Frithjof Schuon: Life and Teachings

Conclusion

Conclusion Upon completion of his first reading of one of Schuon’s works, a scholar spontaneously compared his perception of the author to that of an eagle who, after having majestically and repeatedly circled the sky, would come and land right before him, summoning him with piercing eyes to jump into the void of an abyss of unknowing. The imaginal relevance of this perception is striking. The eagle, who is akin to the symbolism of lightning, is undoubtedly the animal that evokes most directly the metaphysical vision that characterizes Schuon’s opus. Schuon’s Lakota name bears further witness to this intuition. His work, which Jean Borella has suggestively defined as circular in style, spans the vast expanses of the sky of metaphysics while inviting the reader, with a kind of rigorous mercy, to engage himself totally in a spiritual odyssey that a priori requires a leap of faith, this faith that is both a prefiguration and a consequence of intellection. As Schuon puts it himself: “One can spend a whole lifetime speculating on the suprasensorial and the transcendent, but all that matters is the ‘leap into the void’ which is the fixation of the spirit and soul in an unthinkable dimension of the Real.”1 Similarly, one can endlessly comment on the conceptual wealth of Schuon’s work and spiritual perspective. What matters ultimately is to delve into the books themselves, time and time again, and to assimilate the virtually inexhaustible substance that they contain. As for all profoundly spiritual authors, reading Schuon requires a certain pace and a certain quality of attention. These texts need to be meditated and not only surveyed. In order to bear fruits, they also need to be used as a vademecum along one’s inner journey, They will thus unveil new aspects of Reality as one progresses in one’s assimilation of their teachings. Indeed, all that we could do in fine is precisely to invite our readers, should they be disposed and ready to do so, to undertake this intellectual and spiritual journey on their own. 127 ...