 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
slide 10 of 10
Chapter 10: Religio Perennis
In this final chapter, Schuon talks about separative discernment and unitive concentration; doctrine and method; faith and love. These elements are essential in all spirituality worthy of the name:
The essential function of human intelligence is discernment between the Real and the illusory or between the Permanent and the impermanent, and the essential function of the will is attachment to the Permanent or the Real. This discernment and this attachment are the quintessence of all spirituality; carried to their highest level or reduced to their purest substance, they constitute the underlying universality in every great spiritual patrimony of humanity, or what may be called the religio perennis; this is the religion to which sages adhere, one which is always and necessarily founded upon formal elements of divine institution. (Excerpted from pages 119-120)
Excerpts from the appendix of previously unpublished writings of Frithjof Schuon:
Man is situated between the inner and the outer just as the Logos is situated between God and the world and as Being is situated between Beyond-Being and Existence: hence between the Essence and the Logos.
On the one hand, to contemplate God in the inward and to recognize His reflections in the outward; on the other hand, to manifest Him in the outward while launching oneself toward Him in the inward.
When the inner dimension takes precedence over the outer, man will no longer undergo the tyranny of phenomena, but at the same time he will see them with the eye of inwardness: positive phenomena will be for him messengers of the inward and factors of interiorization. When one knows that beauty comes from the inward and bears witness to the inward, one will seek it in the inward. “The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Excerpted from page 132)
|
|
|