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Esoterism As Principle and As Way

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The intriguing title of this book is given its proper context immediately in Schuon's introduction and initial essay. One wants to know: what is this esoterism that can be a "principle" and a "way"? While he makes frequent references to all of the world religions, it is clear that Schuon's interest is not in the historic esoterism of these traditions but in what he calls "esoterism as such,...which in itself is independent of particular forms, since it is their essence." Schuon delineates three dimensions of this quintessential esoterism. The first dimension is intellectual, the second is volitive, the third concerns beauty and can be considered in two respects. There is inward beauty, which relates to virtue and character; and there is the outward beauty of sensible forms. Schuon readily distills this description of divine Reality into the ternary Absoluteness-Infinitude-Perfection, which is analogous to the Sanskrit "Sat-Chit-Ananda." This is a useful key to have in hand as one approaches the different essays collected here.

Like most of Schuon's books, this one is divided into several sections, with chapters that are more or less independent of each other, as well as being of varying importance. The initial chapters, in the section entitled "Sophia Perennis," deal with the fundamental metaphysical principles that are like the warp on which all the Schuon opus is woven. There is an inescapable rigor here that, precisely, is necessary in order for the entire structure to have a solid foundation. But, as the author states in the introduction, one need not necessarily read the chapters sequentially. The reader is free to select the articles that immediately capture his attention, and the diversity of topics is indeed quite appealing.

The essays of the second section are in a way applications of the above-mentioned Sanskrit ternary to the microcosm that is man. Human nature is thus will-intelligence-sentiment or activity-knowledge-love. These articles focus on the third dimension of the soul, on the nature and role of the virtues, morality and sentiment. If, as mentioned above, the reader may begin with any chapter, one reason is the fact that the same spiritual realities ultimately make themselves known in each of the three human faculties. And this has some very interesting consequences. For example, most of our contemporaries are accustomed to thinking of sentiment only in terms of an individual subjectivism. But Schuon insists on the element of veracity in noble-thus normal-sentiments: "Like intelligence and will, sentiment is a faculty both of discrimination and of assimilation.... In reality, sentiment is a state of awareness which is doubtless not mental, objective and mathematical, but vital, subjective and so to speak musical..." In other words, something is not good or true because we love it. Quite the contrary, the True and the Good have an existence independent of our own, and to be aware of them is to love them and to tend toward them. Schuon is a master of describing these inter-relationships in all the myriad ways that we encounter them, whether at the level of ideas or in the inward life of the soul, with its private struggles and joys.

This book also contains several essays devoted to aesthetics and art. The chapter "Foundation of an Integral Aesthetics" is a landmark in this domain of Schuon's writings. From his very first book (The Transcendent Unity of Religions, 1953), the author has emphasized the importance of the fact that it is sensible forms which symbolically correspond most directly to the spiritual Intellect within us. The French have a saying, "Extremes meet." And because of the inverse analogy connecting the domain of the archetypes with the material plane, there is thus both a "science" and an "art" of the beauty of forms. According to their degree of harmony with a celestial perfection, earthly forms are projections of and receptacles for divine realities. At this point, one could not be farther from the notion that beauty is simply a matter of personal taste. At first glance, we may seem to be robbed of our sovereignty by Schuon's thesis that forms are beautiful only insofar as they manifest a Truth which utterly transcends our individuality. But he also reminds us that Beauty is not only rigor but music as well, and that it is only through the blissful extinguishing of our noisy ego in the overwhelming reality of the Beautiful that we find peace, harmony serenity.

One of the most interesting aspects of this book is that it makes clear what the author states in the opening paragraphs, that "esoterism resides not only in the choice of ideas, but also in the manner of envisaging things."

That Hinduism with its intricate polytheistic fabric and esoteric tradition offers the greatest metaphysical heritage among all world religions is a fact of life which cannot be denied by the honest onlooker or ignored by the erudite scholar which Schuon was - and this is true whether we, as Christians, like it or not. But Schuon never belittled the spiritual grandeur or denied the metaphysical meaningfulness of any true orthodox faith - on the contrary, religious chauvinism was alien to him as day is alien to night or lie is alien to truth. As far as rejecting his theodicy, if someone has a base to do that, it needs to be really strong because Schuon's ideas are not only metaphorically enlightening but also dialectically perfect. Furthermore, to understand why and how science in general, and scientism in particular form the plague of the modern world (in spite or perhaps because of the presence of the polio vaccine) one needs to view things from an intellectual perspective that the ordinary Westerner is generally incapable to attain - finally, it must be said that it may be simply impossible to comprehend Schuon's work unless one possesses a certain moral stature, in other words his work is a threshold that the petty man will never be able to cross.

That Hinduism with its intricate polytheistic fabric and esoteric tradition offers the greatest metaphysical heritage among all world religions is a fact of life which cannot be denied by the honest onlooker or ignored by the erudite scholar which Schuon was- and this is true whether we, as Christians, like it or not. But Schuon never belittled the spiritual grandeur or denied the dogmatic meaningfulness of any true orthodox faith- on the contrary, religious chauvinism was alien to him as day is alien to the night or lie is alien to the truth. As far as rejecting his theodicy, if someone has a base to do that, it needs to be really strong because Schuon's ideas are not only metaphorically enlightening but also dialectically perfect. Furthermore, to understand why and how science in general, and scientism in particular form the plague of the modern world (in spite or perhaps because of the presence of the polio vaccine) one needs to view things from an intellectual perspective that the ordinary westerner is generally incapable to attain- finally, it must be said that it may be simply impossible to comprehend Schuon's work unless one possesses a certain moral stature, in other words his work is a threshold that the petty man will never be able to cross.