name Johannes Eckhart, ,
Ibn Arabī and other metaphysicians, Schuon sought to affirm the metaphysical unity between the Principle and its manifestation.
Initiated by Sheikh
Ahmad al-Alawī into the
Sufi
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
Shādhilī order, he founded the ''
Tarīqa Maryamiyya''. His writings strongly emphasize the
universality of metaphysical doctrine, along with the necessity of practising a religion; he also insists on the importance of the virtues and of beauty.
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
Plains Indians
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North ...
, maintaining firm friendships with a number of their leaders and being adopted into both a
Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
*Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language
Lakota ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan languages, Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of ...
Sioux tribe and the
Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...
tribe. Having spent a large part of his life in France and Switzerland, at the age of 73 he emigrated to the United States.
Life and work
Basel, Switzerland (1907–1920)
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
Swabia
Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.
The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...
and the latter from
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...
). 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
Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
, though not in hostility to the Catholic Church.
At primary school, Schuon met the future metaphysician and art specialist
Titus Burckhardt, who remained a lifelong friend. From the age of ten, he began to read the
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
, the ''
Upanishads
The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...
'', the
''Bhagavad-Gītā'' and the ''
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
'', as well as
Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
,
Emerson,
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
and
Schiller. 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."
France (1920–1940)
In 1920, Schuon's father died and his mother decided to return with her young sons to her family in nearby
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...
, France, where Schuon became a French citizen, consequent upon the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
.
[Pierre-Marie Sigaud, ''Dossiers H : René Guénon'', L’Âge d’Homme, 1984, p. 32]
/ref> One year later, when he was 14, he was baptized as a Catholic. In 1923 his brother entered a Trappists, Trappist monastery, and Schuon left school in order to provide for the family, finding work as a textile designer.[Jean-Baptiste Aymard, ''Frithjof Schuon: Life and Teachings'', SUNY, 2002, p. 10]
He then immersed himself in the world of the ''Bhagavad-Gītā'' and the ''Vedānta''; 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 René Guénon
René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as Abdalwahid Yahia (; ), was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from esoterici ...
, which served to confirm his intellectual intuitions and provided support for the metaphysical principles he had begun to discover.[Barbara Perry, "Introduction" in Frithjof Schuon, ''Art from the Sacred to the Profane'', World Wisdom, 2007, p. ''xiv''] Schuon would later say of Guénon that he was "the profound and powerful theoretician of all that he loved".
In 1930, after 18 months in Besançon
Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland.
Capi ...
on military service in the French army, Schuon settled in Paris. There he resumed his profession as a textile designer, and began to study Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
in the local mosque
A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard.
Originally, mosques were si ...
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.
At the end of 1932 he completed his first book, ''Leitgedanken zur Urbesinnung'', which would be published in 1935 and later translated into English under the title ''Primordial Meditation: Contemplating the Real''. His desire to leave the West, whose modern values were so contrary to his nature, combined with his growing interest in Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
, prompted him to go to Marseille
Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...
, 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 Mostaganem
Mostaganem () is a port city in and capital of Mostaganem (province), Mostaganem province, in the northwest of Algeria. The city, founded in the 11th century lies on the Gulf of Arzew, Mediterranean Sea and is 72 km ENE of Oran. It is consi ...
, Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
. 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 ''zāwiya''. 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.
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 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.
Schuon reported that one night in July 1934, while immersed in reading the ''Bhagavad-Gītā'', he experienced an extraordinary spiritual event. He said that the divine Name ''Allāh'' 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.
In 1935 he returned to the ''zāwiya'' of Mostaganem, where Sheikh Adda ben Tounes, Sheikh al-Alawī's successor, conferred on him the function of ''muqaddam
() is an Arabic title, adopted in other Islamic or Islamicate cultures, for various civil or religious officials.
As per the Persian records of medieval India, muqaddams, along with khots and chowdhurys, acted as hereditary rural intermediaries ...
'', thus authorizing him to initiate aspirants into the Alawī brotherhood. Returning to Europe, Schuon founded a ''zāwiya'' in Basel, another in Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
and a third in Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...
. He resumed his profession as a textile designer in Alsace for the next four years.
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 sheikh
Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...
. 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 ''zāwiya'' gradually led to Schuon's assuming independence, supported by Guénon.
In 1938, Schuon traveled to Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
, 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 Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
, where he saw Guénon again. Shortly after his arrival in Bombay
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
, World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
broke out, forcing him to return to Europe. Serving in the French army, he was interned by the Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
, 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.
Lausanne, Switzerland (1941–1980)
He settled in Lausanne, where he continued contributing to the Guénonian journal ''Études Traditionnelles'', as he had done since 1933. In 1947, after reading ''Black Elk Speaks
''Black Elk Speaks'' is a 1932 book by John G. Neihardt, an American poet and writer, who relates the story of Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota medicine man. Black Elk spoke in Lakota and Black Elk's son, Ben Black Elk, who was present during th ...
'' by John G. Neihardt, Schuon, who had always been deeply interested in the North American Indians, was convinced that Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (baptized Nicholas; December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war lea ...
knew much more about Sioux
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...
tradition than was contained in the book. He asked his American friends to seek out the old chief. Following this initiative, the ethnologist Joseph E. Brown collected from Black Elk the description of the seven Sioux rites which would form the content of ''The Sacred Pipe''.
In 1948 Schuon published his first book in French, ''De l'Unité transcendante des religions''. Of this book, T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...
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 ''The Transcendent Unity of Religions'' (''Von der Inneren Einheit der Religionen''), published in 1982.
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. 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 Ephesus
Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...
presumed to be the last home of the Virgin Mary.
In the winter of 1953, Schuon and his wife travelled to Paris to attend performances organized by a group of Crow
A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...
dancers. They formed a friendship with Thomas Yellowtail, the future medicine man
A medicine man (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwinini'') or medicine woman (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwininiikwe'') is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Each culture has its own name i ...
and Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains Indians, Plains cultures, as well as a new movement within Native American religions. Members of ...
Chief. Five years later, the Schuons visited the Brussels World's Fair
Expo 58, also known as the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (; ), was a world's fair held on the Heysel Plateau, Heysel/Heizel Plateau in Brussels, Belgium, from 17 April to 19 October 1958. It was the first major world's fair registered under the Bu ...
, where 60 Sioux were giving performances on the theme of the Wild West. New friendships were made on this occasion also.
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 Plains tribes
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North ...
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 Red Cloud, and a few weeks later, at an Indian festival in Sheridan, Wyoming, they were officially received into the Sioux tribe.[Barbara Perry, "Introduction" in Frithjof Schuon, ''Art from the Sacred to the Profane'', World Wisdom, 2007, p. ''xv''] Schuon's writings on the central rites of Native American religion and his paintings of their way of life attest to his particular affinity with their spiritual universe.
The 1970s saw the publication of three works considered as particularly important by his biographers composed of articles previously published in the French journal ''Études Traditionnelles''. These works have been translated under the titles ''Logic and Transcendence'', ''Form and Substance in the Religions'', and ''Esoterism as Principle and as Way''.
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 James Cutsinger, who relates the two episodes in 1965 when Schuon experienced an especial Marian grace. Hence the name ''Maryamiyya'' ("Marian" in Arabic) of the Sufi ''tarīqa'' he founded as a branch of the ''Alawiyyah''- ''Darqawiyyah''- ''Shadhiliyyah'' order.
United States (1980–1998)
In 1980, Schuon and his wife emigrated to the United States, settling in Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in Monroe County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. The population was 79,168 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-most populous city in Indiana and ...
, where there was already a large community of disciples. The first years in Bloomington saw the publication of a number of important works including ''From the Divine to the Human'', ''To Have a Center'', ''Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism'', and ''Roots of the Human Condition''.
According to Patrick Laude, 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 Traditionalist School
Traditionalism, also known as the Traditionalist School, is a school of thought within perennial philosophy. Originating in the thought of René Guénon in the 20th century, it proposes that a single primordial, metaphysical truth forms the so ...
. During his years in Lausanne and Bloomington he regularly received visits from "practitioners and representatives of diverse religions".
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 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 ''dhikr
(; ; ) is a form of Islamic worship in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited for the purpose of remembering God. It plays a central role in Sufism, and each Sufi order typically adopts a specific ''dhikr'', accompanied by specific ...
''.
In 1991, following an allegation by a former follower, Schuon was indicted for "sexual battery and child molestation.”[Urban, Hugh]
"A Dance of Masks: The Esoteric Ethics of Frithjof Schuon"
In ''Crossing Boundaries: Ethics in the History of Mysticism'', edited by G. William Barnard and Jeffrey J. Kripal (New York: Seven Bridges Press), 2002. Page 440. However, a few weeks later the case was dropped. The prosecutor stated that there was “not one shred of evidence” aside from the follower's testimony and that “Insofar as chuonhas been labeled, a miscarriage has occurred.” Despite the dismissal, the incident negatively affected Schuon’s reputation within some Traditionalist and Sufi circles and he largely retired from public life afterwards.
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" (''Lehrgedichte''), 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 5 May 1998 at the age of 90, Frithjof Schuon wrote his last poem:
''Ich wollte dieses Buch schon lang beschließen –''
''Ich konnte nicht; ich musste weiter dichten.''
''Doch diesmal legt sich meine Feder nieder,''
''Denn es gibt andres Sinnen, andre Pflichten;''
''Wie dem auch sei, was wir auch mögen tun:''
''Lasst uns dem Ruf des Höchsten Folge leisten –''
''Lasst uns in Gottes tiefem Frieden ruhn.''
Das Weltrad VII, CXXX
I have for long wished to end this book —
I could not do so; I had to write more poems.
But this time my pen lies down of itself,
For there are other preoccupations, other duties;
Be that as it may, whatever we may wish to do:
Let us follow the call of the Most High —
Let us repose in God's deep Peace.
''World Wheel VII, CXXX''
Views based on his written works
For Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr (born April 7, 1933) is an Iranian Americans, Iranian-American academic, philosophy, philosopher, theology, theologian, and Ulama, Islamic scholar. He is University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. ...
, Schuon is at once " metaphysician, theologian
Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...
, traditional philosopher
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
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 themes are "essential and hence universal metaphysics with its cosmological
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
and anthropological
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behaviour, wh ...
ramifications, spirituality in the broadest sense, intrinsic morals and aesthetics, traditional principles and phenomena", religions and their esotericisms, sacred art.
Doctrinal foundation
Perennialism
The traditionalist or perennialist spiritual perspective was initially enunciated in the 1920s by René Guénon
René Jean-Marie-Joseph Guénon (15 November 1886 – 7 January 1951), also known as Abdalwahid Yahia (; ), was a French intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from esoterici ...
and in the 1930s by Frithjof Schuon. The metaphysicians and art specialists Ananda Coomaraswamy and Titus Burckhardt also became prominent advocates of this intellectual current. According to the perennialist writer William Stoddart, "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, ''De l'unité transcendante des religions''. 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". Schuon writes that primordial wisdom is expressed in the work of Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara (8th c. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (, ), was an Indian Vedanga, Vedic scholar, Hindu philosophy, philosopher and teacher (''acharya'') of Advaita Vedanta. Reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scant, and h ...
, Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos (; BC) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher, polymath, and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His political and religious teachings were well known in Magna Graecia and influenced the philosophies of P ...
, Plato
Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...
, Plotinus
Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...
and several other representatives of quintessential esoterism.
In ''Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism'', Schuon comments on the three notions of perennial philosophy (''philosophia''), perennial wisdom (''sophia'') and perennial religion (''religio'') to show both their concordance and their particularities: The term ''philosophia perennis'', which appeared as early as the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
and was used extensively by neo-scholasticism, designates the science of the fundamental and universal ontological
Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of reality and every ...
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 ''sophia perennis'' 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 ''religio perennis'' when referring to the operative side of this wisdom, thus its mystical or initiatic aspect.
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 ''sophia perennis'', or ''religio perennis'', conceived as the conjunction of a metaphysical doctrine and a means of spiritual realization".
Metaphysics
Schuon characterizes "pure" metaphysics as 1) "essential", i.e. "independent of all religious formulation"; 2) "primordial", namely "the truth that existed before all dogma
Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...
tic 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 vedantic statement: (Brahman
In Hinduism, ''Brahman'' (; IAST: ''Brahman'') connotes the highest universal principle, the ultimate reality of the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), ''Idealistic Thought of India'', Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII In the ...
is real, the world is illusory, the individual soul is not different from Brahman).
The metaphysics expounded by Schuon is based on the doctrine of what the Hindu ''Advaita Vedānta'' refers to as ''Ātmā'' and ''Māyā''. ''Ātmā'' (''Ātman'') is the Self, both transcendent and immanent; in correlation with ''Māyā'', ''Ātmā'' designates the Real, the Absolute, the Principle, Beyond Being, ''Brahma'' (''Brahman''); and ''Māyā'' the illusory, the relative, manifestation. Schuon develops this metaphysical principle, notably in ''Form and Substance in the Religions'', basing himself on the Sufi doctrine of the degrees of reality, known as "The Five Divine Presences":[Harry Oldmeadow, ''Frithjof Schuon and the Perennial Philosophy'', World Wisdom, 2010, p. 52-54.]
* ''Degrees 1 and 2, taken together, correspond to God, the Principle, the Absolute'':
1. ''Ātmā'': Beyond-Being, Impersonal Divinity, Supreme Principle, Absolute Reality, Essence, ''nirguna Brahman''.
* ''Degrees 2 to 5 correspond to'' Māyā:
2. ''Māyā in divinis'' (the "relative Absolute", "''Ātmā'' as ''Māyā''"): Being, Personal God, creating Principle, uncreated Spirit, ''saguna Brahman
''Saguna brahman'' ( 'The Absolute with qualities'; from Sanskrit ' 'with qualities', ''guṇa'' 'quality', and ''Brahman'' 'the Absolute') is a concept of ultimate reality in Hinduism, close to the concept of immanence, the manifested divine ...
'', ''Īshvara''.
* ''Degrees 3 to 5 correspond to manifestation, the cosmos, creation:''
3. Supra-formal manifestation: created Spirit (Intellect
Intellect is a faculty of the human mind that enables reasoning, abstraction, conceptualization, and judgment. It enables the discernment of truth and falsehood, as well as higher-order thinking beyond immediate perception. Intellect is dis ...
, ''Logos
''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Logos (Christianity), Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality, rational form of discourse that relies on inducti ...
'', ''Buddhi
''Buddhi'' (Sanskrit: बुद्धि) refers to the intellectual faculty and the power to "form and retain concepts, reason, discern, judge, comprehend, understand".
Etymology
''Buddhi'' () is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit root ''Budh'' ...
''), paradise, angels.
* ''Degrees 4 and 5 correspond to formal manifestation:''
4. Subtle or animic manifestation: the world of the soul and the "spirits" (jinn
Jinn or djinn (), alternatively genies, are supernatural beings in pre-Islamic Arabian religion and Islam.
Their existence is generally defined as parallel to humans, as they have free will, are accountable for their deeds, and can be either ...
s, sylph
A sylph (also called sylphid) is an air spirit stemming from the 16th-century works of Paracelsus, who describes sylphs as (invisible) beings of the air, his elementals of air. A significant number of subsequent literary and occult works have be ...
s, salamanders
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...
, gnome
A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...
s, etc.).
5. Gross or material manifestation: the visible world.
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 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.
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), ''Ātmā'' and ''Māyā''. 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 (''Agathôn'') to radiate,[Harry Oldmeadow, ''Frithjof Schuon and the Perennial Philosophy'', World Wisdom, 2010, p. 62.] hence the projection of ''Māyā'', which is simultaneously divine (''Īshvara''), celestial (''Buddhi'' and ''Svarga'') and "earthly", the latter including the domain of transmigration ( ''samsâra''). Every good offered by the world comes from the radiation of the Sovereign Good, every evil comes from Its remoteness. ''Mâyâ'' both veils and reveals God, the Absolute.
Quintessential esoterism
Most religions comprise an