Frithjof Schuon

1907-1998

Frithjof Schuon , also known as Shaykh `Isa Nur al-Din Ahmad al-Shadhili alDarquwi al- `Alawi al-Maryami , was a leading exponent of the philosophia perennis and traditional metaphysics . A spiritual master , metaphysician , poet and painter , he wrote major works on traditional doctrines and themes . He wrote in German , French , Arabic and English . His corpus of published works is vast . He published two long lyrical poems in German in his early years , and in his later years wrote almost one hundred poems in English .

As a young man in Paris , Schuon became interested in Islam , and he embarked on a rigorous study of Arabic , first with a Syrian Jew and later at the Paris mosque . He visited North Africa several times in the 1930’s and became a disciple of the Algerian Sufi Shaikh Ahmad Al’Alawi . He married in Lausanne in 1949 . He and his wife were given a plot of land with an orchard and vineyard in Pully , a suburb east of Lausanne , where they constructed their home . They traveled widely in Europe , making trips to France , Germany , Belgium , Holland England , Italy , Spain , Turkey , and Morocco , and visited the United States several times .

During the 1950’s , the Schuons had contact with North American natives who visited Paris and Brussels , and they traveled to the Lakota tribe of the Sioux nation in 1959 , where they were officially adopted into the Red Cloud family . Later he was also adopted into the Crow tribe . The Feathered Sun: Plains Indians in Art and Philosophy ( 1990 ) are a collection of his writings and paintings which poignantly present the pathos and spirituality of the Plains Indians .

In his last years he lived in Indiana , and he died of a protracted illness in Bloomington in 1998 .

Schuon said that his role was to bring back the concept of the Absolute in a world become relativized . His had a deep abiding sense of the sacred , manifested outwardly by his serious mien and highly dignified manner . [Whithall Perry , “Perspectives”] “Imagine a radiant summer sky and imagine simple folk who gaze at it , projecting into it their dream of the hereafter; now suppose that it were possible to transport these simple folk into the dark and freezing abyss of the galaxies and nebulae with its overwhelming silence . In this abyss all too many of them would lose their faith , and this is precisely what happens as a result of modern science , both to the learned and to the victims of popularization . What most men do not know – and if they could know it , why should we have to ask them to believe it? is that this blue sky , though illusory as an optical error and belied by the vision of interplanetary space , is nonetheless an adequate e reflection of the Heaven of Angels and the Blessed and that therefore , despite everything , it is this blue mirage , flecked with silver clouds , which is right and will have the final say; to be astonished at this amounts to admitting that it is by chance that we are here on earth and see the sky as we do . ” [Understanding Islam , p . 137]

All of Schuon’s work re-affirms the traditional metaphysical principles , explicating the esoteric dimensions of religion , penetrating mythological and religious forms , and critiquing modernism . He clarified the distinctions between exoteric and esoteric dimensions of religious tradition and uncovered the metaphysical convergence of all orthodox religions . The essential theme of Schuon’s writing , as summarized by Martin Lings , is this: the Sole Ultimate Reality of Absolute , Infinite Perfection and the predicament of man , made in the image of that Perfection , an image from which he has fallen , and to which he must return on his way to the final reintegration into his Divine Source .

“Intelligence , by which we comprehend the Doctrine , is either the intellect or reason; reason is the instrument of the intellect , it is through reason that man comprehends the natural phenomena around him and within himself , and it is through it that he is able to describe supernatural things – parallel to the means of expression offered by symbolism – by transposing intuitive knowledge into the order of language . Then function of the rational faculty can be to provoke – by means of a given concept – a spiritual intuition; reason is then the flint which makes the spark spring forth . The limit of the Inexpressible varies according to mental structure: what is beyond all expression for some , may be easily expressible for others . ” [“Norms and Paradoxes in Spiritual Alchemy” in Sophia , vol . 1 , no . 1 1995]

On the nature of sacred Books , he says , “that is sacred which in the first place is attached to the transcendent order , secondly possesses the character of absolute certainty and , thirdly , eludes the comprehension and power of investigation of the ordinary human mind… . The sacred is the presence of the centre in the periphery , of the motionless in the moving; dignity is essentially an expression of it , for in dignity too the centre manifests at the exterior; the heart is revealed in gestures . The sacred introduces an quality of the absolute into relativities and confers on perishable things a textures of eternity . ” [Understanding Islam , p . 48]

Works by Frithjof Schuon:

( 1953 ) , The Transcendent Unity of Religions , trans . Peter Townsend , Faber and Faber , London; republished in 1984 , The Theosophical Publishing House , Wheaton , Illinois .

( 1961 ) , Stations of Wisdom , republished 1995 , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

( 1975 ) . Logic and Transcendence , trans . P . N . Townsend , Perennial Books , London .

The Roots of the Human Condition

( 1981 ) , Esoterism as Principle and as Way , trans . William Stoddart , Perennial Books , London .

( 1982 ) , From the Divine to the Human , trans . Gustavo Polit and Deborah Lambert , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

( 1984 ) , Light on the Ancient Worlds , trans . Lord Northbourne , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

 ( 1985 ) , Christianity/Islam: Essays on Esoteric Ecumenicism , trans . Gustavo Polit , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

( 1986 ) , Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism , trans . Gustavo Polit , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

( 1987 ) , Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts , trans . P . N . Townsend , Perennial Books , London .

( 1989 ) , In the Face of the Absolute , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

( 1990 ) , The Feathered Sun: Plains Indians in Art and Philosophy

( 1990 ) , Gnosis: Divine Wisdom , trans . G . E . h . Palmer , Perennial Books , London .

( 1990 ) To Have a Center

( 1991 ) , Roots of the Human Condition

( 1992 ) , Echoes of Perennial Widom

( 1992 ) , The Play of Masks , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

( 1994 ) , Understanding Islam , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

 ( 1995 ) , “Norms and Paradoxes in Spiritual Alchemy” in Sophia , vol . 1 , no . 1 .

( 1995 ) , The Transfiguration of Man , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

( 1995 ) , Road to the Heart: The Complete English Poems of Frithjof Schuon , World Wisdom Books , Bloomington , Indiana .

Also see:

Nasr , Seyyed Hossein ( ed . )( 1986 ) , The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon

Nasr , Seyyed Hossein and Stoddart , William ( ed . )( 1991 ) , Religion of the Heart

Sophia , Journal of Traditional Studies , vol . 4 , no . 2 , Winter 1998 , which is dedicated to the memory of Frithjof Schuon .