Frithjof Schuon's interest in the Plains Indians A civilization's value lies in its sense of the Absolute Sacred nudity is the "heart exteriorized" Sacred nudity and underlying Reality

slide 2 of 4 This is taken from a transcript of a 1995 interview with the eminent Perennialist thinker and writer Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998). The following is a continuation of Frithjof Schuon's response to the following question: Question: Your book The Feathered Sun reveals your interest in the American Indians. May I ask you what the stimulus of this interest or affinity is? Frithjof Schuon (response continued): What makes the value of a man is neither his mundane culture nor his practical or inventive intelligence, but his attitude in the face of the Absolute; and he who has the sense of the Absolute never forgets the relationship between man and virgin Nature, because Nature is our origin, our natural homeland and a most transparent Message of God. For the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, the very condition of a realistic civilization is the equilibrium between Bedouins and city dwellers, which means between nomads and sedentaries; between the healthy children of Nature and the representatives of elaborated cultural values.