Frithjof Schuon - The Essentials PDF
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Transcendent Unity of Religions
by
Frithjof Schuon,
Huston Smith (Introduction)
4.15 · Rating details · 197 ratings · 19 reviews
Schuon asserts that to transcend religious differences, we must explore the esoteric nature of the spiritual path back to the Divine Oneness at the heart of all religions.
Frithjof Schuon
Born in Basle, Switzerland in 1907, Frithjof Schuon was the twentieth century's pre-eminent spokesman for the perennialist school of comparative religious thought.
The leitmotif of Schuon's work was foreshadowed in an encounter during his youth with a marabout who had accompanied some members of his Senegalese village to Basle for the purpose of demonstrating their African culture. When Schuon talked with him, the venerable old man drew a circle with radii on the ground and explained: "God is the center; all paths lead to Him." Until his later years Schuon traveled widely, from India and the Middle East to America, experiencing traditional cultures and establishing lifelong friendships with Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, and American Indian spiritual leaders.
A philosopher in the tradition of Plato, Shankara, and Eckhart, Schuon was a gifted artist and poet as well as the author of over twenty books on religion, metaphysics, sacred art, and the spiritual path. Describing his first book, The Transcendent Unity of Religions, T. S. Eliot wrote, "I have met with no more impressive work in the comparative study of Oriental and Occidental religion", and world-renowned religion scholar Huston Smith said of Schuon, "The man is a living wonder; intellectually apropos religion, equally in depth and breadth, the paragon of our time". Schuon's books have been translated into over a dozen languages and are respected by academic and religious authorities alike.
More than a scholar and writer, Schuon was a spiritual guide for seekers from a wide variety of religions and backgrounds throughout the world. He died in 1998.
Nov 04, 2015Tim rated it it was amazing
Shelves: islam-perennialism, religion-comparative
Books like this are hard to review as they tread in areas where language simply becomes inadequate. Anything that is put on paper doesn’t seem to capture it; Huston Smith says in the introduction that “the truth…is buried so deep in the human composite that they cannot communicate it, not in any way the majority will find convincing.” (xv) So, we can resort to talking about things like duality, the conflict of opposites, resolution of contradictions in ultimate reality, etc… But ultimately transcendence is precisely that, transcendent - over and above, encompassing everything yet at the same time and for that very reason, indescribable. There is the deepest of truths here, and one that sometimes shows itself in flashes of illumination that contain ultimate happiness.
At a certain level, religions are nothing more than symbols that point to a higher reality. For me personally, it took the insights of Islam to reveal this, but it could just as easily have evolved (and still did in many ways) out of my Christian past. It could have come from any revealed religion. Islam in its own right is incredibly universal even on the surface. The Qur’an has many verses that point to the acceptance of all revealed religions as containing the primordial truth. Schuon himself as a Sufi can be said to derive his primary “language” and inspiration from this perspective.
Focusing on one path over others is necessary on the level of lived experience. This is one of the main arguments of the Perennialist approach to religion. To communicate and reach the desired result, there are systems in place that don’t make spiritual sense when intermixed. This is where the Perennialists – led by Schuon and Rene Guenon among others – should not be confused with a simplistic sentimental universality that is prone to compromise. It makes it tough when searching for a way to apply their insights to a world that desperately needs it on the pragmatic (exoteric) level. To them, this higher transcendence is only truly realized by a few, on an esoteric level. This is not so much an elitist view as an observation and insight.
The exoteric/esoteric vertical progression is the key to understanding Schuon. As Huston Smith lays out in the introduction, this is the primary way Schuon looks at the differences in religion, vs. the common method of simply finding symbolic counterparts between different faiths. His insight is that the manifested differences on the exoteric level of religion are ultimately resolved, transcended and eliminated in the essence of the One. There is great wisdom here through holding ideas in tension – meaning that we can cling to one path as the truth while at the same time acknowledging that ultimate reality is beyond comprehension and big enough to include it all.
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Feb 26, 2019Paul rated it it was ok
Shelves: religion, non-art-photo, reviewed, reviewed-longer
One of the most tedious trends in twentieth-century academia is the endless proliferation of relativist "religious studies" / "comparative religion" / "multicultural studies" b.s. about how all world religions are really the same.
I feel like it should be painfully obvious to everyone why this is not true -- while there is indeed a very basic similarity to most religions (i.e., "renounce your ego in some fashion," "there is some sort of ultimate ontological grounding that is not immediately apparent to the senses"), and while there are some fascinating connections between, e.g., Sufism and Orthodox Christianity, the idea that all religions are really the same could only occur to someone who has (1) not entered deeply into any one tradition and/or (2) is a religious studies professor.
All religions do not, to put it lightly (contra Rudolf Otto and everyone after him, up to and including John Hick), have the same 'core experience' that is somehow 'translated' into different religions. This would be like saying that there's really only one human emotion, called "emotion," that is then translated into anger, fear, joy, ecstasy, love, etc.; anyone who has actually experienced these emotions knows that this is comically false. In other words, I think it's fair to say that left-hand path Tantric orgies, or the Chöd sādhana of Tibetan Buddhism (where one offers one's own body to be consumed by demons), are maybe just a tiny bit different -- experientally, dogmatically, etc. -- than the experience of Anglicans at prayer.
I understand the motives behind the hermeticist spiritualism / perennial philosophy of Schuon as well as the present-day 'spiritual but not religious' crowd; they all mean well, I think. I also understand the anodyne let's-all-get-along vibe behind wanting all religions to be combined in a vague United Nations melting pot of mainstream liberal niceness, where there are no sharp edges and no one takes religion too seriously, and every Muslim and Christian realizes that their truth is only true for them -- and, naturally, that the only absolute truth is the 'rights' and 'tolerance' language of the late-capitalist liberal/secular state -- but the facts on the ground do not bear this out. (less)
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Jan 08, 2016A. rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: prnt
Interesting book, except that perennialism is an incredible illusion and fallacy - in the sense that perennialists argue against "egalitarianism" in the social order but proceed to tell you that all religions are still equally valid in our time. They tell you that they understand the "absolutist claim" in each religion, but they are above it and relativise it, and then proceed to deny being relativists. They tell you that one has to be traditionnal, but being traditional entails being absolutist and totally non-perennialistic. Fallacy upon fallacy, in the name of misunderstood esoterism. Additional implicit contradictions lie in the fact that one cannot claim to talk from the point of view of the absolute, then proceed to tell you that his reference point is esoterism through his understanding of Advaita Vedanta and Shankara (this is, Schuon's claim himself), needless to say, it is already relativised.... If there are many roads with the intention of reaching the top of the mountain, with divine providence, some roads get blocked, and something else is made available.
Taking the "Limits of Religous Expansion" in another way [contrary to what Schuon means with it], that is, we can see that there is one religion that has reached, unlike all others, parts of all them = From Andalusia to India to China. And this, since its first centuries and original expansion. This geographical hint is enough to let some people ponder. Proving that it is indeed made for all human mentalities, whether they eat with chopsticks, spoons or with the hands directly. Therefore the constant Schuonian obsession of putting "semitic" below "aryan" falls.
Claims to see the absolute in all religions, but through most of his books puts the "semitic" ones below the "aryan" - not so "universal" after all it seems... As this implies there are things better than others...
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“[...] On s'emploie à favoriser d'autres auteurs comme le font les anglo-saxons lorsqu'ils mettent en avant Frithjof Schuon. L'« unité transcendante des religions » est une manière d'occulter l'unité immanente proclamée par l'islâm dont la loi s'impose à tous, car elle fixe le régime traditionnel final de la présente humanité.”
― C-A Gilis
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I find it very peculiar that the most available english edition is now published by "Quest Books - Theosophical Publishing House" since 1993. Taking in consideration that the author is supposedly against such nonsense and syncretism, something is definitely fishy here. (less)
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Sep 07, 2014Anonymous Writer rated it it was amazing
The transcendent unity of religions-Frithjof Schuon-The book's main premise is that all main religions share a common ground. This is actually the crux of the school of thought called Perennial Philosophy. By analogy, we can take the example of the duality between the platonic world of ideas and the world of appearances(the reflection of the ideas): the essence of of religions is the same but is dissipated into multiple forms and adapted to the culture of the civilization. Ideas are eternal, while their reflections are transitory, subject to the changes of space, time and causality. Although many objects are relatively distinct, they may be the shadows of the same idea or archetype from which they originated. And how should someone discover the essence of all religious ideologies? The author distinguishes between exoterism(the religious knowledge known to the masses) and esoterism(the knowledge known for the initiates). While the exoteric knowledge may be dependent on the culture, the exoteric one may be considered universal or transcendent. I have to admit that I'm already familiar with this unity of religions popularized intensely by the New Age movement. The New Age movement is obviously the monstrous product of the postmodern era where syncretism, hybridization and juxtaposition are the main characteristics of the zeitgeist. On the other hand, while the Perennial Philosophy bases its ideas on the true tradition, the New age movement is just a mumbo jumbo mixture between different pieces of every religions, pseudo-spiritualism, channeling, etc, or simply put-the monstrous creature of the dr Frankenstein of the religions. (less)
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Dec 28, 2013Alex Kartelias rated it really liked it
Shelves: perennial-philosophy, religion
Schuon approaches the perrenial philosophy in two ways: by making the distinction between the esoteric and the exoteric form of a religion and by assessing there unity according to pure metaphysics, unlike most by making comparisons. And even when making comparisons, they are mostly made according to temperaments and dispositions rather than through their exoteric shell. Both of these approaches make the perennial philosophy clearer amongst those who confuse a religions outer and inner dimensions and there by rejecting the perrenial philosophy and by assessing the religions through the Divine Intellect with Pure metaphysics rather than through the limiting catagories of modern philosophy.
Following the Platonic tradition, Schuon argues for the trascendental or esoteric unity behind all the worlds religions while acknowledging the existence, the importance and yet the limiting factors of the exoteric. Even though the true essence of all religions and thereby there unity is within the esoteric, this inner truth can only be directly accessed through metaphysics- something that requires the few. The pupose of the exoteric dimension there for is to abstract the esoteric into Symbols- dogmas, creeds and sacraments- that way the layman can participate in that truth, according to their spiritual perception. Even though the intentions mean well for making it accessible to all, there is a risk- as we all know- of people either making the dogma literal where a literal interpretation has no place or people merely going through the motions of the sacraments without any spiritual awareness.
Schuon also discusses the redemptive importance of sacred art and it's usage as a window into eternity. Even though he explains the importance of beauty, he is very critical of, "naturalistic" art whose subject is an end in itself without any pointing towards the sacred or whose images are mere copies of objects. Sacred art must not only be symbolic, but ,"imitate the creative act, not the thing created" and abstract the essential trascendental characteristics of the object/subject. These qualifications lead him to be disgusted with western art from the gothic era, the renaissance and onwards to Modernism. Even though I think his criticism of, "naturalism" is insencere, there's no doubt that sacred art plays an important role in the perrenial philosophy.
What is great about Schuon his is vast knowledge about all the worlds religion and by the objectivity he has towards them. So many writers are either sloppy with their thinking or either too proud of their, "knowledge": Schuon writes with intention and love that's truly intellectual in the right sense. His biggest contribution- even though Miester Echart made this point in the 13th century- is that the Intellect is not to be confused with reason: the mode of thinking that's conditioned by our biases, riddled with our experiences, temporal and part of the flux of the world. Reason has bread all the petty materialisms, imperialisms, empiricisms, positivisms and skepticisms that has made it impossible for the modern to find any claim for Truth possible. Truly, this world is symbolic of a higher one that has emanated from the One just as our Kantanian Catagories are platonic reflections of the Divine Intellect. To escape these Catagories by looking to where they point and then returning to them, one can sit back and watch the cosmic dance of Maya play in front and within you. If Schuon was a sage or in fact a bodhisattva, reading his work should confirm that intuition. (less)
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May 17, 2011Giuntina rated it it was amazing
Schuon compares the great religions to spokes in a wheel, all leading to the one center. It's hard to imagine a more important message for our times. (less)
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Oct 03, 2018Minäpäminä rated it liked it
I'll start off with this quote as a warning to other fools like me: "We wish to state clearly that -- this is never with the intention of convincing opponents whose minds are already made up, but simply to enable those who wish to understand to get a glimpse of certain aspects of reality; it is for the latter alone that we are writing, and we decline to enter into polemics that would have no interest for our eventual contradictors or for ourself." (p. 94) What this means is that Schuon is working with certain very controversial axioms (eg. the existence of God, his Grace, his Mercy, and his Love) which he does not even always explicitly state and which he has no intention of calling into question, even for argument's sake. So don't come into this book expecting to be convinced - like I did.
An experience similar to Buber's I and Thou, in that both were very interesting books to read but are very hard to rate. This is by no means a study, but more of an extended essay, which is not to say it doesn't have research behind it. Schuon seems (I recognize my limitations to make any judgements on the matter) to be astonishingly well versed in the three monotheisms, the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which are the focal point of this work (contrary to what the title and the cover art of this Quest Book edition might imply), but there are occasional glimpses into erudition on other religious traditions, though to grasp their significance one should be better versed in religious studies than I.
By the way, true to his heritage (German), Schuon writes in extremely long run-on sentences - and I seem to have been infected.
I'm sure the basic premise of the book is obvious. Even though the whole is not very focused and even feels slightly unfinished, it is packed with interesting observations and comments regarding the three monotheisms and their essential unity. Even if one doesn't believe in this Unity with a capital 'u' for the same reasons as Schuon, one can still glean many a fascinating insight from the work. For example, Schuon asserts that Christianity is essentially an esoteric offshoot of Judaism. With all the new information on primitive Christianity that's come to light in the half a century since Schuon wrote this book, it has become a very attractive theory. Islam Schuon sees as a synthesis of the exoteric and esoteric bents of Judaism and Christianity, which emphasize Law and Mercy respectively. This synthesis-nature of Islam is, Schuon claims, the reason for its fundamentalism and totalitarianism, so to speak; the tendency of Islamic theocracy. (As a side note: all this gives one the impression Schuon holds a sort of Hegelian view of religious history.)
Like with Buber, a summation seems impossible. A captivating read. Challenging - and equally rewarding. (less)
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