Frithjof Schuon: Man

“The world is miserable because men live beneath themselves; the error of modern man is that he wants to reform the world without having either the will or the power to reform man, and this flagrant contradiction, this attempt to make a better world on the basis of a worsened humanity, can only end in the very abolition of what is human, and consequently in the abolition of happiness too. Reforming man means binding him again to Heaven, reestablishing the broken link; it means tearing him away from the reign of the passions, from the cult of matter, quantity and cunning, and reintegrating him into the world of the spirit and serenity, we would even say: into the world of sufficient reason.”

Frithjof Schuon book Understanding Islam

[1998, Understanding Islam, World Wisdom, 26, 0-941532-24-0]
Miscellaneous, Modernity

Tear , Men , Happiness , Passion

“The worth of man lies in his consciousness of the Absolute, and consequently in the integrality and depth of this consciousness; having lost sight of it by plunging himself into the world of phenomena viewed as such, man needs to be reminded of it by the celestial Message. This Message comes finally from "himself", not of course from his empirical "I" but from his immanent Selfhood, which is that of God and without which there would be no "I", whether human, angelic or other; the credibility of the Message results from the fact that it is what we are, both within ourselves and beyond ourselves. In the depths of transcendence is immanence, and in the depths of immanence, transcendence.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2013, From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom, 127-128, 978-1-936597-32-1]
Miscellaneous, Revelation

God , World , Angels

“The saint is the man who acts as if he had died and returned to life; having already ceased to be "himself" in the earthly sense, he has no intention whatever of returning to that dream, but maintains himself in a kind of wakefulness, which the world with its narrowness and impurities cannot understand.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2006, Gnosis: Divine Wisdom, World Wisdom, 116-117, 978-1-933316-18-5]
Spiritual path, Holiness

Sense , World , Understanding , Dreams

“Sanctity is essentially contemplativity: it is the intuition of the spiritual nature of things; profound intuition which determines the entire soul, hence the entire being of man.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 13, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Holiness

Soul , Nature

“The double mission of man: to know the Absolute from the standpoint of the contingent, and to manifest the Absolute within the contingent.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2014, In the Face of the Absolute, World Wisdom, xii, 978-1-936597-41-3]
Human being, Specificities

“First of all one has to answer the question of why the painful experiences that man must undergo are called "trials."”

Frithjof Schuon

We would reply that these experiences are trials in relation to our faith, which indicates that with regard to troubling or painful experiences we have duties resulting from our human vocation; in other words, we must prove our faith in relation to God and in relation to ourselves. In relation to God, by our intelligence, our sense of the absolute, and thus our sense of relativities and proportions; and in relation to ourselves, by our character, our resignation to destiny, our gratitude. There are in fact two ways to overcome the traces that evil, or more precisely suffering, leaves in the soul: these are, firstly, our awareness of the Sovereign Good, which coincides with our hope to the extent that this awareness penetrates us; and secondly, our acceptance of what, in religious language, is called the "will of God"; and assuredly it is a great victory over oneself to accept a destiny because it is God's will and for no other reason.
[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 215, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual life, Trials

Pain , Question

“The gift of oneself to God is always the gift of oneself to all; to give oneself to God − though it were hidden from all − is to give oneself to man, for this gift of self has a sacrificial value of an incalculable radiance.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2006, Light on the Ancient Worlds, World Wisdom, 102, 978-0-941532-72-3]
Spiritual path, Prayer

God

“There is no theophany that is not prefigured in the very constitution of the human being, made as it is "in the image of God"; and esoterism aims at actualizing what is divine in this mirror of God that is man.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 117, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual path, Esoterism

God

“Sacred art helps man find his own center, that kernel whose nature is to love God.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2007, Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts, World Wisdom, 28, 978-1-933316-42-0]
Spiritual life, Sacred art

God , Help , Art , Nature

“Happiness is religion and character; faith and virtue. It is a fact that man cannot find happiness within his own limits; his very nature condemns him to surpass himself, and in surpassing himself, to free himself.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 220, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual life, Happiness

Faith , Religion , Happiness , Nature

“In order to be happy, man must have a center; now this center is above all the certitude of the One. The greatest calamity is the loss of the center and the abandonment of the soul to the caprices of the periphery. To be man is to be at the center; it is to be center.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 7, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual life, Happiness

Soul , Loss , Happiness

“Truth is the raison d’être for man’s existence; it constitutes our grandeur and reveals to us our smallness.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 34, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual life, Truth

Truth

“The worldly or imperfect man journeys through life as if on a long road; if he is a believer, he sees God above him in the far distance, and also at the end of this road. However the spiritual man stands in God, and life passes before him like a stream.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2013, Vers l’Essentiel : lettres d’un maître spirituel, Les Sept Flèches, 94, 978-2-97003-258-8]
Spiritual life, Outline

God , Life

“Beauty, whatever use man may make of it, belongs fundamentally to its Creator, who through it projects into the world of appearances something of His being.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2019, Esoterism as Principle and as Way, World Wisdom, 190, 978-1-93659765-9]
God, Beauty

Beauty , Appearance , World

“Divine anthropomorphism responds to human theomorphism: if God can manifest Himself in human modalities, it is because man is "made in the image of God", and this is the very reason for man’s existence and for the cosmic miracle that he is.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2008, Christianity / Islam, World Wisdom, 105-106, 978-1-933316-49-9]
God, Outline

God

“Objective intelligence, free will, virtuous soul: these are the three prerogatives that constitute man.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2019, Esoterism as Principle and as Way, World Wisdom, 97, 978-1-93659765-9]
Human being, Specificities

Soul , Intelligence

“Moral liberty and intellectual objectivity constitute a priori man’s deiformity.”

Frithjof Schuon

[2014, In the Face of the Absolute, World Wisdom, 9, 978-1-936597-41-3]
Human being, Deiformity