cartas selecionadas f schuon
Post on 07-Jul-2018
238 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 1/484
^/\nandaCoomaraswamy
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 2/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 3/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 4/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 5/484
SELECTED LETTERS OF
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Edited by
A l v i n M o o r e , J r .
and
R a m a P o o n a m b u l a m C o o m a r a s w a m y
IN D I R A G A N D H I N A T I O N A L C E N T R E F O R T H E A R TS
O X FO R D U N IV ER SITY PRESSDELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS
1988
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 6/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 7/484
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Ananda K. Coom arasw am yat 52 years frontispiece
facing page
2. “ Progress” by Denis Tegetm cier, in
Eric Gill, Unholy Trinity, London, Dent,
1942 32
3. Ananda K. Coom arasw am y at 58 years 108
4. An example o f C oom arasw am y’s
manuscripts— letter to Eric Gill 208
5. C oom arasw am y’s study in his hom e at
Needham, Massachuse tts 258
6. A room in N orm an Chapel,
C oom arasw am y’s hom e at Broad
C am pto n, Gloucestershire, about. 1908 328
7. Albrecht Diirer’s ‘Virgin on the Crescent’
from his Life o f the Virgin (1511) 362
8 . Ananda K. C oom arasw am y at 70 years 440
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 8/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 9/484
FOREWORD
In the wake o f Ananda C oom arasw am y’s extensive writings,
volumes o f accolades have come forth in praise o f his enorm ous
erudition. But here in these letters for the first time we sec the
man writing intimately about himself; not in an autobio-
graphical sense, which he detested, considering such portrai-
ture “ a vulgar catering to illegitimate cur iosity” (p 25), “ a
rather ghoulish and despicable trade” (p 25). This attitude was
with him, moreover, “no t a m atter o f ‘m od esty’, bu t one o f
principle” (p 25). His w riting o f him self was rather in the senseo f establishing a personal contact w ith each correspon den t
throu gh the painstaking e ffort o f getting a questioner to see the
why and w herefore o f his tho ught processes. Reading these
letters is like looking over his shoulder and watching how his
perceptions and ideas flow.
Eric Gill said it all when he wrote to the Doctor: “You hit
bloody straight, bloody hard , and bloody ofte n.” For
Coom arasw am y was uncom prom isingly honest; thus in a letterto Albert Schweitzer on this missionary’s Christianity and the
Religions o f the World : “[I] would like to let you know that I
regard it as a fundam entally dishonest w ork .”
Uncompromisingly charitable, as in a sixpage letter to a
psychiatrist: “ Your letter. . .brought tears to my eyes. Yours is
a personal instance of the whole modern world o f impov er-
ished reality. . . You caught the very sickness you were
treating. . . You did no t shake off the effluvium from your
fingers after laying on your han ds .” Pages of appropriatecounsel follow.
And uncompromisingly generous, instanced for example inhis long answers to letters from the Gandhian Richard Gregg
who was seeking clarification on such matters as realism and
nominalism, being and knowing, knowledge and opinion, being and becoming, rc incarnationist theories, and the question°f “psychic residues”.
Rama Coomaraswamy had first considered calling thiscollection o f his father’s correspondence Letters from a Hindu to
His Christian Friends. But although the young Ananda received
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 10/484
the investiture o f the Sacred Thread in Ceylon in 1897, he was
cducatcd in England and later lived as a Westerner, and was
Platonist and a Medievalist as much as a Vedantist. And his
correspondents were with few exceptions not religious by
vocation bu t academicians, albeit o f Christian heritage. He
situated his own position as “ a follower o f the PhilosophiaPerennis, or if required to be m ore specific, a V cd andn .”
We sec from these letters that Coomaraswamy was totally
realistic in his assessment o f Eastern and W estern values. To
Professor F. S. C. Northrup, he says that he tells Western
inquirers: “ W hy seek wisdom in India? The value o f the
Eastern trad ition for you is no t that o f a difference, b ut that it
can remind you o f wha t you have forgo tten,” adding that “ the
no tion o f a com m on hum anity is not enough for peace; w hat isneeded is our common divinity.” Elsewhere he writes that
“East and West have a common problem.” And he complains
to the German art historian, Herman Goetz, that the great
majority o f Indian students in the West arc really “ disorganized
barbarians” and “ cultura l il li te rates.” “The modern young
Indian (with exceptions) is in no position to meet the reallycultured and spiritual European.” Again to Northrup, he says,
“ I am still fully convinced that the metaphysics o f East andWest are essentially the same until the time o f the W estern
deviation from the common norms,” when Western thought
shifted (ca 1300) from realism to nominalism.
N ow he writes to the N ew English Weekly , “ the ‘civ ilization’
that men are supposed to be fighting for is already a museum
piece.” Elsewhere: “The magnitude o f our means and themultiplicity o f ou r ideas arc in fact the measure o f ou r
decadence.” And near the close of his life, in his address
(included here) on “ the Renaissance o f Indian Cu lture” , givenat Harvard on August 15, 1947, he says: “our problem is not somuch one o f the reb irth o f an Indian eulture, as it is one o f
preserv ing what remains o f it. This culture is valid for us not somuch bccausc it is Indian as because it is culture.” In a letteraddressing the need for a realistic ground o f understanding , hew rites tha t he can “ sec no basis for such a com m on understand-ing other than that o f the com mon universe o f discourse o f the
Philosophia Perennis, which was the lingua franca o f all cu ltures before the ‘confusion o f tongues’.” And he reiterates time andagain in his letters the necessity for people to turn to the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 11/484
traditional authorities o f ou r age in orde r to get theirmetaphysical bearings: men like Frithjo f Schuon, Rene Guenon
and Marco Pallis.
As foremost heir to Medieval wisdom the Catholic Church
in Coomaraswamy’s eyes bore a priceless legacy coupled withan enormous responsibility; and although continually inviting
Christians to share w ith him in the rediscovery o f this treasure,
the Doctor was with few exceptions thwarted by their
incapacity for adequate response. Conversion, they exclaimed,
not reciprocal comprehension, was the only way to salvation.
“Please do not pray that I may become a Christian,” replied
Coomaraswamy to a nun’s entreaties; “pray only that I may
know God better every day.” And he foresaw what was
coming to the Church when he wrote to another Catholic:“T he humanisation , ie, secularisation o f scripture accompaniesthe humanisation of Christ.”
His attitude on an esoteric aspect of Ch ristianity is disclosedin his words to Eric Gill about a “wonderful Mary legend” he
has read, saying that “there is a Vedic parallel too, whereWisdom is said to reveal her very body to some. Perhaps you
can print this legend someday, and I could write a few words of
introduction. On the other hand, perhaps the world does notdeserve such things nowadays!”
Regarding his own path, Coomaraswamy wrote, “I fully
hold that labore est orare and do regard my work as a vocation.”
But “ w hen I go to In dia ,” he said in a letter to Marco Pallis, “ itwill be to drop w riting . . . my object in ‘re tiring’ being to
verify what I already ‘know’.” Meanwhile, in his seventiethyear he wrote, “the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads are daily
reading for me.”These letters convey a constant tone o f the D oc tor’s ow n
selfeffacement. He puts forth his principles unflaggingly,
while never putting forth himself, saying he is only anexponent for the ideas o f others: “ [I] try to say noth ing that can properly be att ributed to me individually .” To the traditionalCatholic, Bernard Kelley, he wrote: “It can only be said thatthe m ystic is acting ‘selfishly’ when there really remains in hima ‘self.” The word idiot , he reminds another correspondent,
means “virtually ‘one who thinks for h im se lf.” And in anothe r place: “ Satan was the first to th ink o f himself as a genius.”
All this touches on the axis around which Coomaraswamy’s
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 12/484
later exposition revolved, nam ely, the postulate o f the two
selves or “minds”— duo sunt in homine —and its ineluctablecorollary, on the necessity for selfnaughting. With incrediblethoroughness he pursued parallels from Western and Eastern
sources, to Sankara’s presentation o f Advaita Vedanta, the
doctrine o f monism or nonduality. And Co om arasw am y’sintransigence regarding the sole true reality o f our Higher
Self—“the One and Only Transmigrant”, St Paul’s “not I, but[the] Christ [that] livcth in me”—was compounded by hisinsistence on the infallibility o f imm utable a rchetype and m yth
over mutable accident and history, to the point even of
perm itting him self an expression o f doubt concern ing the
historicity o f Christ and the Buddha. In order to situate the
paradox o f this tendency to excess at the expense o f fact, wehave to remind ourselves that Coomaraswamy found himselfcon fronting a blind generation w ith timeless truths, in an age of
“impoverished reality” wherein most people no longer “see”
what is beyond their senses. In a world where religion for the
m ultitude has becom e equated w ith m oral precepts on the level
o f “ Be good, dear child” , the metaphysician felt the need to
repost w ith the thund er o f ultimates on the level o f “Every-
thing will perish save God’s Countenance” (Q u ’ran xxviii, 88).To reply that the Doctor could better have struck a happymedium in these matters is to ask that Coomaraswamy not be
Coomaraswamy.
He admits the Plotinian concept of “distinction w ithout
difference” in the Noumenal Sphere where “all souls are one”,yet in actual exegesis he virtually reduces the human soul to a“ process” o f becoming, w ithout final reality. In part his
emphasis on this point was to refute the popular notion of
reincarnation, currently a dogma in India and one particularly vexing to him as it lends an exaggerated im port-ance to the accidental ego o f this man so andso, and also because his insistence on the fallacy o f the belief invitedcriticism from erudite Hindus who otherwise admired hiswritings.
It may be well to state here that reincarnationism derivesfrom misconceptions o f basic Eastern teachings having to do
w ith the R ound o f Existence or samsara, this being thetransm igration o f souls to o ther states o f existence insofar as theimp urities o f ignorance have no t been who lly eradicated in
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 13/484
them, that purification w hich alone leads to enlightenm ent andfinal deliverance from the meshes o f existence and becom ing.
But this teaching has to be situated in term s o f the limitless
modalities and imm ensities o f cosmic time and space (in which
“ God does no t repeat H im se lf’), whereas reincarnationism
credulously reduces transmigration through the multiple stateso f the being to a kind o f gardenvariety genealogy played out
on the scale of this world’s stage.
To a question about a prom inen t Indian put by S. Durai Raja
Singam, the man who was to become the indefatigable
com piler o f Co om arasw am y m emorabilia, the D octor replied
in 1946: [He] is a saint, n ot an intellectual giant; I am neither bu tI do say that those whose authority I rely on when I speak have
often been both.” People may think what they like aboutwhether he was cither, neither, or the two concurrently, but it
cannot be denied tha t he certainly vehicled an aura o f both .
He was fond o f quo ting St Paul to the effect that G od has
never left Him self w ithout a witness. In the traditional
patrim ony that Coom arasw am y has handed on we have an
eloquent testimony to this.
W h i t a l l N . P e r r y
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 14/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 15/484
PREFACE
It is both a great privilege and an extraordinary experience tohave selected, and along with Alvin Moore, to have edited the
letters o f Ananda C oom arasw am y. O ne w onders, in the face o f
his enormous literary output, how he was able to carry on such
a fruitful correspondence. The nu m ber o f letters probably runs
to several thousand and one would hope, that over the course
o f time m any m ore will turn up. T hese can, almost witho ut
exception, be divided into four categories: those dealing with
inquiries about w orks o f art— either requests for identification,
evaluation or possible purchase by the Boston Museum; those
responding to or dealing with philosophical or metaphysical
issues; those written to the New England Weekly; and lastly a
handful o f b rie f personal notes to his mothe r, wife, o r children.
Th ere are various reasons why the letters o f famous men are
published. In the case o f some, they reflect the times they lived
in. O thers give insights into the personal life o f the author, or
clues as to what induced him to enter the public forum. Still
others are exam ples o f literary art— so called “belle lettrcs” .Those o f D r C oom arasw am y are none o f these. Indeed, w hat is
extraordinary about them is that they contain nothing personal,
even when written to close friends and associates. He had said
once, in response to a request for an autobiography, that
“portraiture o f hum an beings is aswarga”, and that such an
attitude w as a matter, no t o f modesty, but o f principle. Hisletters reflect this attitude.
I have said that there are several thousand letters. Unfortu-nately, no t all o f these have been collected or collated. M any
have undoubtedly been lost. Thus for example, his own files
show perhaps a hundred letters from Marco Pallis. Unfortu-nately, none o f his to M r. Pallis survive as the latter
consistently destroyed all mail after reading. Again, there are atarge num be r o f letters to him from Rene Guenon. H ow ever,the Guenon archives have revealed or at least, produced nonefrom him . Several European and A merican libraries have lettersfrom him dispersed in collections o f other notables such asYeates or Sorokin. Still other letters are archived in private
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 16/484
collections such as T. S. Eliott. Hopefully one response to the
publication o f these carefully selected exam ples will be a more
complete collation, with hitherto unknown examples becom-
ing available.The selection process was fairly simple. All the available
letters—cither originals or carbon copies—were read andclassified as to m ajor topics o f discussion. These sub groupswere then weeded out so as to avoid excessive length and
repetition. The end result is some 400 letters which can truly be
said to be characteristic.The remarkable thing abou t these letters is that each o f them
is a sort of “miniessay” put forth in relatively easy language.
Despite this, they cover almost every m ajor line o f thought that
is developed in his published w orks. Those who w ould seek an
introduction to the writings o f Ananda Coom araswam y coulddo no better than to start with this book.
It is both fitting and wonderful, that the Indira Gandhi
National Centre for the Arts should select this w ork as the first
publication in its planned collected works o f Ananda Coomara-
swamy. If he was a universalist in principle, he was above all an
Indian in his origins and ways of thinking. It had been his plan to
return to India where he intended to continue his works, produce
a translation o f the Upanishads, and then take Sanyasa. Godwilled otherwise and only his ashes were returned to the land he
loved. Hcnce it is—one says it again—both fitting and wonderful
that India should undertake to make available to the world, notonly his letters, but the entire corpus o f his works.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 17/484
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Wc wish to acknow ledge the coopcration o f all w ho have
assisted in making this volume possible by providing copies of
Dr Coomaraswamy’s letters which have been included in this
collection. We thank the U niversity o f M innesota for permis-
sion to use the lines from Ray Livingston’s The Traditional
Theory o f Literature wh ich arc placed in exergue to this volum e;
the heirs o f Devin Adair publishers for permission to quo te in
the Introduction the paragraph from Eric Gill’s Autobiography.
Our thanks are due also to Sri Keshavram N. Icngar of
Bangalore, India; Mr and Mrs Eric H. Hansen, EmoryUniveristy, Atlanta, Georgia; Dr Rene Imelee, West Georgia
College, Carrollton, Georgia; and to the librarians and staff
mem bers o f the E m ory University library and the library o f
West Georgia College. And certainly not least, we thank our
respective spouses for their encouragement, patience and
practical help.
A l v i n M o o r e , J r .
R a m a P o o n a m b u l a m C o o m a r a s w a m y
In the late ha lf o f the nineteenth cen tury and the early tw entieth
century scholars from all parts o f the wo rld w ere draw n to the
Asian heritage. Some excavated, others brought to light
primary textual material, and a third group dwelled upon
fundamental concepts, identified perennial sources, and created bridges o f com munication by juxtaposing diverse tradit ions.
They w ere the pathfinders: they drew attention to the unity and
wholeness of life behind manifestation and process. C uttin gacross sectarian concerns, religious dogma and conventionalnotions of the spiritual East and materialist West, of monothe-ism and polytheism, they were responsible for laying thefoundations o f a new approach to Indian and Asian art. T heirw ork is o f co ntem po rary relevance and validity for the East andthe West. Restless and unsatisfied with fragmentation, there is asearch for roots and comprehension, perception and experience
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 18/484
o f the who le. Seminars on renewal, regeneration and begin-
nings have been held. The time is ripe to bring the work of
these early torch bearers to the attention o f future generations.
Th e name o f Ananda Kentish C oom araswam y is foremo st
am ong these pathfinders— for the expanse o f his grasp, the
depth o f his insights, and fo r their validity today.To fulfil the need for renew ed search for the whole, as also to
stimulate further work with this free and catholic approach
w hich is not im prisoned in the walls o f ideology, the Kala Kosa
Division o f the IG N CA has initiated a program m e o f publica-
tion o f w orks o f critical scholarship, reprints and translations.
The criterion o f identification is the value o f the w ork for its
crosscultural perception, multidisciplinary approach and in-
accessibility for reasons o f language or on account o f being o utof print.
Th e Collected Works o f A. K. Coom arasw am y, thematical-
ly rearranged with the author’s own revisions, is central to the
IG N C A ’s third p rogra m m e in its division o f Textual Research
and Publication, Kala Kosa. T he p resent volum e o f the Selected
Letters o f Ananda K . Coomaraswamy commences this series.
The IGNCA is grateful to Dr Rama P. Coomaraswamy for
agreeing to allow the IGNCA to republish the collected works,
and for his generosity in relinquishing claims on royalties.
Alvin M oore , an old associate o f Coom arasw am y, has pains-
takingly edited the present volume along with Dr Rama P.Co om arasw am y. We are grateful to both o f them. M r Keshav
Ram Iengar has to be thanked for his lifetime devotion, his
interest, and his assistance in proofreading and preparing theindex.
We also thank M r Jyotish D utta G upta for rendering
invaluable help in the production, M r K. L. Khosa fordesigning the jack et and M r K. V. Srinivasan for ably assistingin this project.
K a p i l a V a t s y a y a n
In d i r a G a n d h i N a t i o n a l C e n t r e Fo r T h e A r t s
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 19/484
INTRODUCTION
It seems fitting to introduce these letters selected from the
extensive corresponden ce o f Ananda K entish Coo maraswam y
with a paragraph from his close friend Eric Gill, Catholic,
artisan, artist and au tho r o f distinguished repu tation. Gill
wrote, in his Auto bio graphy:
. . . T here was on e p erson, to w ho m I think William
Rothcnstein introduced me, whom I might not have met
otherwise and for whose influence I am deeply grateful. Imean the philosopher and theologian Ananda Coomara-
swamy. Others have written the truth about life and religion
and man’s work. Others have written good clear English.
O thers h ave had the gift o f w itty expression. O thers have
un de rstood the m etaphysics o f Ch ristianity, and others have
und erstood the m etaphysics o f Hinduism and Buddhism.
O thers have un de rstood the true significance of erotic
drawings and sculptures. Others have seen the relationships
o f the good , the true and the beautiful. O thers have had
apparently unlimited learning. Others have loved; others
have been kind and generous. But I know o f no one else in
whom all these gifts and all these powers have been
com bined. I dare not confess mys elf his disciple; that would
only embarass him . I can only say that no othe r living writer
has w ritten the tru th in m atters o f art and life and religion
and piety with such wisdom and understanding.
This citation gives a very discerning insight into the character
o f the m ature Coom arasw am y. But one may, quite properly,want to kn ow som ething m ore o f the life and circumstances of
this son o f East and W est who corresponded so widely and wholeft so m any letters that are deemed w orth y o f publication evenafter so many years. Moreover, what could a nonChristianhave to say that cou ld be o f any possible interest to the seriousChristian?
The w riter o f these letters was born in 1877 in Colombo,Cey lon (now Sri Lanka), o f a Tam il father and an Englishmother. The father, Sir Mutu Coomaraswamy, was a particu-
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 20/484
larly able m em ber o f an outstanding T amil, H indu family that
had been long settled in Ceylon but which had retained its ties,especially religious ties, with India. Sir Mutu was the first
Asian and the first Hindu to be called to the bar in Britain, in
1863, and a man whose personal presence and achievement
gained for him an entrance into upper social circles in England.He counted Disraeli among his friends, eg, and Disraeli even
took him as model for one o f his fictional characters. The
m other was Elizabeth Clay Beeby, o f a Ken t family prom inent
in the India and Ceylon trade. The couple had been married in
1875 by no less an ecclesiastic than the Archbishop of
Canterbury. This was certainly no casual miscegenation, such
as had been all too common and even encouraged in colonial
India; on the contrary, it was the purposeful union o f twostrong minds and independent spirits. But an interracial
marriage is not likely to be easy; and, over a hundred years ago,
the couple must have faced distinct difficulties both among the
Victorian English and in the East among orthodox Hindus.
The yo ung Ananda, how ever, was to combine in himself the
better qualities o f both races. He was him self to become ritually
one o f the twiceborn among the Hindus, and he was to g row
into an apostle o f the traditional East (now no longeridentifiable geographically) to men hungering and thirsting for
spiritual and intellectual sustenance in the meaningless wastes
o f the m odern w orld. Rem arkably, and on ly to a slightly lesserdegree, he was an apostle of the traditional West as well; for he
was intimately familiar w ith the corpus o f Medieval Christian
philosophy, theology, lite ra ture and art, as well as withPlatonism and Neoplatonism.
In 1877, after two years in Ceylon and the birth o f her son,
Lady C oom arasw am y, not yet thirty, returned to England for avisit. Sir Mutu was to follow but, tragically, died on the veryday he was to have sailed from Colombo. It was thus that theyoung mother and her child remained in Britain. The youngAnanda w as educated in England, first at home, then at a public
school (Wycliffe, in Gloucestershire), and finally at the Uni-versity o f London which he entered at eighteen. He g raduatedfrom the latter in 1900 with' honors in botony (gardening was a
lifelong interest) and geology. Later, his university was toaward him its doctorate in science (1906) for his work in themineralogy o f Ceylon; for between 1902 and 1906 the young
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 21/484
scientist had w ork ed in the land o f his birth, mak ing the first
m ineralogical su rve y o f the island. His co mpetence as a scientist
is indicated by the fact that he identified a previously un know n
mineral, serendibite. And characteristically, he chose not to
name it after himself, which he would have been fully entitled
to do. M uch o f this original w ork done by Coom araswam y isstill in use.
Survey activities required extensive field work, and Coomara-
swamy found these duties particularly congenial. His con-
tinuing presence in the field gave him numerous occasions to
move among the Tamil and Sinhalese* villages, especially the
latter, and to ob serv e rural life and the practice of the local
crafts; and n otably , to ob serve the blighting effect o f the
European presence on indigenous culture and values. Oneo f his early concerns was a camp aign to encourage the use
o f traditional d ress in preference to E uropean c lothing, in
which many Asians—particularly women—often looked so
awkward.
Moving between England and Ceylon as he frequently did,
Coomaraswamy had numerous opportunities for travel in
India. He did so in 1901, again in 1906, and more extensively in
19101911. Already in Ceylon he had been active in social
reform and educational m ov em ents, and he figured prom inent-
ly in the campaign to found a national university in that
country. It was a natural step to pursue related interests in
India, which he was coming to view as cultural macrocosm to
Ceylon’s microcosm. In India his interests shifted towards
Indian nationalism and its written expressions, and then
tow ards a personal survey o f the arts and artifacts o f the
subcontinent. He began collccting extensively but discrimina-
tingly in folk music, and especially in miniature paintings. Infact, early on, he gained an international reputation on the basis
o f w ork begu n in this incep tion o f his professional life. Later,
he offered his su pe rior co llection o f Indian m iniatures to the
cou ntry if a national m useu m could be built to house them; but
when funds were not forthcoming for this purpose, he brought
* The Sinhalese, gen erally H inayana Bud dhists, are the majority in the
popula tion o f Ceylon (Sri Lanka ). T he encrg ctic and ente rp ris in g Tam ils,
generally Hindu, arc Dravidians from adjacent South India and are thelargest minority group in the island nation, where they have been settled for
many centuries.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 22/484
the collcction to the United States where it is housed primarily
at the Boston M useum o f Fine Arts. Medieval Sinhalese Art, his first m ajor publication, was a book
for which he did not only the field work (assisted by his wife
Ethel), but which he personally saw through the press—this
latter being William M orr is’ old Kclm scott Press which hadcome into Coomaraswamy’s possession. This book is testi-
mony not only to Coomaraswamy’s competence as art
historian, bu t also to a high degree o f personal and m ethodo lo-
gical discipline. A second major publication was his Rajput
Painting (1916), which bore the lengthy subtitle: Being an
Account o f Hindu Paintings o f Rajasthan and the Punjab* Himalayas
from the Six teenth to the Nineteenth Century Described in Relation
to Contemporary Thought with Texts and Translations. All this iscited to make a specific point: the phrase “described in relation
to contemporary thought” offers an important key to
C oo m arasw am y’s approach in many o f his more profound
studies written in later years. He would, eg, present a painting,
a sculpture, a weapon or a ritual object and on the basis o f the
relevant Scriptural or other texts offer erudite and profound,
lucid and highly concentrated expositions o f the ideas o f which
the artifact was, so to speak, a palpable representation. Thisapproach implies the nullity o f the precious distinctions tha t arc
commonly assumed to distinguish the “fine” from the applied
arts, for traditionally the governing rules and manners of
production arc the same. All appearances proceed from the
interior ou twards, from the art and science o f the artist to the
artifact; and, Ultimately, from an uncreated and principal
Interior to the manifested or created order, from God to the
world . Th e m anner of this divine operation , in final analysis, is
the parad igm o f the artist as practitioner. There can be notraditional justification for an art that imitates nature on ly in her
external aspects, natura naturata, mere fact: nor for an art thataims only at aesthetic pleasure; and even less for an artconceived as noth ing m ore than the expression o f the individualartist, ic, vulgar exhibitionism—not to mention “surreal art”,
* At the tim e Co om arasw am y w as travelling and collccting in Rajasthan and
in the Punjab, the latter was a much larger entity than it is today, for it has
un derg on e several divisions. It then consisted o f the areas that are nowincluded in the Punjab prov ince of Pakistan, Indian or East Punjab, and theIndian states o f Hary ana and Himachal Pradesh.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 23/484
which is an eru ptio n o f the subconscious into the waking state,
like a nightmare experienced at midday.
There were them es that C oo m arasw am y reiterated in season,
ou t o f season. T he y represent intuitions that were with him
from the beginning, but their eloquent articulation which was
to characterize his later w riting was not arrived at suddenly; hew orke d his w ay to this und ou bted extended mastery. O ne very
important step in this maturation was the invitation extended
to him in 1917 by the Bo ston M useum o f Fine Arts to become
Keeper of their Indian collections. So it was that at the age of
forty, uncomfortable in the Britain that frowned upon his
Indian sympathies, and already with an international reputa-
tion, Coomaraswamy accepted the American offer and began
the association with the Boston Museum and the United Statesthat endured thirty years—until his death in 1947. His tenure
was by no means a sinecure, but the Boston Museum did
provid e both th e necessary freedom and the favorable ambiance
for the flow ering o f one o f the m ost wideranging and
pro foundcst in te lligences th at have ever w orked in the U nited
States. In B oston, C oo m arasw am y settled in for years of w ork
in collections development, in technical studies, in writing; and
generally in m ak ing kn ow n the results of his findings and
thinking on an intensely learned level, but also as occasion
offered, on more popular levels, eg, in radio talks and in public
lectures. B ut he conceived o f his vocation as primarily
addressing the learned, as being a teacher to teachers, believing
that thereby the imp act o f his w ork m ight be the greater. H e
wrote to Eric Hill that “ . . . it is a matter o f definite policy on
my part to w ork w ithin the academic . . . sphere: this is
analagous to the idea o f the reform o f a school o f thou gh t
within, instead o f an attack withou t. . . . His wife,Dona Luisa, recalled his rhetorical question: “What would I
have ever done without my doctorate?” His credentials and hisachievements won for him a hearing; but especially in his later
years when his writing was more profound and his expression
more uncompromising, it was a hearing for views that were
* By co ntrast, his con tem po rary an d friend Rerie Guenon wo rked in
p io neerin g iso la tion and le t pass no o p po rtu n it y to disparage acad em e,
especially the ‘official’ Orientalists. As a conscqucnce, only within the lastdccadc or so has the scholarly w orld begun to take note o f this body o f work
which, quite simply, can no longer be ignored.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 24/484
anything but popular and that were particularly at variance
with conventional opinion typifying the secularist mentality so
prevalent am ong the educated.Th e a uthor o f these letters considered himself a Hindu;
m oreo ver, he is recognized within this tradition as an orthod ox
exponen t of Hindu doctrinc. T he w ord “ ortho do x” is used
here in its pro per sense of one w ho is sound o r correct in
doctrinc and opinion; one w hose expositions reflect, no t willful
personal views, but a hom ogeneity o f thought proper to the
spiritual perspective o f the Trad ition from which he speaks. It
may be n oted that o f all the extant traditional forms, H induism
is the oldest and is thus considered nearest the Primordial
Tradition. Hinduism is also the most universal, including
within its fold almost all the perspectives which have, mutatis mutandis, been more specifically developed in one o f the other
orthodox Traditions. As an outstanding scholar, Coomaras-
wamy was familiar with the traditional writings and perspec-
tives o f Bud dhism , Islam, Judaism, the doctrines o f the
American Indians, the Platonists and Neoplatonists; and
especially those o f H induism and Christianity. Indeed, he had
dream t o f w riting, as he said, con amore about the latter.
C oom arasw am y was on the side o f the angels, a preeminentwitness to the ineluctable priority o f Intelligence. He was one
o f three remarkable m en* w hose H eaven sent vocations have
been, in varyin g degrees and foci, to recall to a secularized and
dispirited contemporary humanity what and who man is, what
it means to be man, and what is man’s proper destiny.
C oo m arasw am y was a universalist in that he understood and
believed to ta lly in the transcendent unity o f re ligions**. It
follows that he did not believe that the Christian Revelation
* Th e oth er tw o arc Frithjof Schuon and Rene Guenon, whose names
(especially the latter) appear from time to time in these letters, and whose
published w ork s are m entioned in the bib liographical sect ion at the end o f
this volume.
** The Transcendent Unity o f Religions is the title of the first ma jor w ork o f
Fr ithjo f Sch uon w hich ap peared in 1948 (the original French edition). T . S.
Eliot, then w ith Faber and Faber, L ondon, which published the first English
translation, gave a very favorable endorsem ent o f the book. It is a landm arkwith which Coomaraswamy would have been in full agreement. Note that
the operative word, however, is transcendent ; Schuon never minimizes thegenuine differences which providentially and necessarily separate the severaltraditional forms.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 25/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 26/484
speculative* w riting for centuries. A t this point, one cannot but
recall the first Pentecost and the “ gift o f tongues” (Acts ii,211) when the Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoke so
as to be heard and understood by pilgrims from “all nationsunder Heaven”**—a kind of reversal of the malediction of
Babel. The w ork o f Co om araswam y has something o f this pentecostal quality— in the original, not in the sectarian
sense—imp lying some measure of inspiration by the Spirit o f
T ru th, som e degree of contact with the suprapersonal Intellect.
Spiritus ubi vult spirat, “the Spirit blowcth where it listeth” (Jn
iii, 8). It is thus that the most profound conceptions can be
articulated with all requisite authority when the proper
occasion dem ands it; and it is thus that these conceptions cannot
be the exclusive property o f any particular segment o fhumanity. In his own case, Coomaraswamy prescinded from
this obvious unity in diversity to say: “What I regard as the
proper end o f ‘Com parative Religion’ is the dem onstration o f
fundam ental tru ths by a cloud o f witnesses” .*** A nd it was in
this vein that he demonstrated the most striking parallels, eg, in
the writings o f St Thom as A quinas and the Hindu shruti and
smriti, *** and not only as between these by any means.
Speaking as a H indu (and, one m igh t add, as a Platonist), and in* T he w ord ‘specu lative’ can serve as a conven ient exam ple o f precisely this
attenuation. The primary modern sense, when not referring to financial
ma nipulations, has to do with fantasy or imaginative thinking severed from
existential and especially palpable realities. Originally and etymologically,
the w or d refers to intellectual realities— ‘the same yesterday, today, and
fore ver’— and the capacity o f the hum an intelligence to understan d these
realities.
** C oom arasw am y would have noted that the heaven in question was th at as
conceived by the ancient Mediterranean world. But he would have beenquite certain that the Christian Scriptures are in no w ay diminished w hen w e
recognize that there were no Chinese, Red Indians or Incas among the
Apostles’ auditors.
*** A powerful apologetic tool is neglected more often than n ot when
Ch ristians fail to m ake use o f the ‘pro bab le’ evidences available in
non Ch ristian traditions. It is some w hat as if St Tho m as had rejected
Aristotle.
** ** Shruti, in Hindu ism , is the highest degree o f Reve lation, being directcontact with Divine realities. Smriti derives its authority from the shruti via
reflection, c om parable in this respect to certain aspects o f the Epistles o f StPaul. Among the parallels Coomaraswamy found as between the HinduScriptures and C hristian d octrine, we m ay me ntion that of the one Essence
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 27/484
the face o f C hristian exclusivism, he could say— with great
caritas — “ I am on your side, even if you arc not on min e” .
Obviously, all the several Traditions have their respective
poin ts of view vis-a-vis the theses stated or implied above, and
we cannot pursue these here. We must limit our remarks to
contem po rary C hristianity as it is seen and kn ow n about us. Atfirst slowly bu t steadily, and no w at a rapidly accelerating pace,
we have seen the Faith enter into a decline: intellectually and
conceptually, artistically, socially and morally. And now today
one sees an astonishing convergence o f what is taken to be the
Christian message (and which is often only caricature at best)
with a frank worldlincss. On a merely extrinsic reckoning,
C hristian ity has long since ceased to be a formative influence in
modern life (individual exceptions granted), having becomeitself a follower— o f secular hum anism , progress, evolution-
ism, scientism and oth er fashionable and m ore or less ephem er-
al trends. M ultitudes o f those who should norm ally be
Christian have deserted the Faith. N o t a few o f these have taken
to strange cults, which, in our decaying culture as in ancient
Rome, proliferate like flies. Others have turned to one or
another o f the O riental religions, a move w hich often affords
occasions of ridicule by those less in earnest or—
m om entarily— in less apparent need. It m ust be adm itted,
how ever, that in all too m any cases the forms o f Oriental
religion accessible in the W est* are o f doub tful soundn ess—
though there arc clear and definite exceptions. In these last
times, when we find “Christian” spokesmen expounding all
manner o f strange notions from w ithin the Church and the
Churches, w hen the C hristian vocabulary and idiom arc widely
used to disguise nonChristian and even counterChristian
purposes, it is m ost appropriate th at D r C oom arasw am y’sletters to his learned friends should be made public. For as Ray
Livingston said in the lines cited in exergue above: “Let it be
noted . . . that Coomaraswamy cannot be lumped with those
and tw o natures, the role o f the W ord and the primordiality o f sound, and
the procession a nd return o f creatures.
* As for H ind uism itself, i t is no t a proselytizing faith and the no nH indu
does no t have the op tion o f converting to H induism, en try into w hich is by
bir th in to one o f the four tradit io nal castcs . T his says all tha t need be saidhere abou t the socalled H indu sects w hich have been so conspicuous in the
West.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 28/484
swam is* o f East or West, o r like types, w ho pedd le a bogus
‘spirituality’ that is vague, delusory and deceitful . . . . Coom ar-
aswamy had no designs on us . . . except to return us to the
sources o f our ow n w isdom .”Coomaraswamy had found in art a window onto the
Universal; and from a maturing interest in art as illustrative ofideas, particularly metaphysical ideas, in the last fifteen years or
so o f his life his p rim ary interest was in the ideas themselves: in
the m etaphysical doctrine that is the heritage o f hum anity as
such, ideas which embody those principles by which civiliza-
tions rise and fall and which are variously expressed in the
several traditional forms— una veritas in variis signis, variae
resplendet, ad majorem gloriam Dei, “one truth in various forms,
variously resplendent, to the greater glory o f G od ” , anaphorism which Coomaraswamy liked to quote. It is in this
area, as metaphysician and comparative religionist, that
Coom arasw am y can and should be of the greatest interest
to those willing to make the effort involved in following his
dialectic, nam ely those whose pow ers o f attention and concen-
tration have not been utterly vitiated by the host distractions
which—purposely, it would seem—permeate modern life. He
can be instrum ental in helping restore some sense o f the
transcendent dim ension to one’s understanding o f a Ch ristian-
ity which, officially, has all too often become worldly, banal
and insipid—in the Gospel expression, unsavory.
There are doubtless some who would criticize Dr Coomara-sw am y as an elitist, though in the nature o f things such
judgem ents can have litt le in tr insic force or significance. For
there are men (and, o f course, w om en, too, for man and men
cover all humanity)—there are men, we say, who have superior
intellectual and spiritual gifts, far above the average, so muchso that a common humanity serves only to cloak for theundiscerning the fact that interiorly men can differ almost as
much as angels from animals. “God giveth without stint towhom He will”, says the Q u ’ran. And to some Heaven has
given the vocation, appo inted the task o f recalling men to theirinalienable spiritual and intellectual patrimony. AnandaC oom araswa m y was one o f these few; men w ith w hom
* The w ord swam y is itself a perfectly respectable honorific, and it wasevidently incorporated into the Coomara family name at some point, as is
not uncommon in India.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 29/484
“ Heaven docs . . . as we with torches do, not light them for
them selves.” The first fifty years o r so o f his life were a lmost as
a period o f training for the last decade and a half. D uring that
latter period he was consum ed in the effort to recall the modern
world, through those scholars whom he specifically addressed,
to the intellectual/spiritual birthright that has been abandoned,to a saner m ann er o f life, a life that m igh t take due account o f
the w hole man and especially o f the claims o f the Inner M an,
the Man in cveryman (a phrase he often used). Our task is to
kno w w ho and w hat w e are; because we, being manifold, have
the du ty to appraise ourselves and to become aware o f the
num ber and nature o f ou r constituents, some o f which we
ignore as wc commonly ignore our very principle and manner
o f being—to adapt w ords o f Plotinus (Enneads VI.7.14).Coomaraswamy took his calling quite seriously; nevertheless,
he was far from being puritanical or shrunken; indeed, the
hum ane am plitude o f the man was inescapable and remarkable.
He believed that living according to Heavengiven designs
assured not only the fullest possible happiness in this life, but
also plenitude of jo y and perfect fu lfillm ent outre tombe. O ne o f
the great weaknesses he perceived in religion in the modern
West was the wide tendency (since his death, greatly accentu-
ated) to reduce the claims o f religion to merely social and
ethical considerations, ie, the most external and derivative
aspects o f a Tra dition . He saw that religion needs to return to
doctrine, and this in a more profound sense than anything
Christianity has known since the Middle Ages.
What we need is the revival o f Christian dogm a. Th is is
precisely w here the East is o f use and help. I have been to ld
by Catholics that my ow n w ork has given them renewed
confidence, which is ju st the effect it should have . . . ethicshave no po w er o f their ow n . . . they becom e a m ere
sentiment and do little or nothing to better the world.
Further, following St Thomas and other traditional doctrines,he distinguished faith, which is an intellectual virtue in itsintrinsic nature, from mere . . ‘fidcism’ which only am oun tsto credulity, as exercised in connection with postulates, slogansand all kinds o f wishful thinking” .
Should one doubt Coomaraswamy’s sincerity in all the positions he advocated, there are several tests one m ight apply .
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 30/484
Whitall Perry mentioned several in his Foreword—the man’s
honesty, his generosity, his selfeffacement. In this latter,
Co om arasw am y is reminiscent of Plotinus, w ho refused to
allow his portrait to be painted on the grounds that no one
could benefit from the image o f an image. Add itionally, one
might consider Coomaraswamy’s indefatigable labours spreadover many years, and his large indifference to copyright
interests as regards his own work. The man was essentially
disinterested.We have commented on Coomaraswamy the metaphysician,
on his com prehensive view o f man and the world, on his vast
erudition. These qualities are as valuable today, probably more
so, as when he wrote; before, be it noted, the II Vatican
Council and its devastating aggiomamento with the accompany-ing public eruption of modernism into the heart of Christianity.
Were there no sh ortcom ings in the man? Is this b rief sketch
mere extravagan t hag iography, simply a litany o f praise? It is
yes to the first and no to the second question. Whitall Perry has
no ted several aspects of C oo m aras w am y’s ruling perspectives
that do require qualification; and there are a few additional
poin ts that need to be made in this connection. When
Coomaraswamy wrote, he found that available translations of
Oriental texts and expositions o f traditional doctrine w ere
usually inadequate at best and commonly little better than
caricatures. Skeptics, nonbelievers, nominalists and rational-
ists, on the basis o f no m ore than a presumed linguistic
competence, set themselves to translate and expound the most
abstruse tex ts and doctrines o f the traditional East; and, not
surprisingly, the results betrayed the originals. But in the half
century since Dr Coomaraswamy’s death, this situation has
changed substantially, thanks in no small part to the efforts ofAKC himself. It is not that there are no longer inadequate trans-
lations nor expositions that delude: it is rather that due to the
efforts o f a nu m ber o f traditionalists: m en like Rene Guenon,
Titus Burckhardt, Marco Pallis, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and
especially Frithjof Schuon, as well as those of AKC and a fewothers o f like m ind and inspiration, there now exists a veryrespectable bod y o f expo sitory and interpretative w ork in
which we have a touchstone for jud ge m en t.* Let it be noted,too, that the traditional East has continued to play a necessary
* See bibliograph ical section at the end o f this collection for furth ersuggestions. Note, too, that translations, however good, seldom rise to the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 31/484
and positive role in reintroducing to the modern West essential
conceptions o f the metaphysical and traditional order, concep-
tions which had been forgotten or allowed to lapse within the
Christian West. So when Coomaraswamy expressed the view
that one had to have com mand o f the relevant classical
languages in ord er to unde rstand the Oriental doc trines, he wasspeaking in isolation, before m ost o f the published w ork o f the
above named men. The works o f these latter, along with those
o f C oom arasw am y (including these letters), can be o f inestim -
able value for anyone w ho sincerely wishes to effect . a
metanoia, a tho rou gh change o f mind. Insensibly, those things
which our world rejects [can] become the standard by which
we judge it”.
We should note also that Coomaraswamy was on shakyground when he occasionally asserted, in effect, that any object
can be beautiful in its kind; eg, a mechanical device, even a bom b. To accept this w ould be tantam ount to the denial o f
beauty as a div ine quality and to confuse it w ith mere artifice
and prettiness. But on the basis of the D oc tor’s ow n inclusive
statem ents on a rt and on the nature o f beauty, we believe that
the above views do not represent his final and considered
positions but rather were adopted ad hoc for the purpose ofmaking a particular point.
A few more extensive comments arc in order as regards
missionary activity*, which often irritated Coomaraswamy
and which he often castigated. Bu t Christianity, like Buddhismand Islam in this, is inhe rently a missionary religion. T his stems
from the postR esurrec tion injunction of Christ to “go. . . un-
to all nations. . .”, and the resulting attitude typified in St
Pau l’s “ wo e is me if I do not preach the G ospel”— positions
which, until quite recently, have been considered as definingthe essential Christian attitude in these matters. The rest is a
question o f qualification, op po rtunity and sincerity. A pprox -
imately from the time o f World War II, how ever, the charactero f Christian missionary activity has un dergone fundamental
changes. Power relationships are no longer the same. Peoples
level of the originals; so no thing said here should be taken to im ply tha t
competence in the original languages is not a great boon in the effort at
understanding.
* These remarks may serve also as indirect com m ent on the presumedsup eriority o f all things W estern, Ch ristianity included, and ho w any basis— even il lu sory— for these presum ptions has ev apora ted.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 32/484
among whom missionaries most often work now live in their
own nationstates and, needless to say, exercise their own
controls according to their ow n lights. The example o f adecadent West—Europe and America—has served to undercutthe assum ptions o f superiority and mission ciuilisatrice which in
the past have undeniably been elements in missiology, andwhich have been attitudes often shared by the “natives”. Morefundam entally the rationale o f missions has changed from
w ithin. In Ca tholic circles, the views o f Teilhard de Chardin
and his allencompassing evolutionism have become a major
influence. Similar outlooks are to be found in Protestant
missiology, along with the widespread view that those to
whom missionaries are sent have themselves something to
teach the m issionaries and those w ho suppo rt the missionary enterprise.* Th ere is a frank recognition o f the part previously played by “ cultura l im peria lism” , and a deemphasis on
conversion. The modern missionary takes man as he is found,
including his cultural ambiance; no m ore o f “ the missionary is
first o f all a social reform er” . The whole man, as currently
conceived to be sure, must be taken into consideration, souland body; and the latter is taken to include economics and
politics. W hat, then, o f the basic motives for missionary
activity? For it is recognized that the old motives have been
seriously weakened since World War II and especially since
Vatican II. One current motive is charity, but a charity
humanistically conceived, more along the lines of caring andobviously something far removed from an informed caritas.
A noth er m otive is that o f witnessing. And yet another is the
search for truth which, o f course, entails much dialogue—thatinterminable sink o f hum anistic endeavors. O bviously, no t all
these points are illtaken; but it is equally obvious that none ofthem , singly or com bined, can be o f such a nature as to set
peoples afire fo r Christianity. And this apparent digression will
have served its purpose if it has suggested som ething o f the fatalmoderateness and tepidity o f a Christianity that has lost touch
with its most fundamental roots; a Christianity, indeed, that is
busying itself in autodestructio n, to adopt an expression o fPaul VI. We w ould do well, as we reflect on Coo m arasw am y’s
* It is interesting that these views have been put forward principally by aD utch Catholic m em ber o f a missionary order, the W hite Father, H enri
N ouw en.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 33/484
attitudes to call to mind Christ’s own views on proselytizing(M t xxiii, 15). In any case, one can conceive o f few peoplesmore in need o f genuine religion than those o f mo dern W esternnations.
In principle, there is nothing lacking to Christianity. Even
though outwardly it has been primarily bhaktic or devotional incharacter, Christianity contains legitimate and essential ele-
ments which Coomaraswamy, for one, has compared to “an
Upanishad o f Euro pe” . Christianity is a full Revelation,
addressed to a particular sector of hum anity; ou r task, as
“workers of the eleventh hour” is to fathom its profundities once
again insofar as this may be possible and, hopefully, sense
som ething o f Th at which led St Paul to exclaim: “ O the depth
o f the riches, the wisdom and the know ledge o f God!” (Romxi, 33).
O u r purpose, then, in offering these letters is to helpreintroduce Western readers and especially Christians to their
own proper Tradition, to point out to them again the
wellsprings o f ou r faith, and to offer some small glimm er o f
the splendour o f Tru th. For those whose interest is comparativereligion, it is hoped that they may find reflected in these letters
both the need fo r str ic t personal honesty and a recognition o fthe fact that because a common Truth is to be found in the
several traditional forms, this Truth must therefore be lived all
the more deeply in one’s own. Lastly, it is hoped that those
who look eastwards (not always an illegitimate option) will
seek proper auth ority and ignore the proselytizers o f aneoHinduism, a chicZen, or a deracinated Sufism. And we
invite all wh o w ill to reflect on the ways o f Heaven, which are
often mysterious or at least dimly understood: a man who was
in many respects superior to the exclusivisms which separateand define the several religions, even a Hindu, had the
remarkable function o f serving as an able defender o f theintegral Christian faith. The Holy Spirit, who moves as and
where He will, breathes across boundaries which in normaltimes and with good reason separate the different Traditions. Inour indigence, let us not be too proud to accept grace and helpfrom whatever quarter they may be proffered.
A l v i n M o o r e , J r
R a m a P o o n a m b u l a m C o o m a r a s w a m y
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 34/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 35/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 36/484
THE LETTERS
To STANLEY NOTT
Dear Mr Nott:
. . . The problem o f the “spiritual East” versus the “material
West” is very easily mistaken. I have repeatedly emphasized that
it is only accidentally a geographic or racial problem. The real
clash is o f traditional w ith an titraditional concepts and cultures;
and that is unquestionably a clash o f spiritual and ideologicalwith m aterial or sensate points o f view. Shall we or shall we no t
delimit sacred and profane d epartments o f life? I, at any rate,
will not. I think if you consider Pallis’ Peaks and Lamas you will
see what I mean. I think it undeniable that the modern world
(which happens to be still a western world, however fast the
East is being westernized) is one o f “ impoverished reality” , one
entleert o f meaning, or values. O ur contem porary trust in
Progress is a veritable fideism as naive as is to be found in any past historical context.
Very sincerely,
Mr Stanley Nott, Harpenden, Herts, England, was in correspondence with
Dr C oom araswam y about a new edit ion of The Dance o f Shiva which Faber
and Faber, London, was considering.
Peaks and Lamas, see Bibliography.
To RICHARD ETINGHAUSEN
August 16, 1942
Dear Richard:
Very m any thanks for you r kind words. I am glad o f the lastsentence in the first paragraph. As you realize, I have nevertried to have a “style” but only to state things effectively—sothat I was very pleased, too, once when Eric Gill wrote to me:
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 37/484
“You hit bloody straight, bloody hard, and bloody often.”
I think ou r valuation o f “ literature” (and o f art generally) is
now fetishistic, the symbol being more im portant to us than its
reference: this is ju st wha t the Sufi calls idolatry .
With best regards,
D r Richard Ettinghausen was D irector of the Freer Gallery o f Art,
Washington, D. C.
Eric Gill, well known Catholic writer and artist; sec Introduction above.
For an understanding o f the word Sufi the reader is referred to the w ritings o f
Frith jof Schuon (see A ppendix A) and the Kashf al-Mahjub by Ali bin
Uthman alHujwiri (sec Bibliography).
T o MRS MARGARET F. MARCUS
undated
Dear Margaret:
What impresses me about contemporary education is thevacuity o f the result, and above all, the isolation produced: it is
the almost invariable result that Plato, Dante, the Gospels,Rumi, the Upanishads, Lao Tzu, etc, no longer mean anything
to the college product who is brought up to be an “aesthete”
(euphemistically, an “aesthctician”) so that all these things are
jus t “ lite rature” for him , and he never puts his teeth in to them,
but remains a provincial.O ur present chaotic condition is primarily a chaotic state o f
mind, and only secondarily a chaotic state o f morals. Please
note, I am not talking o f you in particular; and that there are
some exceptions, some who “survive” a college education iscertain. W hat 1 despise is the socalled “ intellectual honesty”
that makes college men “unbelievers”; Sheldon calls this
“honesty” by its right name, “cowardice”.In every procedure, faith must precede experience; as in
Buddhism, a man has only the right to be called “faithless”
when he has verified the outcome by acting accordingly; thenhe has no need of “faith” and is explicitly “no longer a man of
faith .” Faith is an aristocratic virtue; as an old gloss o f Platoremarks, “unbelief is for the m ob ” , skepticism is very “ easy” .
This is not merely a religious position. The g reater part o f all
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 38/484
our everyday actions rest on faith. We have faith that the sun
will rise tom orro w (any serious scientist will tell you tha t wedo not know it will), we act accordingly, and when tomorrowcomes, we verify the expectation. . . . Some (like Traherne,
Buddhist Arhats, etc) claim to have achieved this “felicity” or
“eudaimonia” (as Aristotle, etc, call it), which all religions arcagreed in regarding as man’s final aim. Traherne also callcd it
51/p^human virtue for which all should strive. If you don ’t want
it, that is all right, but you cannot call it unattainable unless you
have practised w ha t those w ho claim to have attained it taught;
just as you can’t know th at 2H + O = H2O until you have
made the experiment (until then you believe your teacher). If
you don ’t w ant it, so be it; bu t this very no t wanting excludes
you from any sympathetic understanding o f the greater part o fthe world’s literature which has to do with the quest.
It is not intellectual honesty, but pride, that makes the college
man not want. You “believe” in yourself; but for the real value
of this “s e lf ’ vide Jung and Hadley and others o f your own trust-
ed psychologists who affirm, as the religious philosophies do,
that the first sine qua non for happiness is to have got rid o f this be-
lief in one’s own individuality or personality (our “great pos-
sessions”). I may still be “selfish”; but that only representsa failure to live up to what I know, viz, that my personality is
nothing bu t a causally determ ined process, and o f absolutely
mortal essence, subject to all the ills that “ flesh” is heir to. For
Jung, just as for the religious philosophies, there is something
else beyond this brainy “ individuality”—a S elf around wh ich
the inflated Ego revolves, much as the earth revolves around the
Sun (his ow n words). Nowadays, nothing is taught o f Self
knowledge, bu t only o f Egokno wledge; and for Jung, the inflat-
ed Ego was the root cause o f the late war. I cite him so muchonly because the collcgc man has so much “faith” in him.*
The “ isolation” I spoke o f makes of modern man w hat Plato
calls a “playboy”, “interested in fine colors and sounds”, but
“igno rant o f bea uty” . O ne m ight say that acsthcticism (literal-ly, sentiment ality, being at the m ercy o f one’s feelings asrecom mended by B entham ) is a subjection which Plato definedas “ ignorance”— and this is the disease o f which the curren t
crisis is a sym ptom ; the disease equally o f con tem pora ryChristianity and o f contem porary skepticism (between wh ichthere is not much difference). All this works out in Utopian
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 39/484
ism, the notion o f a future m illenium (just around the corner, i f
only . . .) to be achieved by the improvem ent o f institutions.
Religion has no such illusions; religion is not in this sense
“ futu ristic” , but asserts that felicity is attainable, never en masse,
but at any tim e by the indiv idual here and now . “B ut o f course,
that looks like work”, and the appearance is not deceptive; it is
very much easier to sit back and rely on “progress”.
You might look at Erwin Schrodinger’s book What Is Life?
N o doubt you have seen Z im m er’s M yth s and Symbols in Indian
A rt and C ivili zation — now out.
Affectionately,
* Elsewhere, AK C expressed grave reservations about the views o f Carl G.
Jung, eg, on page 10.
Mrs Margaret F. Marcus, Cleveland, Ohio.
Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations, see Bibliography.
Sheldon, W ilmot H erbert, D epartment o f Philosophy, Yale Un iversity,
N ew Haven, Connectic ut.
To MRS MARGARET F. MARCUS
April 29, 1946
Dear Margaret:
I send the P upp et paper, also the booklet o f lectures which
you may find helpful when you talk about India. But you
know, I always have the feeling that you look at these things
only w ith interest as “curiosities” , and that metaphysics doesn’t
have any real significance for you. It is pretty hard for anyonewho has been to college to have any other attitude, I know.And yet, man is by nature a metaphysical animal, or i f no t, ju st
an animal w hose concept o f the future is limited by time.
We arc having a num ber o f different cactus blossom s. Ihavn’t done much in the garden yet—bad weather, and time is
not my own!Someday you must try to tell me what interests you in the
material I assemble: you realize I say nothing, or try to saynothing that can properly be attributed to me individually.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 40/484
Mrs Margaret F. Marcus, Cleveland, Ohio.
“ ‘Spiritual Paternity’ and the ‘Puppet Complex’ ” (AKC), Psychiatry, VIII,
28 72 97 , 1945; republished in A K C ’s collection o f essays, A m I M y Brother’s Keeper ?
T o SIDNEY HOOK
January 17, 1946
Dear Professor Hook:
Many thanks for your kind reply. You will realize, I hope,
that w ha t I sent y ou was the copy o f a private letter, and that I
would have written in a somewhat different “tone” for
publication.My main point was that the “mystics” (or, I would prefer to
say, “metaphysicians”) insist upon the necessity of moral
means i f the am oral end is to be reached; hence theirs is a
practical w ay, though a conte m plative end. I agree w ith them
(and you) that the end is logically indescribable, other than by
negations, o f w hich “ am oral” is but one.
To put it in another way, the end is not a value amongst
others, but th at on w hich all values depend. If we have no t theconcep t o f an en d b eyon d values (+ or —) we are in great
danger of making our own relative values into absolutes.
As for Hinduism and Buddhism, Plato and St Thomas
Aquinas, you see differences where I see essentially sameness,
w ith differences m ainly o f local color. H ow ever, for this
sameness I w ou ld go to Ec kha rt and such works as The C loud of
Unknowing, Boehme or Peter Sterry or Ficino rather than to
St Th om as (w hose Summa belon gs rather to the exoteric aspecto f C hristian ity). I have done a go od deal to illustrate w hat I call
essential “ sam eness” b y co rrelation o f cited contexts, in print,
and I have vastly more material collected, eg, my “Recollec-
tion, Indian and P latonic” , or “ ‘Spiritual Patern ity’ and the
‘Pup pet C om plex ’ ” .
Very sincerely,
Sidney H ook , Professor o f Phi losophy, N ew York University .
The Cloud of Unknowing, see bibliography.
Jacob Boehme, see bibliography.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 41/484
Peter Sterry, Platonist and Puritan, by Vivian de Sola Pinto; see bibliography.
The Philosophy o f Marsilio Ficino, by Paul O Kristcller; see bibliograp hy.
“ ‘Spiritual Pate rnity ’ and the ‘Pup pcrt C om ple x’ ” , AK C, in Psychiatry,
VIII, 1945.
To MRS C. MORGAN
January 11, 1946
Dear Mrs Morgan:
R ight no w I cannot find time to go into the Huxley review at
length. Let us grant to Sidney Hook that Huxley fails to clarify
certain matters. But Hook, who makes this criticism, confuses
the matter by mistaking the situation itself. I am referring particularly to the “ m oral” question which H ook not only
approaches as a moralist, but apparently in utter ignorance of
the traditional distinction o f the moral means and the amoral
(not immoral!) end, that o f the active from the contemplative
life. The n orm al position is that morality is essential to the active
life and is prerequisite but only dispositive to the contemplative.
This is the way St Thomas Aquinas states it: cf The Book of
Privy Counselling, “when thou comest by thyself, think notwhat thou shalt do after, but forsake as well good thoughts as
evil.” Buddhism is notoriously a system in which great stress is
laid on ethics; and yet there, too, we find it repeatedly affirmed
that the end o f the road is beyond good and evil. Bondage (in the
Platonic sense o f “ subjection to o nes elf ’) depends on ig nor-ance, and hence it is only truth that can set you free; there can
be no salvation by w orks o f meri t, but only by gnosis; but for
gnosis, mastery o f self is a prerequisite.
The point is that one cannot reach the end o f the road w ithout“going straight”, and “while wc are on the way, we are notthe re .” The end o f the road, o r as it is often spoken of, hom e,
means that there is no more tramping to be done: therefore the
words “walking straight” or “deviating” cease to have anymeaning for or application to one who has arrived and is athome. Wc are told to “perfect, even as . . .”, and as you willrccognize, in whatever is pcrfcctcd there is no more perfecting
to be done. W hether o r not perfection is attainable on earth weneed not ask; it represents, in any case, the “ideal”, and evenSt Augustine refused to deny the possibility.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 42/484
Moralism, such as Sidney Hook’s is really an unconscious form o f Partipassianism—the doctrine that an infinite God is nevertheless him self subject to affections and disaffections, and only “good” in the human sense, which is one that implies at the same time the possibility o f “not being good”.
I had only time to take up this one point: but generally, I should say Sidney Hook does not know his stuff well enough to criticize Huxley, even though and where the latter may need
it.
Very sincerely,
Mrs C. Morgan, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sidney H ook, Professor o f Philosophy, N ew Y ork U niversity.The review referred to is in the Saturday Review, N ove m ber 3, 1945.
Book o f Privy Counselling and The Cloud of Unknowing, sec Bibliography.
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Dear M:
Your questions arc mostly about the how, and my answers mostly about the what o f metaphysics.
What you mean by Metaphysics is not what I mean. College “metaphysics” is hardly anything more than cpistemology. Traditional metaphysics is a doctrine about possibility: possibi-
lities o f being and notbcing, o f finite and infinite; those o f finite being arc embodied mosdy in what one calls ontology and cosmology.
The traditional Metaphysics (Philosophia Perennis or Sanatana Dharma) is not an omnium gatherum o f “what men have
believed”, nor is it a systematic “philosophy”; it is a consistent and always selfconsistent doctrine which can be recognized always and everywhere and is quite independent o f any concept of “progress” in material comfort or the accumulation of empirical knowledge; neither opposed to nor to be confused
with either o f these. It is the meaningo f a world which would otherwise consist only o f experiences, “one damn thing after another.” Without a principle to which all else is related, an end
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 43/484
to which all else can be ordered, our life is chaotic, and we do
no t kn ow ho w or for w ha t to educate. A merely ethical trend is
only for our comfort and convenience but does not suffice forillumination.
I can only, for the present, assert that the traditional
Metaphysics is as much a single and invariable science asmathematics. The pr oof o f this can hardly be found w ithou t the
discipline o f pursu ing fundam ental doctrines all over the w orld
and throughout the traditional literatures and arts. It is not a
m atter o f opinions o f “ thinkers” . On e should rapidly acquire
the pow ers o f eliminating the negligible teachers, and that
includes nearly all m odern “ thinkers” , the Dew eys and Jungs,
etc, through whom it is not worth while to search for the few
bright ideas to be found here and there . O ne must be fastidious.Why pay attention, as Plato says, to the “inferior philo-
sophers”?
The O ne T ru th I am speaking o f is reflected in the various
religions, various jus t because “n othing can be kno w n except in
the m ode o f the know er” (St Th om as A quinas). It is in the
same sense that the “Ways” appear to differ; this appearance
will diminish the fu rther you pursue any one o f them, in the
same w ay that the radii o f a circle approxim ate the nearer youget to the center.
Metaphysics requires the most discriminating legal mental-
ity.* When Eckhart says that man is necessary to God’s
existence, this is not a boast but a simple logical statement. He
is no t speaking o f the Godhead, bu t o f God as Lord (Jesus), and
merely po inting o ut that wc cannot speak o f a “ lordsh ip” in a
case where there are no “servants”; one implies the other. Just
as there is “no paternity without filiation”; a man is not a
“ father” unless he has a child. You w on’t catch M eister Eckhartout as easily as all that!
The traditional Metaphysics does not deny the possible value
o f rand om “ mystical experience” , but is (like the Rom an
Catho lic C hurch) suspicious and critical o f it because o f its passiv ity.*
Very sincerely,
* Whatever D r Co om arasw am y had in m ind in the use of this term (andsom ething o f it will be inferred in the course of these letters), it was not
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 44/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 45/484
book by K. Svoboda entitled L ’Esthetique de S t Augustin, and
also his D e Musica is very profound.
Affectionately,
Mrs Gretchen Warren, Boston, Massachusetts.
To ALBERT SCHWEITZER
February 7, 1946
Dear Dr Schwcitzcr:
Although I have due respect for your fine work in Africa, Ihave lately com e across you r book, Christianity and the Religions
o f the World, and would like to let you know that I regard it as a
fundamentally dishonest work. Buddhism is, no doubt, a
doctrine primarily for contemplatives; but you cannot mix up
Brahmanism in this respect with Buddhism, because Brahman-
ism is a doctrine for both actives and contemplatives. What I
mean especially by “dishonest” is that, to suit your purposes,
you cite the Bhagavad Gita w here Arjuna is told to fulfil his dutyas a soldier, without citing the passage in which others are
likewise told to fulfil their vocations as means better than anyother of fulfilling the com m andment “ Be ye perfect. . . . ”
This makes quite ridiculous your second paragraph on page
41. I am afraid that m ost Christians, for some reason obscure to
me, find it indispensable to exalt their own beliefs by giving a perverted account o f those o f others , o f which, moreover, they
have only a secondhand knowledge derived from the writings
o f scholars w ho have been for the m ost part rationalists,unacquainted w ith religious experience and unfamiliar w ith the
language o f theology. I recomm end yo u spend as much timesearching the Scriptures o f Brahmanism and B uddh ism, in the
original languages, as you may have spent on the Scriptures ofChristianity in their original languages, before you say any-thing more about other religions.
Very truly yours,
Albert Schwcitzcr, German theologian, musicologist and medical mission
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 46/484
ary, widely influential in Protestant cirdcs in his t ime.Ch ristianity an d the Religions o f the World, see Bibliography.A lber t Schw ei tzer Jubi lee V olum e, a festschrift to which Dr Coomaraswamycontributed a profound study entitled ‘What is Civilization?’, for which seeBib l iography.
T o GEORGE SARTON
October 7, 1943
Dear Sarton:
T h an k s fo r Sch w eitzer, I’ll retu rn it very soon. 1 have readm ost o f it and it seems to m e a strange m ixture o f much doinggood and much muddled thinking. I don’t think he grasps theweltanschaung o f the ancient (European) world at all; and as forthe East, on page 178, line 1 “concern him self solely” and line18 “ after living p art o f his life in the norm al w ay and founding afamily” arc inconsistent.
I received the invitation to write for the festschrift, but amasked for something “non-tcchnical” and after reading the
book, I to o feel tha t the lit tle sym bological paper I had in min d
w o u ld n ’t in tere st Schw eitzer h im self at all. I’m seeing if I can’t p u t to g e th er a little no te on the in trinsic significance o f theword “c iv i l iza t ion” .
Schweitzer’s analysis of colonisation and its effects is good(and tragic), b u t he feels helpless* in the face o f “ world trade”and has no figh t in him . H e rem inds me a little o f Kierkegaard,with his groaning and grunting; and with all his defense of“affirmation” is not nearly as positive a person as, say, Eric
Gill, for w ho se last collection o f cassys I am w riting anintroduct ion .
With kindest regards,
* A nd yet he de spises ‘resig nation ’! O n the whole, one o f the most exotcricm en im aginable. T he re arc m any sides o f Africa that he seems never to haveseen at all; there is no sign that he ever got into more than physical contactw ith the peop le. C on trast St G eorge Barbe Baker in Africa Drums.
G eorg e Sa rton, Pro fessor o f the H istory o f Scicncc, H arvard University , ande d i t o r o f Isis.
A lbert Schw eitzcr, Christianity and the Religions o f the World; see bibliography.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 47/484
‘What Is Civilization?’, by AKC in The Albert Schweitzer Jubilee Volume; see
Bibliography.
St George Barbe Baker, Africa Drums; see Bibliography.
Eric Gill, It A ll Goes Together, sec Bibliography.
T o MR MASCALL
N obem ber 2, 1942
Dear M r Mascall:
Many thanks for your kind letter. I cannot agree that it is the
essence o f Christianity to be final and exclusive in any sense
except in the sense that any tru th must be exclusive o f error.
With that reservation, it can as much as Hinduism or Islamclaim to be final and conclusive.
Exclusive , as I said, presum es the existence of error; bu t itremains to be shown that the other religions are in error,
w hether a bou t m an ’s last end or the nature o f deity. I venture
that y ou r kno w ledge o f these other religions is not profund:
kno w ledge o f them cannot be that if it is not based on texts inthe original, and on thinking and being in their terms. I do
actually think in both Eastern and Christian terms, Greek,
Latin, Sanskrit, Pali, and to some extent Persian and evenChinese. I hardly ever deal with any specific doctrine (eg, that
o f the one essence and the tw o natures, or that o f the light o f
lights, or “I will draw all men unto me”) with reference to one
tradition only, bu t cite from many sources. I dou bt if there is
any point o f essential doctrine that could no t be defended aswell from Indian as from Christian sources.
I presum e that w e are liberty, and even bou nd to use reason in
defense of any true doctrine. It will be evident, how ever, that ifwe are to discuss the possibility o f error in either one or both o f
tw o given religions, it will be contrary to reason to assume tha tone o f them can be m ade the standard o f judg em ent for both.
That would be to make an a priori judgem ent, and no t aninvestigation at all. A standard must be, by hypothesis,superior to both the parties whose qualifications are underconsideration. O ne comes nearest to possession o f such astandard in the b ody o f those doctrines that have been m ostuniversally taug ht by the divine men o f all times and peoples.Anything for example, that is true for Plato (whom Eckhart
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 48/484
callcd “that great priest”, and in the same century that J tli —Moslem saint— had a vision o f him “ filling all space w ith
light”), the Gospels, Islam, Hinduism and Taoism, I am
prepared to regard as true, and rather for me to unders tand thanquestion. When we have in this way built up a standard o f the
most im portant speculative verities, w e can proceed to jud ge o fother propositions, in case they arc less widely witnessed to, by
their consistency or inconsistency with what has been accepted.
In any case, let me say, speaking for Hindus as to Christians,
that even if you are not w ith us, we arc w ith you.
Very sincerely,
Mr Mascall is not further identified, but may have been E. A. Mascall, the promin ent Anglican th eolo gian and philosopher.
To SIGNOR GALVAO
N ovem ber 15, 1940
Dear Signor Galvao:
It is a pleasure to receive your letter and to hear from an
unknown friend.M. Rene Guenon had recovered his health last spring and
was again contributing to E T . The last number I received was
that o f May 1940. T he last letter I received from him was
w ritten in Jun e and did no t reach me until October!I have no new s o f M. Schuon. M. Preau had my ms (on the
“Symbolism o f Archery”), intended for the 1940 Special No onthe “ Symbolism o f Gam es” , but I have heard nothing from
him since the occupation, and do n ot kn ow if the publication o f E T can be con tinued . Yes, the participation o f civilians inwarfare is quite antitraditional: it must be shocking to a truesoldier, for whom war is a vocation.
I send y ou one o f m y publications here. With cordial
agreement,
Very sincerely,
Signor Galvao is a Brazilian corresp ond ent o f Gu enon and AK C.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 49/484
Rene Guenon, see Bibliography.
Frith jof Schuon , sec Bibliography.
E T = Etudes Traditionnelles\ see Bibliography.
“ Sym bolism o f Arch cry” , see Bibliography.
To SIGNOR GALVAO
October 10, 1941
My dear Signor Galvao:
I am happy to hear from you. Quand vous ecrivez: “Un
chretien, e’est-a-dire, un catholique”, je suis en parfait accord de vousl
In v iew o f the Pauline interdiction o f the eating o f meat offeredto idols, it might be considered irregular for a Catholic to eat
meat that has been sacrificed to what is (in his opinion) a false
god. H ow eve r, w here it is a question o f accepting “hospital-
ity”, one should ask no questions (Buddhist monks acceptw hatever is given, even if meat: the responsibility for the
killing rests upon the donor). I cannot give an answer to the
question about the foundation stone.
I have heard from mutual friends that M. G uenon is well, bu tI have heard no thing from him directly. Th e first o f thetranslations (East and West, published by Luzac, London) has
ju st appeared. A noth er book I can recom mend to you is Eric
Gill’s Autobiography, published by DevinAdair, New York.
As for your pretre (sacerdota): it is quite permissible for any
Ca tholic to recognizc the truth o f any particular doctrine taught by a “ pagan” philo sopher. Indeed, St Thom as him self makes
use o f the “ pagan ph ilosoph ers” as sources o f “ intrinsic and pro bable tru th ” . I have know n tw o devout Catholics, a layman
and a learned nun who saw more than this. The former wrote
to me that he saw that H induism and Christianity am ounted tothe same th ing; while the nun said to me tha t “ I see that it is no tnecessary for you to be a Catholic.” But this is unusual, andw ith m ost o f my C atholic friends I go no further than todiscuss particular doctrines, in connection with which, as theyarc willing to recognizc, exegetical light may be thrown from
other than specifically Christian sources.It is perhaps M. Cuttat, whom I recently had the pleasure to
meet, w ho proposes to publish in Spanish a jou rna l som ew hat
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 50/484
like Etudes Traditionnelles. I hope that your generosity and other efforts will lead to success. Wc miss the appearance o f ET. For myself, I am endeavoring to publish elsewhere. As you have
probably rccognizcd, I do not, like M. Guenon, repudiate the “orientalists” altogether (however, I am fully aware o f their
crimcs in the name o f “scholarship”) but endeavour to publish what I have to say in the language o f “scholarship”: on the
whole I find a more open minded and rather receptive attitude
amongst my colleagues than might have been expected.
I hope to send you several papers, and also my forthcoming book, Spiritual Authority arid Temporal Power in the Indian
Theory of Government during this winter.
I do not think it would be possible to obtain any numbers of
ET in the USA where it is very little known.Yours very sincerely,
Signor Galvao is not identified.ET = Eludes Traditionnelles; sec Bibliography.Monsieur Cuttat was a Swiss diplomat with interests similar to those ofAKC and Rcn6 Guenon.
To SENATOR ERIC O. D. TAYLOR
November 7, 1939
Dear Senator:
I certainly do not regard your letter as an impedance. O f coursc, I do not deny that there arc foundations as well as
pinnacles, and that there are cornerstones in the plural, at the corners. Only in the latter sense it makes no sense to speak of the head o f the church as the cornerstone (—one asks, “which o f the four:”). I should say that Christ is thought o f both as foundation and as pinnacle: and that both (not to mention the intervening stauros) are corner stones in the sense that Eckstein is also diamond. That the axis o f the Universe is “adamantine” throughout is universal. As for the other point, I am too
familiar with the identity o f Christian, Indian and other doctrines not to think that Indian metaphysics is a key to Christian mysticism. You would surely, with St Thomas
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 51/484
Aquinas, acccpt the w ork o f “ pagan” philosophers as provid-
ing “ extrinsic and probable proofs” , even if you w ould n otadmit with Augustine that the one true religion always existed
and only came to be called Christianity after the birth o f Ch rist.
(I am not sure that this Augustinian dictum has been branded as
heretical!)
Very truly yours,
Eric O. D. Taylor, Senator from Rhode Isand, USA.
C f A K C ’s article ‘Eckstein’ in Speculum, XIV , 1939, pp 66 7 2, on the
me aning o f ‘corn ersto ne’ in Christian s ym bolism; see Bibliograph y.
To SENATOR ERIC O. D. TAYLOR
date uncertain
Dear Sir:
Since writing yesterday I have seen a letter from Erwin
Panofsky, o f Princeton, in which he says that the interpretationo f lapis in caput anguli as keystone and not cornerstone, is
“indubitably correct” and that late medieval artists almost
unanimously represented it accordingly. He sent a photo from
a manuscript showing a diamond shaped stone being laid by builders at the top o f a tower.
Very sinccrcly,
To SENATOR ERIC O. D. TAYLOR
undatedDear Sir;
I think the old law would be the foundation and the new law the
keystone o f the structure itself. O f course, founda tion, con-necting stauros, and capital would all be adamantine, in Easternas in Christian symbolism.
AKC
Th is latter note was in the form o f a postcard, and both it and that
immediately before relate to the communication that precedes them.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 52/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 53/484
the same time every artist is also a man, and as such has socialresponsibilities like any consumer’s. Again, the truly freeman is
free, amongst other ways, to be engaged in any kind of
activity, and may not necessarily adopt a homeless life, though
it is far more difficult to be free in company than in solitude;
freedom has nothing really to do with what one docs, but withthe attitude one has towards things; if one can “ act w ithou t
acting”, without attachment to any consequences, one can be as
free that way as in a monastic cell. For that, one must be able to
live always in the eternal now, letting the dead bury the dead
and taking no thought for the morrow. In such a case, one may
seem to be “ serving ” , as if one had duties, but is, in fact, simply
being, entirely unaffected by the acts which are really no longer
on e’s ow n (so in St Paul’s conception o f liberty, as disting-uished from being “under the law”).
N ow as to Fate. Fate corresponds to causality and is not thesame as Providence. In the orthodox teachings, fate “lies in the
dreaded causes themselves” and has much in common with
“heredity”. Providence is the timeless vision (no more fore-
sight than hindsight, bu t now sight) o f the operation o f
secondary causes in the world where nothing happens by
chance. To have no Fate would be to have no character; and it is
in this sense that one uses the word unfortunate, one who has
not the share or lot in life that is his due.I can hard ly speak too h ighly o f Pallis’ book Peaks and Lamas
which is the best introduction to Mahayana Buddhism and its
working out in life that I know. There is a fair amount of
literature on T ibetan doctrinc. O ne o f the best introductions is
the novel by the Lama Yongden called Mipam (publ. John Lane,1938). Som e o f the systematic books include EvansWcntz,
Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrine and Th e Tibetan Book o f the Dead (both publ. by Oxford); Bacot and Woolf, Three Tibetan
M ystery Plays (Broadway Translations, Dutton, N. Y.); Bacot, Le Poete tibetain Milarepa (Paris, 1925). There are also many
works on Mahayana, not specifically Tibetan.Write again if you think I can be of further help.
Very sincerely,
* “ . . . C hr ist livcth in m e.” Galatians ii, 20.
Bernard Kelly was a Catholic layman who lived in Windsor, England, with
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 54/484
w hom AK C co rresponded extensively. Well trained in Catholic theology, he
was able to read bo th Latin and Greek w ith facility. H e unde rtook the study
of Sanskrit in order to better understand Eastern religion. He wrote
occasionally for the English Dom inican jou rna l Blackfriars. He and his wife
had six children and he supp orted his family on the m odest incom e o f a bank
clerk.
TO WALTER SHEWRING
March 4, 1936
Dear Walter Shewring:
Very many thanks for your kind letter. I am more than appreciative o f your corrections. I can only say that I am conscious o f fault in these matters. It is no cxcuse to say that checking rcfcrcnccs and citations is to me a wearisome task. I am sometimes oppressed by the amount of work to be done and try to do too much too fast . . . in certain cases I have not been able to see proofs. . . .
It is only in the period of the 5th13th century a d that East and West arc really o f one heart and mind. A Catholic friend of
mine here, who has been writing articles on extremism—
urging a no compromise relationship between the Church and the world—tells me that I (who am not formally a Christian) am the only man who seems to see his point! What I am appalled by is that even Catholics who have the truth if they would only operate with it wholeheartedly, are nearly all tainted with modernism.* I mean have reduced religion to faith and morals, leaving speculation and factibilia to the profane and Mammon. Christianity is nowadays presented in such a sentimental
fashion that one cannot wonder that the best o f the younger generation revolt. The remedy is to present religion in the intellectually difficult forms: present the challenge o f a theology and metaphysics that will require great effort to understand at all ____
One word about the errors. I would like to avoid them altogether o f course. But one cannot take part in the struggle for truth without getting hurt. There is a kind o f “perfection-
ism” which leads some scholars to publish nothing, because
they know that nothing can be perfect. I don’t respect this. Nor do I care for any aspersions that may reflect upon me
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 55/484
personally. It is only “ for the good o f the w ork to be done” that
one m ust be as careful as possible to protect oneself. . . . I am
so occupied with the task that 1 rarely have leisure to enjoy a
m om ent o f personal realisation. It is a sort o f feeling that the
harvest is ripe and the time is short. However, I am well aware
that all haste is none the less an error. I expect to improve.Affectionately,
*Note that Dr Coomaraswamy recognized this deadly infection thirty years
befo re it was rcmanifested durin g and fo llowin g the Second Vatican
Council.
Walter Shcwring, Assistant Master at Amplcforth College, England, and
sometime Charles Oldham Scholar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford
University.
To WALTER SHEWRING
February 27, 1938
My dear Walter Shewring:
A very large num ber o f Hindus, very many millioncertainly, daily repeat from memory a part, or in some cases,
even the w hole o f the Bhagavad Gita. This recitation is a
chanting, and no one who has not heard Sanskrit poetry thusrecited, as well as unde rstand ing it, can really judge o f it as
poetry. To me the language is both noble and profound. The
style is quite simple and w ithout o rnam ent, like that o f the best
o f the Epic, and o f the Upanishads; it is no t yet the ornam ented
classic style o f the dramas. O n the whole I think the judgem ents o f the profess ional scholars are to be discounted,
for many reasons. Personally, I should think a good compari-son, poetically, w ould be with the best o f the medieval Latinhymns.
The trouble with almost all Sanskritists is that all they knowis the language. For the rest, they are inhibited in all sorts ofways. Their attitude to Dionysius or Eckhart would be thesame as to the Bhagavad Gita or the Upanishads: they w ould say
“very interesting, and sometimes quite exalted in tone, but onthe whole irrational.” I do not sec how anyone who cannot
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 56/484
read John, or Dionysius, or much o f Philo or Hermes or Plotinus with enthusiasm can read the Upanishads with enthusiasm; and in fact, such introductions as men like Hume write to their very imperfect translations are really quite naive. It is no use to pretend that you can really know these things by reading them as “literature”. That they are “literature” is the
accident, no doubt, but not their essence. . . . The socalled “objectivity” o f science is very often nothing but a kind of aloofness that defeats its own ends. Who can be said to have understood Scripture or Plainsong whose eyes have never been moistened by cither?
Affectionately,
Walter Shewring, Assistant Master, Ampleforth College, England.The Bhagavad Gita, most popular o f the Hindu Scriptures, is recognizcd as arecapitulation of them; it forms part of the cpic poem, the Mahabharata. Robert Emest Hume, translator of and commentator upon the Upanishads;see his The Thirteen Principal Upanishads in the Bibliography.
ANONYMOUS
April 5, 1947
Dear Mr . . .
I had sent these cxccrpts on “grief” to Mrs M . . . instead of to you direct, sincc you had not raised the question with me directly. The actual words, “Every meeting is a meeting for the
first time, and every parting is forever” are mine, but not mine as regards their meaning which depends on the quite universal-
ly rccognized principle o f uninterrupted change or flux; nothing stops to be, but has “bccomc” something else before you have had time to take hold o f it. This applies notably to the psychophysical personality or individuality which modem psychologists and ancient philosophers alike are agreed is not an entity but a postulate formed to facilitate easy reference to an observed sequence o f events; those who attribute entity to individuals arc “animists” , and also “polytheists” (sincc ‘I’ and ‘is’ arc expressions proper only to God). Duo sunt in homine; which o f these two were you most attached to, the mortal or the immortal?
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 57/484
Every heartattracting face that thou beholdest,The sky will soon remove it from before thy eyes;
Go, and give thy heart to One who, in the circle ofexistence,
Has always remained with thee and will so continue
to be.That Self is dearer than a son. . . . He who regards the
Self as dear, what he holds dear is, verily, not perishable.
You speak o f your m etaphysics as Western. You might Just
as well call your mathematics or chemistry Western. Such
distinctions cannot be made. The basic metaphysical
propositions— eg, nihil agit in seipsum — have nothing to do with
geography. Neither has the traditional doctrinc condemningexcessive g rie f for the dead, bo th for one’s ow n sake and
because such grief is an abuse of the dead:
O who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep?
The brief remainder of this letter is separately folded and
enclosed in order that you may, if you w ish, destroy it unread; I
only say this because, i f you do read it, you will no t like it.Biography is a rather ghoulish and dispicablc trade in any
case. If yo ur son w ould have wished to have his private life
exhibited , he m ust have had a full measure o f self conceit. If, as
I suppose, he would very much rather not be treated as Exhibit
A, then you are simply indulging y our ow n masochistic delight
in your ow n misery, at his expense, and that o f any other
helpless human beings whose lives may have been intimately
involved w ith his. If such an unreserved biog raph y as you
propose has never been done before, that may well be becausehitherto no one has been shameless enough to do such a thing.It seems to me that neither your son nor his still living friends
will be able easily to forgive you, and I dare say, in turn, you
will not forgive me!
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 58/484
To S. DURAI RAJA SINGAM
May 1946
Dear Mr Durai Raja Singam:
In reply to your various letters, I enclose some information. I must explain that I am not at all interested in biographical matter relating to myself and that I consider the modempractice o f publishing details about the lives and personalities o f well known men is nothing but a vulgar catering to illegitimate curiousity. So I could not think o f spending my time, which is very much occupied with more important tasks, in hunting up such matter, most o f which I have long forgotten; and I shall be grateful if you will publish nothing but the barest facts about
myself. What you should deal with is the nature and tendency of my work, and your book should be 95 per cent on this. I wish to remain in the background, and shall not be grateful or flattered by any details about myself or my life; all that is anicca, and as the “wisdom o f India” should have taught you, “portraiture of human beings is asvarya.” All this is not a matter of modesty, but of principle. For statements about the
nature and value of my work you might ask the secretary of the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Society, Poona (India), and Dr Murray Fowler, c/o G. and G. Mcrriam Co, Springfield, Massachusetts (USA) to make some statement, as both are familiar with it. I would not mind sending you press reviews of my books, but it would take more time than I have to hunt them up; I have no secretary who would do this sort of thing for me!
Yours sincerely,
S. Durai Raja Singam was a retired tcacher in Malaysia who had written to
AKC for inform ation in order to'w rite a biography, and w ho later published
in M alaysia a nu m ber o f w orks which provide a wealth o f biographical
information on him.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 59/484
To MARCO PALLIS
August 20, 1944
Dear Marco:
1 am rathe r appalled by yo ur suggestion o f my w riting a book
o f the natu re o f a critique o f Occidentalism for Indian readers.
It isn’t my primary function (dharma) to write “ readable” books
or articles; this is ju st w here m y function differs from
G ueno n’s. All my willing w riting is addressed to the professors
and specialists, those w ho have underm ined ou r sense of values
in recent times, but whose vaunted “scholarship” is really so
superficial. I feel that the rectification must be at the reputed
“top” and only so will find its way into the schools and text
books and encyclopaedias. In the long run the long piece on the“ Early Iconograph y o f Saggitarius”, on which I have beenengaged for over a year, with many interruptions, seems to me
more important than any direct additions to the “literature of
indictment”.
When I go to India, it will be to drop writing, except perhaps
translation (o f Upanishads, etc); m y object in “re tiring” being
to verify what I already “know”.
AKC
Marco Pallis, London, England, author of Peaks and Lamas and other works
(see Bibliography) which have earned him a reputation as one o f the prem ier
interpreters o f Tibetan Bud dhism and Tibetan culture of this century.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, E gypt, autho r of ma ny books and articles on
traditional doctrine and symbolism; and an early and powerful voice in
defense o f tradition and in criticism o f the m odern world.
U nfo rtuna tely, ‘Early Icon ograph y o f Saggitarius’ was still incom plete at thetime o f D r C oom aras w am y’s death in 1947.
To HERMAN GOETZ
June 15, 1939
Dear Dr Goetz:
There is one other point in your article that I might remarkupon. You connect my change o f interest from art history to
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 60/484
metaphysics with age and no doubt that is in a measure true,though I would perhaps rather say “maturity” than “age”
However, I would also like to explain that this was also a
natural and necessary development arising from my former
work in which the iconographic interest prevails. I was no
longer satisfied with a merely descriptive iconography and hadto be able to explain the reasons o f the forms; and for this it was
necessary to go back to the Vcdas and to metaphysics ingeneral, for there lie the seminal reasons o f iconographic
development. I could no t, o f course, be satisfied with merely
“sociological” explanations since the forms o f the traditional
societies themselves can only be explained metaphysically.
With kindest regards,
Dr Herman Goetz, well known German art historian and translator of
AKC's History o f Indian and Indonesian Art (see Bibliography) into German.
To MISS ADE DE BETHUNE
June 15, 1939My dear Miss De Bcthune:
The style o f m y articles to w hich you refer is determ ined by
various considerations, and primarily by the nature of the
rather complex, though relatively small audience they reach.
M r Rene Guenon writes, in spite o f all his learning, as simply as
possible and can do th is m ore often than I can because he rejects
the academic “Orientalists” altogether. I am on the other hand a
professional “ Orientalist” . I decided long ago not to reject but,so to speak, to work within the fold. But as I have to put
forward the real mean ing o f doctrines (eg, rega rding “ Rein-
carnation”) which academic Orientalists have generally mis-
understood, I must do so in an orthodox manner, and justified by many references since these Orientalists arc not in te restedin the T ru th, bu t in w hat m en have said.” Then again, I alwayswant to make it clear that I am not putting forward any new or
private doctr ines or interpreta tions; and the use o f quotations isvaluable here. I am also impressed by the concordance, oftenam ounting to verbal identity, o f W estern and Eastern scriptural
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 61/484
pronouncements and therefo re enjoy weaving a logical tissue in
which each echoes the other in a sort o f harm ony .An article in the 1939 Spring No. of The American Scholar on
“Vedanta and Western Tradition” is entirely without refer-
ences, th o ’ no t w ithou t quotations.
The use of Sanskrit is partly necessitated by the fact that m osto f my articles appear in the technical oriental journals; bu t also
by the fact that a part o f my audience is Indian, and for them the
use of a well know n Sanskrit term often gives precise value to
what might be an unfamiliar English expression. I quote from
St Th om as Aquinas a good deal because most o f what I need
can be found there, and to quote from him is an economy of
argument because he stands for Roman Catholics as an a priori,
altho ’ not absolute authority . In any case, I regard m yself not asan author, not as a literary man, but as an exegete and my only
object is to state what is to be said as unmistakably as possible.
In the lecture now in press (Stevens) you will be interested ina citation from Asvaghosa very closely paralleling Dante’s
affirmation of his practical purpose.
I am glad you mentioned the question o f sin. Art itself is noto f course governed by moral considerations, but the artist’s and
the patron’s will is or should be so governed and it cannot too
much be emphasized that there is a point at which “ love o f ar t”
becomes the sin o f luxury.O n the question o f “ last” and “ ultimate” , I agree. Etern ity is
not an everlasting duration, but an eternal now. Hence the
connection o f “ suddenness” with the Sanctus and the sym bol-
ism o f “ ligh tning” . C f the scholastic tendency to treat in
principio not as “in the beginning” (temporally), but as “in the
princip le” , ie, In Him “ through w hom all th ings were m ade.”
With kind regards,
Miss Ade de Bcthunc, Newport, Rhode Island, USA, American Catholic
artist and author of Work, published by John Stevens, N ew port, Rhode
Island.
“ The V edanta and the Western T radition ” , The American Scholar, VIII, 1939.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 62/484
TO PORTER SARGENT
March 19, 1945
Pear Mr Sargent:
As I mentioned before, I am afraid our points o f view arc far apart. I am in agreement with nearly everything said, as 1think
so well, by Mr Beck, and with a very great part of the whole Scholastic tradition. I am not a Jesuit, and can only call myself a
follower of the philosophia perennis, or if required to be more specific, a Vedantin. I am a doctor o f scicncc and see no conflict between religion and scicncc, when both arc rightly defined; on this subject I have written in Isis and have another article forthcoming there.
The philosophy I follow is equally valid for this world and the other; it is one that gives a meaning to life and to all activities here and now. I cannot agree with you that it concerns
only the post mortemstates o f being, though it would seem that these would last longer than our present one. In my writing I
never fail to relate philosophy to life. I might call your attention to the fact that the tradition I am speaking of, and modern
positivism arc agreed on one matter at least, viz, that our
human “personality” is not a being, but only a process. The tradition differs from positivism in maintaining that, neverthe-
less, the conviction o f being that all of us have is valid in itself, however invalid if connected with our mutable personality. It is only to this being that immortality is predicated. Nothing of course can be regarded as “immortal” that is not immortal now.
Yours very sincerely,
Mr Porter Sargent, “Yankee individualist, publisher, authority on non-
public schools, w rite r and som etim e poet” (fro m a re view o f his book), was
the autho r o f a bo ok called War and Education, 1944.
“Eastern Wisdom and Western Knowledge”, AKC, Isis, Part 4, 1943; and
“Gradation and Evolution”, Isis, 1944.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 63/484
To PROFESSOR THE HONORABLE EMILE SCHAUBKOCH
April 28, 1941
My dear Professor SchaubKoch:
I am greatly ho nored by your letter o f M arch 17. I have sentyou separately my Elements o f Buddhist Iconography, and also a
scries o f reprin ts from various magazines. I look forw ard to
you r large book on Bud dhist Iconography w ith much interest.W hen I received y our letter I was ju st then engaged in w riting a
short article on “ Some Sources o f Buddhist Icon ography ”
(especially the flame on a Buddh a’s head, and the represen tation
of the Buddha as a pillar or tree of fire).
I am high ly appreciative o f your proposal o f m yse lf for thehon orary mem bership o f the Co imbra Academy, and shallregard this as a high honour. For your convenience I may
m ention that I am a correspondent o f the Archeological Survey
of.India, VicePresident o f the India Society (London), and an
Honorary Member of the Vrienden der Asiatischen Kunst and
o f the B han dark ar O rienta l Research Institute, etc. I have also been a ViceP resident o f the American O rienta l Society; and
am a Do ctor o f Science o f London University. I only m ention
these matters in case you may wish to supply this information
to your friend Count de CostoLobo who is to make the
nomination.
I shall hope to hear of the safe arrival of the papers I have
sent, and to hear from you again.W ith m y best wishes for the successful continuation o f your
valuable researches, I remain,
Yours very sincerely,
Professor the Honorable SchaubKoch, Geneva, Switzerland
Elements o f Buddhist Iconography, see Bibliography.
‘M easures o f Fire’, O Instituto, Coimbra, Portugal, 1942.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 64/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 65/484
reading it, and agree in the main, though perhaps not with
every word. I think credit is due to Dr Kramrisch also for her
w ork on Deccan painting, in wh ich she emphasizes the Gujarati
elements. Secondly, for your letter of 16th October ,which
only ju s t arrived! As to this letter: I think you still som ew hat
misunders tand my position. I fully agree that the Kali Yuga is anecessary phase o f the whole cycle, and I should no m ore think
it could be avoided than I could ask the silly question, “Why
did God allow evil in the world?” (one might as well ask for a
world without ups and downs, past and future, as to ask for a
world without good and evil). On the other hand, I feel under
no obligation to acquiesce in or to praise wh at 1 judg e to be evil,
or an evil time. Whatever the conditions, the individual has to
w ork out his own salvation; and cannot abandon judg em ent,and be overcome by popular catchwords. I feel, therefore, at
liberty to describe the world as is, to mark its tendencies. I see
the w orst, bu t I need not be a part o f it, how ever much I must be in it; I will only be a part o f the better fu ture you th in k of,
and o f which there are some signs, as there must be even now ifit is ever to become.
O ne o f ou r very best men here recently rem arked that this
“American world is not a civilization, but an ‘organized
barbarism ’ I can agree; but what is more distressing is th at o fall the hundreds o f Indian students w ho are now com ing here,
the great majority are nothing but disorganized barbarians,
what you might call cultural illiterates. This produces a verystrange impression on the really cultured Americans. . . . The
modern young Indian (with exceptions) is in no position to
meet the really cultured and spiritual European. I feel aninterest, therefore, in the “ state o f edu cation” in India. I can’t
help feeling sorry for Nehru, who “discovered India” so late;and at Jinnah, w ho is no t a Moslem in any bu t a political
sense. I regret the spread in India o f the class distinctions thatarc so characteristic of the Western “ dem ocracies” . I w ould like
to see the caste system intensified, especially so as regards theBrahm ins, w ho should be demoted if they don ’t fill the bill;should be made Vaisyas if they go in for mo neym aking , andSudras when they become engineers. This docs not mean that I
don’t think anyone should make money or engines, but thatthose who do should rank accordingly; in which respect my position is as much Platonic as Indian.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 66/484
P r o g r e s s : b y D e n i s T e g e t m e i e r , i n E r i c G i l l U n h o l y
T r i n i t y , L o n d o n ,
D e n t , 1 9 4
2 .
“ D o w n
a s t e e p p
l a c e i n t o t h e s e a ”
M A T T H E W V l l i : 3 1
" A s t h e t y r a n t d e l
i g h t s w h e n h e c a n t o r m e n t m e n , a n d
s p e n d t h e i r s w e a t i n
s h o w a n d l u x u r y , i n f o o l i s h s t r a n g e a t t i r e a n d b e h a v i o u
r , a n d a p e t h e f o o l ;
s o d o a l s o t h e d e v i l s i n h e l l . . . H e w h o s e e s a p r o u d m a n s e e s . . . t h e d e v i l ’ s
s e r v a n t i n t h i s w o r l d ; t h e d e v i l d o e s h i s w o r k t h r o u g h
h i m . . . H e t h i n k s
h i m s e l f t h e r e b y f i n
e a n d i m p o r t a n t , — a n d i s t h e r e b y
i n t h e s i g h t o f G o d
o n l y a s a f o o l , w h o p u t s o n s t r a n g e c l o t h i n g a n d t a k e
s t o h i m s e l f a n i m a l
f o r m s "
j a c o s i e h m e n ,
S i x
T h t o s o p h i c P o i n t s ,
V H 3 6 - 8
" T h e i d e a o f P r o g r e s s a r o s e i n t h e e i g h t e e n t h c e n t u r y
f r o m t h e b e l i e f t h a t
m a n h a d w a i t e d l o
n g e n o u g h a n d t h a t i t w a s i m p o s s i b
l e t o e x p e c t G o d t o
d o a n y t h i n g t o a l l e v i a t e h i s s u f f e r i n g s o r b r i n g a b o u t t h e
t r i u m p h o f g o o d . . .
“ I n m a t e r i a l t h i n g s t h e r e h a s b e e n ‘ p r o g r e s s ’ ; t h e r e
h a s b e e n p r o g r e s s i n
i n v e s t i g a t i o n , i n t h
e a m o u n t o f k n o w l e d g e a v a i l a b l e , i n
t h e s p e e d a t w h i c h
w e c a n m o v e , i n t h e r a t e o f p r o d u c t i o n o f g o o d s , i n c e n t r a l i z a t i o n , i n t h e
f a c t o r i f i c a t i o n o f e
d u c a t i o n , i n t h e p o w e r a n d s p e e d o
f d e s t r u c t i o n , i n t h e
p o w e r o f M a m m o n , i n t h e l o s s o f i n d i v i d u a l f r e e d o m
, i n t h e n u m b e r o f
d e a t h s o n t h e r o a d , i n t h e d e c l i n e o f w i s d o m b e f o r e t h e i n
c r e a s e o f k n o w l e d g e ,
i n t h e d e c l i n e o f t r u e l e a r n i n g b e f o r e t h e m e r e a c c u m u l a
t i o n o f f a c t s a n d t h e
m u l t i p l i c a t i o n o f p h i l o s o p h i e s , i n t h e c h a o e o f o u r i n d u s t r i a l , e c o n o m i c ,
s o c i a l a n d p o l i t i c a l o r d e r . . .
“ I f t h e r e h a s e v
e r e m e r g e d a n a n t i - C h r i s t i n h i s t o r y , i t i s ‘ t h e i d e a o f
P r o g r e s s ' ”
F . W . B U C K L E R
“ T h e o l o g y s u r r e n d e r e d t o e t h i c s , e t h i c s t o e c o n o m i c s
, a n d m a n f o l l o w e d
s u i t f r o m a s p i r i t u a l b e i n g t o a n e c o n o m i c a n i m a l "
H . J . M A S S I N C U A M
“ W h e n e v e r t h e t i m b e r t r a d e i s g o o d , p e r m a n e n t f a
m i n e r e i g n s i n t h e
O g o w e r e g i o n "
A L B E R T S C H W E I T Z E R
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 67/484
Above all, I am not a reformer or a propagandist; I don’t
“ think for m y s e lf’; I spend my time trying to understand somethings that 1 regard as immutable truths; in the first place, for
m y ow n sake, and secondly for that o f those wh o can make use
o f my results. For me, there are certain axioms, principles, or
values beyond question; my interest is not in thinking up newones, bu t in the application o f these that are.
You say you cannot see an ugly, only a tragic picture. I
disagree with that, because I cannot see “tragedy” except in
heroic conflict; where one simply drifts with the current and
merely shouts “ Prog ress” , I see no possibility o f a tragic rasa,
but only ugliness.
Very sincerely,
D r Herm an G oetz, pop ular Germ an art historian resident in India; cf letter,
p 31.D r Stella K ramrisch, C ura tor o f Indian A rt, Philadelphia M useum o f A rt and
som etim e professor o f Indian art at Calcutta U niversity; author o f A Survey
o f Painting in the Deccan and The Indian Temple, major studies in the art and
architecture of India.
The AKC festschrift was published under the title Art and Thought ; see
Bibliography.
Kali Yuga o r ‘age o f strife’, w hich ma rks the terminal phase of the p resent
hum an cycle in the H indu theory o f cyclic time; for a discussion o f this
concept, see Rene Guenon, The Crisis o f the Modem World, London, 1942.
Vaisya and sudra, the lowe r tw o o f the four traditional H indu castes; for a
further discussion, see AKC, The Religious Basis o f the Forms of Indian Society,
Orientalia, New York, 1946.
Rasa, Sanskrit for flavour or taste; an imp ortan t concept in Hindu aesthetics.
T o FATHER PAUL HENLEY FURFEY, SJ.
N ovem ber 11, 1937
Dear Father Furfey:
I w on der if you could refer me to any authoritativestatements against a translation o f the Bible into the vernacular?
Also to any recent encyclical in w hich the reten tion o f servicesin Latin is enjoined? I am myse lf in full agreement w ith the principle o f re ta in ing the hieratic language untransla ted
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 68/484
(however much explained by commentaries) but would like to
know the Christian authorities.
Very sincerely,
Father Paul H. Furfey, SJ, professor o f sociology, Catholic U niversity o f
Am erica, W ashington, D. C.
To MISS ADE DE BETHUNE
June 25, 1940
Dear Miss de Bethune:
I am in full agreemen t w ith you on the question o f Liturgy
(etc) in the vernacular. There are many important reasons for
the retention o f a “ sacred” language. There have been
vernacu lars (like the Braj dialect o f Hind i) which are themselves
virtually sacred languages and admirably adapted to the
expression o f the truth. In the present situation, how ever, the
notable considerations are (1) that modern English is essentially
a secular language, no t at all well adap ted to the fa(on de penser o fscripture, and (2) the words which once had definite meanings
have become materialized and sentimentalized: contrast the
medieval meaning of nature and the mo dem , and note the gulf
betw een the philosophical and popula r value o f ideal. For these
reasons there can’t be a translation tha t is not also a betrayal. It is
a perfectly com prehensible situation o f course: the hum anisa-
tion, ie, secularization o f scripture accompanies the hum anisa-
tion o f C hrist (as Eckhart rem arks, C hr ist’s hum anity is a
hindrance to those who cling to it w ith m ortal pleasure— one
might add that “human nature” does not mean the same thingfor the Schoolmen as it does for the modern to whom the
expressions fo rma humanitatis means nothing).
Very sincerely,
Miss Adc de Bethune, Newport, Rhode Island, USA; sec letter, p. 28.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 69/484
T o MR J. T. TALGERI
August 29, 1946
Dea r M r Talgeri:
In reply to your letter, just received:All men live by faith, until they have reached an immediate
know ledge o f reality in w hich they at first believed. “ W hat islove?” as Rumi says: “Thou shalt know when thou becomest
Me.”
A priori, faith in a given dogma will depend upon the
credibility o f the witness. Whenever, and tha t is norm ally
always, the same truths have been enunciated by the great
teachers o f the w orld at many times and in many places, there is
gro un d for supposing that on e’s task is rather to understand and
verify w hat has been said than to question it; and that is ju st as
w hen a professor o f chemistry informs us that 2H + O =
H2O, we take this on faith until we have understood and
verified the pro position. To the extent that truths are verified in
personal experience, faith is replaced by certain ty; in th is sense,
for example, the Buddhist Arahant is no longer a m an o f faith.
So I believe in the w ords o f the Vcdas, Buddha, Socrates,
Ramakrishna, M uham m ed, C hrist and many others, and in thetimeless reality to which or to whom—according to the
phraseology appro priate in each case—these bear witness. I do
no t believe that I am this m an soandso, b ut that I am that M an
in this man, and that He is One and the same in all the
temporary vehicles that He inhabits and quickens here in His
transcendence o f. them all.
Very sincerely,
Mr Talgeri is not further identified.
T o HELEN CHAPIN
October 29, 1945
Dear Miss Chapin:
I have yours o f the 25th and 28th. In the first place, I did not
mean to say that you had sports for an ideal, ctc— that was part
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 70/484
o f the general criticism o f these “latter days” . As for caste, I
have to prepare a lecture on the “ Religious Basis o f H indu
Social Order” and will try to go into it there. For the rest, I amonly too well aware that “knowing all literature” can meannothing: and at best is only dispositive to liberation—though it is
that. However, it has been mainly “searching (these) scrip-tures” that has got me as far along as I am; effecting, that is to
say, a measure o f liberation from some things. I do n’t think
you need w orry about the im m orality of doing futile w ork for
a living— it ’s ju st a cond ition imposed by the env ironm ent. I
am a “ parasite” on industrialism, in ju st the same way, but
nevertheless this very situation gives me a position and means
to do som ething w orthw hile, I think. Y our idea of a Bud dhist
cooperative seems good to me; and w hat you say o f disposingo f yo ur goods (“sell all that thou hast, and follow m e” ) seems
the right beginning. But I think you need a little time to
consolidate yourself. For another thing, also, to be o f the
greatest value in such a community you need the resources
which would enable you to universalize, so to speak, the
orientals ^ith you— no t that they have no t in their ow n
background “ enough fo r salvatio n” , but th at they too are in
some d anger o f the provincialism that is the outstanding quality
of American culture—isolationist even intellectually!
Finally, i f you thou ght it w orthw hile to make the trip, w ould
you care to spend a week w ith us? We have no servant, bu t I am
sure you w ou ldn ’t m ind doing your share o f the rather light
ho use w ork that existence demands. M y wife joins me in thisinvitation.
Sincerely,
Miss Helen Chapin, Bryn Mawr College, Bren Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA.
To PROFESSOR J. H. MUIRHEAD
August 29, 1935
Dear Professor Muirhead:
I am a goo d deal relieved by you r very kind letter of August
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 71/484
14, for although I spent much time and thought on this articlc, Istill felt dissatisfied with it. What I wanted to bring out was the
metaphysical character o f Indian doctrinc, that it is no t a
philosophy in the same sense in which this w ord can be used in
the plural; and that the metaphysics o f the universal and
unanimous tradition, or ph ilosophia perennis, is the infalliblestandard by which not only religions, but still more “philo-
sophies” and “sciences” must be “corrected” (correction du
savoir-penser) and interpreted.
N ow as to the abbrevia tion: it w ould be m y wish in any case
to om it p 8, line 13 up to p 10, line 3 inclusive, and the
correspo nding footnotes (ie, o m it all discussion o f the H oly
Family, which I w ould prefer to take up again elsewhere, no t as
I have don e here neglecting the doc trinc o f the E ternal Birthand “divine nature by which the Father begats”, which
“nature” is in fact the M agna M ater, the m other o f eternity).
For the rest I am entirely at your disposal, and rely on you to
make such further excisions as you th ink best, w ithout sending
me the M s, but only the p ro o f in due course.I may add that all my recent w ork has tended to show the Rig
Vcdic (therefore also o f course, Upanishad and Brahmana) and
neoPlatonic traditions arc o f an identical import; w orkin g thisout mainly in connection with ontology and aesthetics, and de
divitiis nominibus. I am contributing an articlc on “Vcdic
Excmplarism” to the James Haughton Woods Mem orial Volume to
be published at Harvard U niversity shortly. I have indeed oneCatholic friend who admits that he can no longer see any
difference between Ch ristianity and H induism . I m yse lf find
nothing unacceptable in any Catholic doctrinc, save that o f anexclusive tru th , which last is no t, I believe, a m atter o f faith (ie,
Catholicism assumes its own truth but does not deny truths
elsewhere merely because they occur elsewhere, although in
practice the indiv idual Cath olic docs tend to do this). I am notat all interested in tracing possible “ influences” o f one teaching
on another, for example w hether o r not Jesus or Plotinus m ayor may no t have visited India; the roots o f the great traditionare very m uch older than either Christianity or the Vedas as wehave them, although from the standpo int o f content both m ay
be called eternal. I hope this may help to make my positionclearer, and may be o f help to you in editing my M s. I ow e you
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 72/484
many apologies for the troublesome work that must be
involved in this.With renewed thanks,
Very sincerely,
Professor J. H. M uirhead, editor of Contemporary Indian Philosophy, Allen
and Unwin, London, 1936, in which AKC’s article “The Pertinence of
Philosophy” appeared.
‘Vedic Exemplarism’, AKC’s contribution to the James Haughton Woods
Memorial Volume, Harvard University Press, 1936.
ToPROFESSOR H. G. RAWLINSON
no date given
My dear Rawlinson:
It is a m atter o flittle interest to m e w hether Gautam a o r Jesus
“ lived” historically.* Gautama him self says “T hose w ho see
me in the body or hear me in words, do not see or hearMe. . . . He who sees the dhamma sees M e.” I do th ink it
necessary to have as a bac kgrou nd a knowledge o f metaphysics.For a European this means an acquaintance with and verifica-
tion o f the Gospels (at least John), Gnostic and H erm etic
literature, Plotinus, Diony sius, Eckh art, Dan te. It is o f no use
to read these simply as literature; if one is not going to get
som ething ou t o f all this, w hy read at all? If I were n ot gettingsolid food out o f scholarship, I w ould drop it tom orro w andspend my days fishing and gardening.
Yours sincerely,
* Th e app arently ino rdina te character o f this rem ark can be seen in better
perspective i f it is weig hed again st o th er AK C statem ents . For example ,co m m en ting in passing on the Gospel form ula ‘. . . th at it m igh t be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets’, he says that this phrase simply asserts
the necessity o f an historical eventuation o f that w hich has been ordained by
He aven, w hich is to say that possibilities o f ma nifestation m ust be
existentiated in their proper ‘cosmic moment’. For Dr Coomaraswamy, the
metaphysical was so overwhelmingly real that, by comparison, historicalfacts seem ed o f little imp ortance. Th is perspective, o bviou sly, is the veryantithesis o f the po pular attitude tha t sees history as confirming everything.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 73/484
even the metaphysical. The facts of history, however, and especially ofsacred history, arc symbolic in the highest degree without this in any waycompromising their prescriptive reality on their own level; were it not so,history would be a meaningless chaos. Dr Coomaraswamy was no Docetist,as the fundamental thrust o f his writings dearly indicates, whatever mayhave been the emphasis in a particular context.
H. G. Rawlinson, CIE, formerly with the Ceylon and Indian EducationService, and an art historian. Dhamma, a Pali word (Sanskrit equivalent, dharma) meaning “eternal law”;an important concept in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Sec introductorychapter, “The Buddhist Doctrine” in AKC and 1. B. Horner, The Living Thoughts of Gotama the Buddha, London, 1948.
To MR WESLEY E. NEEDHAM
March 14, 1945
Dear Mr Needham:
M any thanks. I’m afraid I feel that Theosophy is for the m ost
part a pseudo o r distorted philosophia perennis. The same
applies to m any “ bro therho od ” m ovem ents. C f Rene
Guenon’s Le Theosophisme: historie d’une pseudo-religion (Didier
et Richard, Paris, 1921).* On Guenon, see my articlc in Isis, XX X IV, 1943. I think Plutarch is one o f the masters o f
Comparative Religion, and I have the highest regard for Philo.
Very sincerely,
* This and the other major works of Rene Guenon are listed in the bibliographical section devoted to him.
Mr. Wesley E. Needham, West Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To PROFESSOR MUHAMMED HAFIZ SAYYED
August 20, 1947
My dear Professor Muhammcd Hafiz Sayyed:
It was a pleasure to receive your k ind letter o f the 6th inst.Your recommendation to visit Sri Ramana Maharshi and SriAurobindo Ghosh reminded me of Jahang ir and Dara Shikosh:
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 74/484
“Their Vedanta is the same as our Tassawuf.” I have the
highest regard for the former and I think he ranks with Sri
Ramakrishna. I should th ink it a great privilege to take the dust
o ff his feet. . . . O n the other hand 1 have not found Sri
Aurobindo Ghosh’s writings very illuminating.
Very sincerely,
Professor M uham m ed Hafiz Sayyed, no t otherwise identified.
Sri Ram ana M aharshi, 18791950 , great H indu saint o f South India; see
Collected Works o f Ramana Maharshi, edited by Arthur Osborne, New York,
1972.
Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, 18721950, Hindu philosopher with strong mod-
ernist leanings; his teachings are not considered orthodox.
Jahangir, Mughul emperor (d 1627) noted for his wide cultural interests and
his T u z u k (Memoirs), from which the citation in the letter was taken.
Dara Shikosh (or Shukoh), notorious among his contemporaries for what
they considered his unorthodox religious views; he sponsored a translation
into Persian of the fifty chief Upanishads.*
* Dara Shikosh’s poor reputation with the exoteric authorities may have
stem m ed from his public expression o f Sufi interests and attitudes. G randso n
o fJaha ngir and son o f Sh ahja han , he was an unsuccessful contender for the
Peacock Throne—losing successively the throne, his eyes and his life to his
implacable brother, Aurangzeb. This translation o f the Upanishads intoPersian (then the language o f the court and the chief cultural m edium) which
Shikosh sp onsored was in turn translated a bou t a century and a ha lf later into
Latin, by the Frenchman, Abraham Hyacinthe AnquetilDuperron, and
published in 180102 in Europe (S trasb ourg ). Thus were th e Upanishads
introduced into Europe, and it was this version that was used with much
devotion by Arthur Schopenhauer. AnquetilDuperron rendered Mundaka
Upanishad III.3.2.9 thus: Quisquis ilium Brahm intelligit, Brahm f it , adding the
gloss, id est, Quisquis Deum intelligit, Deusfit; and he placed this last statem ent
in exergue to his tw o volum e translation as a sum m ation o f upanishadic
doctrine. It is very instructive to compare this passage from the Mundaka Upanishad with Jo hn xvii, 3: Haec est autem vita ceterna: ut congnoscant te, solum
Deum verum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum.
To GEORGE SARTON
August 13, 1939
My dear Sarton:
H erew ith the review o f Radhakrishnan ’s book. You w ill seethat it is, on the whole, a criticism, and perhaps you will not
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 75/484
“like” it. However, it seems to me important to point out that
it is not really Hinduism, but a modern western interpretation
o f H ind uis m , tha t he is w ork ing w ith; in some respects, indeed,
it seems to me that he understands Christianity better than
H indu ism (we m us t rem em ber that the exegetes o f Christianity
have b een Ch ristians: the Europ ean exegetes o f Hinduism, forthe most part, neither Christians nor Hindus). It is curious that
Radhakrishnan has nothing to say about Islam which in so
many respects can be regarded as a mediation between Eastern
and Western approaches.
I hav e ju s t received and am already [51V) with great
admiration for the author’s position and practical wisdom,
Peaks and Lamas by Marco Pallis (Cassell, London and
T o ro nto ); w ho is n ot m erely an explorer, but w hose purpose it
was “ to e m ba rk on a genuine study at first hand o f the Tibetan
do ctrines, for their o w n sake and n ot ou t o f mere scientific
curiosity” (p 120). You will read the book with great pleasure
and will, I am sure, wish to commend it, especially as a model
o f method to be followed in scicntific investigations that require
intimate relations with alien peoples. I remark especially the
concep t o f Translation as interpreted on pp 8081.
C an I hav e som e reprints o f the review?With kind regards,
Very sinccrcly,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian scholar and statesman, author of Indian
Philosophy and numerous other works.
T o GEORGE SARTON
August 11, 1947
Dear Sarton:
N ikilananda, The Gospel o f Sri Ramakrishrta — an excellent and
com plete translation o f “ M ’s” record, a remarkable docu-m en t . . . I’ll lend y ou m y Ram akrishn a if necessary, but look:
this is on e o f the m os t im po rtant book s in the field o f religion
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 76/484
published in the USA in this centu ry, and why not insist on the
library getting it?
AKC
George Sarton, as above.
The Gospel o f Sri Ramakrishna, translated by Swami Nikilananda, The
Ramakrishna Vivckananda Center, New York, USA.
T o JOHN LAYARD
August 11, 1947
Dear Dr Layard:
There is nothing better than the Vedanta— but I kno w o f no
Sri Ramana Maharshi living in Europe. I do not trust your
young Vedantists, no r any o f the missionary Swamis; thou gh
there may be exceptions, m ost o f them are far from solid. I
would not hastily let anyone o f them have the chance. . . . Not
even Vivckananda, were he still alive. Were Ramakrishna
him self available, that would be another matter.
Sincerely,
D r Joh n Layard, Jungian analyst and cultural anthropologist, author o f
several works, including The Stone Men o f Malakula, London, 1942.
To GRAHAM CAREY
April 5, 1943
Dear Carey:
I read you r paper once over and think it good. It is necessary but courageous to tackle the whole problem o f superstitions but difficu lt because each superstition presents a problem to ourunderstanding. I find that superstare has the primary meaning to
stand by, upon, or over, but also the meaning to survive. In the
latter sense superstition often coincides with tradition andought not necessarily to have a bad meaning at all. Even in the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 77/484
first sense it should not necessarily have a bad meaning—one
can stand by or take one’s stand upon a perfectly good theory.
So m any o f these w ord s (eg, “ dogm atic”) have acquired a bad
meaning (a) because antitraditionalists despise the theory in
question and (b) because those who adhere to the theories
som etimes d o so blindly and stupidly, ie, w ithout understand-ing. (I m et, by the way, som e followers o f Karl Barth, and was
shocked by their violence and conceit; they hold all Christian
mysticism in contempt).
Very sincerely,
Graham Carey, Catholic author, Fairhaven, Vermont, USA.
ANONYMOUS
Date not given
Hear. . .
Practically the w ho le o f our c ultural inheritance assumes and
originally too k shape for the sake o f a bod y o f beliefs nowclassified as supe rstition . Superstition , taken in its etymological
significance, as the des ignation o f whatever ‘stands ove r’
(superstet ) from a former age is an admirable word, partly
synonymous with tradition; wc have added to this essential
mean ing, h ow ever, ano ther and accidental connotation, that of
“mistaken belief”. Whatever we, with our knowledge of
empirical facts, still do in the same way tha t prim itive man did,
wc do not call a superstition, but a rational procedure, and wc
credit our primitive ancestors accordingly with the beginning
o f scicncc; a second class o f things that w c still do, rather by
habit than deliberately, the laying o f foundation stones, for
exam ple, wc d o n ot call superstitions, only because it docs no toccur to us to do so. Whatever on the other hand we do no t do
and th ink o f as irrational, particularly in the field o f rites, bu t
still see done by peasants or savages, or indeed by Roman
Catholics, Hindus or Shamanists, wc call superstitions, mean-
ing so far by “ w e” those o f us whose education has beenscientific, and for whom whatever cannot be experimentallyverified an d m ade use o f to p redict events is not knowledge.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 78/484
On the other hand, we have inherited from the past an
enorm ous b ody o f w orks o f art, for example, to which we still
attach a very h igh value: we consider that a knowledge o f these
things belongs to the “ higher things o f life” , and do n ot call a
man “ cu ltured ” unless he is more or less aware o f them . At the
same time our anthropological and historically analytical
kno w ledge makes us very well aware that none o f these
things—cathedrals, epics, liturgies for example—would not
have been what they arc, but for the “superstitious” beliefs to
which their shapes conform; and to say that these things w ould
not have been what they are is the same as to say that they
would not have been at all and to recognize that we could not,
for example, have written the Volsung Saga, or the Mahabharata,
or the Odyssey, but only a psychological novel. We could nothave written Genesis or the in principio hymns o f the Rg Veda,
but only textbooks o f geology, astronom y and physics. To
deal with this situation w e have devised an ingenious m ethod o f
saving face, preserving intact our faith in “progress” and
satisfaction in the values o f ou r ow n civilization as disting-
uished from the barbarism o f others. In the field o f m yth and
epic, for exam ple, we assume a nucleus o f historical fact to
which the imagination o f the literary artist has added m arvels inorder to enhance his effects. For ourselves, we have outgrown
the childish faith in the deus ex machina, who indeed often
“spoils” for us the humanistic values that the story has for us.
We feel in much the same way about whatever seems to us
immoral or amoral in the text. In reading, we exercise an
unconscious censorship, discounting whatever seems to us
incredible, and also whatever seems to us inconvenient. Guided
by the psychoanalyst, we arc prepared to take the fairytale out
o f the hands o f children altogether; even the churchm an, whose
jo b and business it is to expound the Gospel fairytales,
connives in this.
Having by means o f these reservations made the epic safe fordemocracy, we arc fully prepared to admit and admire its“literary” values. In the same way, ignoring the reasons forEgyptian, Greek or Medieval architecture, we are fully prepared to recognize the “ significance” o f these aesthetic
facts . . . .This was an incomplete handwritten letter found amongst AKC’s otherletters. It was unsigned.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 79/484
T o ALFRED O. MENDEL
August 29, 1946
Dear Dr Mendel:
“Tradition” has nothing to do with any “ages”, whether
“dark”, “primaeval”, or otherwise. Tradition represents doc-
trines about first principles, which do not change; and
traditional institutions represent the application o f these princi-
ples in particular environm ents and in this [way they] acquire a
certain contingency which docs not pertain to the principles
themselves. So, for example, as Guenon remarks on my W hy
Exhibit Works o f Art?, pp 8688:
une note repondant a un critique avait rcproche a l’autcur de prcconiscr le ‘retour a un eta t dcs choscs passes’, cclui du
moycn age, alors qu’il s’agissait cn realite d’un rctour
premiers principcs, com m e si ces principes pouvait dependre
d’unc question d’epoquc, et comme si leur vcrite n’etait pas
csscntiellement intcmporclle!
For an example o f how the w ord “ tradition” can be misused,
see my correspondence with Ames printed in the current issue
o f the Journal o f Aesthetics and A rt Criticism. If it is so misusedvery often (pejoratively) it is because under present conditionso f education, the “ educa ted” are acquainted with “ trad ition”
only in its past aspects, if at all, and no t w ith “ the living
tradition”.You may be right about “slants” in writing. I attach
importance to continuity (tendency to write successive wordswithout lifting the pen), and think this corresponds to the
faculty o f reading sentences as a whole, rather than w ord byword. This is often very conspicuous in Sanskrit, where the
crasis often results in the presentation o f whole sentences in the
form o f one solid block.
Very sincerely,
Alfred O Mendal was a professor of psychology at Sarah LawrcnceCollege, Bronxville, N ew York, USA , and an authority on graphology. He
was the author of Personality in Handwriting, New York, 1947.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 80/484
To THE JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS AND ART CRITICISM
December 27, 1945
A Rejoinder to Professor Ames:
In writing to Professor Van Ames (without thought of publication) I had not meant to discuss the relative merits o f his
and m y points o f view, but only to say that he did not seem to
be using the w ord “ traditio n” in the “ traditional” sense; and
this he admits. I think I have show n in my Why Exhibit Works of
Art? (1943, now op) and Figures o f Speech or Figures o f Thought?
(to appear immediately) that there is a theo ry o f art that has
been ente rta ined universally, and w ith which there has been
disagreem ent only at exceptional times or by individuals—with
respect to whom I would ask, with Plato, “Why consider the
inferior Philosophers?”. In any case, those “who appeal to
tradition” arc not putting forward views of “ their ow n” .
Professor Van Ames or anyone else is entirely free to d isagree
with the “ traditiona l” theory. I do maintain, how ever, that this
theory must be understood if we arc to avoid the pathetic fallacy
o f reading into the minds o f “ prim itive” , classic, m edieval andoriental artists our own aesthetic preoccupations. That this is a
very real danger is made apparent in the way we use such termsas “inspiration” (sec my article, sv, in Th e Dictionary o f the
Arts ), “ orna m en t” , “ na ture” , and even “a rt” itself in senses
that are very different from those o f the artists and the theorists
o f the periods o f which we are writing the history. And this
makes it very difficult for the student to grasp the real spirit of
the age that he is supposed to be studying objectively.
AKC
Professor Van M eter Ames o f the D epartment o f philosophy at the
U niversity o f Cincinnati. In his letter to A KC , he w rote: ‘You are quite right
that I do not use the word “tradition" as those use it who “appeal to
tradition.” Th ey form an impressive company. And they m ust o f course
dismiss me as not belonging to the “spiritually educated”. . . . Here I can
only say that I belong to a different tradition: pragmatic, humanist,
plu ralist . . . . ’ In a covering le tter to the edito r o f th e journal here in
question, AK C wro te: ‘If you think there is any chance Professor Ames
w ould think I am casting an aspersion on h im, I am quite ready to strike outthe line “with respect to . . . philosophers.” ’
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 81/484
A note to the A r t Bulletin on a review in vo lum e XX (p 126) by
Richard F lorsheim o f A K C ’s “ Is Art a Superstition or a Way o f
Life?” ; see Bib liog raphy for the several appearances o f thisarticlc.
In review ing m y “ Is A rt a Supe rstition o r a Way o f Life?” ,
M r Florsheim assum es m y “ advocacy o f a return to a m ore o rless feudal ord er . . . an earlier, b ut dead order o f things.” In
m uch the same w ay a reviewer o f “ Patron and Artist” ( Apollo ,
February 1938, p 100) admits that what I say “is all very true”,
bu t assumes tha t th e rem edy w c “ M cdiaevalists” (m eaning
such as Gill, Glcizes, Carey and me) suggest is to “somehow
get back to an earlier social organization.”
These false, facile assumptions enable the critic to evade the
challenge o f o u r criticism, which has two main points: (1) thatthe cu rrent “ appreciation” o f ancient or exotic arts in terms o f
our o w n ve ry special and historically provincial view o f art
amounts to a sor t of hocus pocus, and (2) that under the
con ditions o f m anu facture taken for granted in current artistic
doctrinc man is given stones for bread. These propositions arc
either true o r no t, and cann ot honestly be twisted to mean that
wc w ant to p ut back the hands o f the clock. N either is it true that w c “ do not pretend to offer m uch in the
way o f a practical rem ed y;” on the contrary, wc offer
everything, that is to “somehow get back to first principles.”
Translated from metaphysical into religious terms this means
“ Seek yc first the k ingd om o f G od and His righteousness, and
all these th ings shall be added u nto you .” W hat this can have to
do with a sociological archaism or eclecticism, I fail to see.
A return to first principles would not recreate the outward
aspects o f the M iddle Ages, thou gh it migh t enable us to better
und erstand these aspects. I have now here said that I w ished to“return to the Middle Ages”. In the pamphlet reviewed, I said
that a cathedral w as no m ore beautiful in kind than a telephone
booth in kin d*, and expressly excluded questions o f preference,
ie, o f “ wishful think ing ” . W hat I understand by “ wishful
think ing ” (cf p 2 o f m y essay) is that kind o f faith in “ progress”w hich leads M r Florsheim to identify “earlier” with “dead” , atype o f thinking that ignores all distinction o f essence from
accident and seems to suggest a Marxist or at any rate adefinitely antitraditional bias.
Th ings that w ere tru e in the M iddle Ages arc still true, apart
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 82/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 83/484
To THE EDITOR OF APOLLO
February 23, 1938
Dear Sirs:
Referring to you r review o f “Patron and A rtist” in theFebruary issue, p 100, may 1say that wc “Mcdiacvalists” (I can
speak at least for myself, Mr Carey and Eric Gill) do not holdor argue that “ wc should som eho w get back to an earlier social
organization” , how ever superior to our own wc m ay hold that
such an organization m ay have been. Wc arc no m ore interested
in “pscudoGothic”, whether architectural or social, than wc
arc admirers o f the present social order. O ur remedies arc not
stylistic, but metaphysical and moral; wc propose to return to
first principles and to acccpt their consequences. These con
scqucnccs migh t involve a social order in som e respects o f a
mediaeval type; they w ould ccrtainly include a rehabilitation o f
the idea o f making as a vocation, manufacture for use, and an
altered view o f the use to w hich machinery m ight be put. Bu t
wc arc not using the Middle Ages or the Orient as a blue print
for a new socicty; wc use them to point our moral, which is
that you cannot gather figs o f thistles. Wc suppose that what is
needed for a better social order and m ore happiness is no t a blue print but a change o f heart. Wc arc not so naive as to suppose
that any social style, whether democratic, socialist, fascist, or
“ mediaeval, how eve r enforced, could o f itself effect a changeof heart.
Very truly,
Graham Carey, Benson, Vermont, USA.Eric Gill, cf Introduction.
T o KURT F. LEIDECKER
N ovem ber 16, 1941
Dear D r Lcidcckcr:
The least im po rtant thin g abou t Guenon is his personality or bio graphy. I endose an articlc by M aclvcr, which please return
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 84/484
(also “T he ‘E ’ at Delph i” , which please keep). G ueno n’s ow naffiliations are essentially Arabic. He lies in retirement in Cairo:he knows Greek, Arabic, Sanskrit. (His two books on
spiritualism and theosophy were clearances o f the groun d,
prepara tory to his oth er work . Thus no one can suppose that in
his metaphysical w ork he is talking o f any kind o f occultism).The fact is that he has the invisibility that is proper to thecomplete philosopher: our teleology can only be fulfilled when
we really become no one. 1 shall do some o f the words such as
caitya for you very shortly. A great deal o f G uen on’s im portan twork appears in Etudes Traditionelles, during the last 10 years.
I question the importance o f item 4 for you r Dictionary. 1think item 12 should be Terminology (class concepts and
“ periods” ). Item 9, add Exhibition. Item 17, I should say sun-wheel (avoid constant repetition o f the word symbol, and for
more precise indication).1may be doing “Symbol” (in general) for Shipley, you want
only symbols (in particular).
Very sincerely,
Dr Kurt Lcidcckcr was working on a Dictionary o f Archelogy which wasinterrupted by World War II, when he was assigned to the Air Documents
Center where he compiled the American Aeronautical Dictionary.
Joseph T. Shipley, Dictionary of Word Origins, Philosophical Library, New York,
1945.
Rene Guenon, pioneering traditional writer and outstanding metaphysician;
a con tem po rary o f AK C. See bibliographical section at the end o f these
letters.
Etudes Traditionnelles, 11 quai StMichcl, Paris.
L ’Erreur spirite, see Bibliography.
Le Theosophisme, histoirc d’une pseudo-religion', sec Bibiliography.
T o MR J. C. ABREU
October 7, 1946
Dear Mr Abrcu:
In reply to your inquiry, I am in fundamental agreement
with M Rene Guenon; this might not exclude some divergenceon m inor matters. His books arc in the process o f translation;four have already been published by Luzac (London). I
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 85/484
published an artic lc on his w ork entitled “ Eastern W isdom andWestern Knowledge” in Isis Vol X X X IV , 1943 and this articlc,
brought up to date (nearly) will be included in a volum e o f
essays to be published by the Asia Press, NY, this fall, entitled A m I M y Brother 's Keeper? M y ow n bibliography is a long one;
there is a list o f the m ore im portan t items printed in Psychiatry, VI, 8, 1945.
M r Guenon lives in Cairo, and is a m em ber o f a Darweshorder, the Shaikh ‘Abdu’l Wahid. Before that he lived and
wrote in Paris. 1think any truly descriptive writing “about the
end o f an age” m ust be “ bitter” ; but I hardly think G uen on’s
own feeling is that, but his position would be that “it must be
that offenses should comc, but woe unto them through whom
they co m c” . He is an exponent o f the traditional “ W ay” byfollowing wh ich the individual can save him self by spiritualimplication from disintegration, whatever the external condi-
tions may be.
Very sincerely,
Mr J. C. Abreu, Vcdado, Havana, Cuba.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt, was accordcd the honorific Shaikh and took theMuslim name Abdu’l Wahid Yahia, ie, John, Servant of the Unique.
To PROFESSOR JOSEPH L. MCNAMARA
December 5, 1945
Dear McNamara:
I don’t think Guenon could be charged with dualism. In thelast analysis the “devil” is the egoprinciplc, that which asserts
cogito ergo sum*: and so Philo and Rumi equate the dragon
w hom none b ut G od can overcome w ith the sensitive soul, the“personality” in which the psychoanalysts arc so muchinterested. Their “good intentions” are beside the point. The“soul” will remain a congcrics or legion whatever wc do, andthe integration can only be in its principle, the spirit, “in which
all these become one.”
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 86/484
Professor J. L. M cN am ara, Roslindalc, M assachusetts, USA.
C f ‘W ho Is ‘Satan ’ and W here Is ‘H ell’?’, by A KC, in Review o f Religion,
N ovem ber 1947.
* This is true as far as it goes, but the notion o f Devil or Satan cannot be
confined to a psychological context. W hat is in question is a cosmic force that
is prio r to hu m an ity itself, a force o f com pression and separation, o f spiritualdarkness and negation , wh ich is perceived by hum an intelligence as personal
or ‘personality’.
To m . r e n £ g u £ n o n
April 12, 1946
My dear M. Guenon:
I agree with you as to the limit implied in Tagore’s writings.But 1 do n ot see w hy you object to the equation ananda =
felicitas or delectatio. The root is nand, to take pleasure, with the
added selfreferent prefix a. And apart from the ordinary
usages, one cannot ignore BU IV. 1.6, re Brahma: “What is Its
bliss (Ananda)?, verily, to the mind; it is by the mind that one
betakes oneself to the w om an, a son o f his born o f her . This ishis bliss: the highest Brahma is the mind.” Here manas (mind),
o f course, is equal to the Greek nous, intellectus vel spiritus, andthe “woman” is Vac; the son is the concept, and ananda is the
divine delight in the conception and b irth o f the spoken Logos.
Ananda is the divine delight in what Eckhart calls “the act of
fecundation latent in eternity.”
In connection with the question, Is the Buddhist reception
into the ord er o f Bhikkus an initiation? I am confirmed in
thinking so, since I now find further that the preliminaryshaving and lustration— de regie —is re ferred to as an abhiseka
and, further, that the accepted disciple becomes a “son o f theBuddha” and is endowed with “royalty” (adhipatya). The
lustration corresponds to a baptism, which was certainly inorigin an initiation.
I also find an interesting correlation o f Buddhist ksana andSufi andar waqt —both “ m om ents” w ithout duration, and the
only locus (loka) o f real being as distinguished from “becom-ing” (ousia from genesis, essentia from esse). This moment is themuk ta’s “world in the yonder world”. It is this moment that
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 87/484
every “ thing” ama sunistatai kai apoleipei (Plutarch, Moralia392C). T he succession o f these “no w s” makes w hat wc k now as
duration but in reality, all these instants arc one.
Very sinccrcly,
Rcnc Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.
To r e n £ g u £ n o n
April 17, 1947
My dear M. Guenon:
I have been reading your Grande Triade with great pleasure
and benefit. The following arc a few points that have occurred
to me: the character seems to have its exact equivalent inthe sign show n as fig 1 in my “svayamatrnna” o f wh ich I hop e a
copy has already reached you.
The Buddhist term sappurisa ( = sat-purusa) seems to express
the idea of I'homme veritable, while utiama-pumsa would
correspond to I’homme transcendent. Thus Dhammapada54: sabbadisa sappurisampavati, omnes regiones vir probus perflat (Fausboll’s
translation). Also Uttama purisa is commonly an epithet of
Buddha.
C f also: p 53, pouvoir du vajra, Hcraclcitus fr 38
p 119, on the “Triple pow er” , c f in m y “ Spiritual A uthority
and Temporal Power . . . . ” (especially as regards the Gnostic
formulation cited on p 44).
In several places you speak o f Providence and D estiny. In
English, I shou ld prefer to speak o f Providence and Fate:
making Providcncc = Destiny. O u r Destiny is ou r destination;fate arc the accidcnts that befall us en route, and that may help orhinder, but cannot changc our ultimate destiny.
La Grande Triade seems to me an especially valuable treatise,and I hope an English translation will appear soon.
M. Pallis and Rama are no w in Kalimpong w here the LamaWangyai met them on arrival. They spent 12 days in S India
and visited Sri Ramana Maharsi.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 88/484
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.
La Grande Triade, Rcvuc dc la Tabic Ronde, Nancy, France; for other
editions, sec Bibliography.
“Svayamatrnna: Jatiua Coeli” , Zaim oxis, Paris, II, 1939, no 1.
‘Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of
Government’, Journal o f the American Oriental Society, New Haven, Connecti-
cut, 1942.Marco Pallis, London, England, see letter p 30.
Rama, AKC’s son, Rama Poonambulam Coomaraswamy.
Lama Wangyal, cf Peaks and Lamas by Marco Pallis; for various editions, sec
Bibliography.
Sri Ram ana M aharsi, Sou th Indian Saint; c f letter, p. 39.
To GEORGE SARTON
April 29, 1947
My dear Sarton:
Many thanks for your letter. Guenon’s controversial
volum es are no d ou bt less interesting in some respects, but , it is
to be considered that he alone puts forward what is essentially
the Indian criticism o f the present situation. For this reason and
because o f their direct relation to your w ork, I send you these
two only. His others, expository works, eg, L ’Homme et son
devenir seloti le Vedanta, Les Etats multiple de I’etre, Le Symbolisme
de la croix, etc, are not only the best and clearest exposition of
Indian theory I know, but almost the only expositions of pure
metaphysics that have so far as I know appeared in thesedays . . . .
I had the very great pleasure o f meeting Professor Buckler o f
Obcrlin and hearing his address on “The Shah Nama and the
Geneologia Regni D ei” (will appear in JA O S this year and shouldinterest you. His thesis being in part that the Shah Nama is an
epic o f the kingdo m o f God on earth analagous to the Christus
saga underlying the Four Gospels— a point o f view which I canfully agree . . . .
Very sincerely,
PS: If you have no t seen it, do see Grey O w l, Pilgrims o f the Wild (Lovat, D ickson , London, 1934)— one o f the very best booksthat has appeared for a long time.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 89/484
Geo rge Sarton, Professor o f the history o f scicncc, H arvard U niversity,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt; for his several book titles, sec Bibliography.
F. W. Buckler, depa rtme nt of church history. Graduate School o f The ology,
O berlin C ollege, O bcrlin, O hio; au thor o f several papers that interested
AK C, such as that mentioned abov e and "Regnum et ecclesia”, Church History,
III, March 1934.
T o MR S. C. LEE
March 20, 1947
Dear Mr Lee:
I reply to yours o f March 8, and send you below the messagewhich w ou ld be the gist o f what I should have to say were I to
be present at your International Festival, fo r the success o f
which you have my best wishes.
If men arc to live at peace with one another, they m ust learn
to understand and to think with one another. The primary
obstacle to such an understanding is, to quote P ro f Burtt,
‘the com placent assumption that all tenable solutions o f all
real prob lem s can or will be found in the Western traditio n .’Th is sm ug and pharaisaic complacency is one o f the causes o f
war . . . the cause that philosophers arc primarily responsi- ble to remove.
The most dang erous form o f this complacency is to be foundin the conviction that Christianity is not only true, but theonly true religion; for this leads to repeated attempts to
impose upon other peoples a ‘Christian civilization’, so
called. It was o f this ‘civilization’ that Th om as T raherneremarked that ‘verily, there is no savage nation under the sun
that is mo re absurdly barbarous than the Christian w orld ’.
The opinion persists, however—it was recently enunciated by no less an authority than the Professor o f D iv in ity in the
U niversity o f Ed inburgh — that ‘we W esterners owe (it to)the peoples o f these m issionary lands’ to destroy theircultures and replace them with our own. And why? Becausethese arc essentially religious, but not Christian cultures! For
so long as this point o f view governs the attitudes o f theW estern people who call themselves ‘progress ive’ tow ardsothers whom they call ‘backward’—everyone will rccognizc at
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 90/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 91/484
Jo hn Wild was a well know n Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.
He may have been the author of Science and the ‘Scientific’ Scepticism o f our
Time, app aren tly a pam ph let published by a body calling itself the Society for
a Catholic Commonwealth. His comments were included in Wilbur Griffith
Katz’s Natural Law and Human Nature, 1953.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
March 14, 1941
Sir,
— In your issue o f last December 19, the Bishop o f Ely (via
Mr Murry) is quoted as saying that there is no reason why the
clergy should have any be tter understanding o f the causcs o f thewar than have “the altogether admirable men conducting the
affairs of the nation.” This can only be sustained on the assump-
tion that the clergy referred to arc no longer in any real sense ofthe w ord clcrgy, but only “admirable men” o f the same kind as
the politicians who, whatever their other virtues may be, can
hardly be described as disinterested critics o f the industrial
system. But it is precisely the clergy who should be and arc
assumed to be, philosophers in Plato’s and Aristotle’s sense ofthe word; and the philosopher who is “disinterested” by
hypothesis, may and ough t to understand m uch better than the
politician w hose immedia te task is to conduct a w ar, w hat is the
first cause o f war. Plato finds the cause o f w ar in the bo dy
“because we m ust earn m oney for the sake o f the bod y”
(Phaedo 66C). This does not mean at all that the boy should be
ignored; everything that Plato advocates is with a view to the
simu ltaneous satisfaction o f the needs o f the bod y and the soul
and for the good o f the who le man. It does mean that the m ore
wc are “philosophers” or guided by philosophy, the more ourmost serious interests are rather spiritual than physical; and theless we are “ men o f pro pe rty” or evaluate civilisation m erely in
terms o f com fort and safety, the fewer will be the occasions o fwar, whether international or imperialistic.
AKC
The New English Weekly, London; full title: The New English Weekly and the N ew Age, a Rev iew o f Public Affairs, Literature and the Arts, edited by Philip
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 92/484
M airet w ith an editorial com m ittcc consisting o f Mrs Jessie R O ragc (sole
proprieto r) , M aurice B Reck itt, Pamela Tra vers , T . S. Elio t, Rowland
Kenney and W. T. Symo ns. AK C w rote frequently to this journal
thro ug ho ut the last eight years o f his life.
T o THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
February 21, 1946
Sir,
Apropos o f your ow n remarks on “ vocation” in your issue
o f Jan uary 17th, I call your readers’ atten tion to the fact that
metier is etymologically ministerium, a “ministry”. Another
form o f the word is “ m inister” , ie, trade, and “ trade” is a tread,
or a way of life.I agree with Mr Fordham that it is to be hoped that a “partial
paralysis will creep over the trade o f the w orld .” “ When
nations g row old, and the arts grow cold, and com merce settles
on every tree” (William Blake): “When the timber trade is
good, permanent famine reigns in the Ogowe district” (AlbertSchweitzer): “No one looking for peace and quiet has any
business lookin g for in ternational trade (G. H. G ra tton and
G. R. Leighton in The Future o f Foreign Trade, 1947). All thisapplies chiefly, o f course, to trade in “necessities” and raw
materials, and much less to a reasonable exchange o f finished
goods o f the highest quality. It is as regards necessities, at least,
that a community should be selfsufficing, or, if it is not, it will
feel compelled to get what it wants elsewhere, even by fraud orforce.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
October 4, 1945
Sir,
— I should like to call attention to some principles o f theRural W ork M ovem ent on India. In a recent address to trainees,
the leader, Shri Bharatan Kumarappa asked what it is we wantto work for, “mere material prosperity, or human develop-ment?” He pointed out that even amongst Socialists, “the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 93/484
question o f w hethe r an abundance o f goods is necessary for
human wellbeing is never so much as raised.” The rest I quotefrom the Aryan Path of August:
Shri Kumarappa makes out a strong case against largescale
production for India, excepting such key industries as provid e machin ery, raw materials for small industries, public
utilities, etc. He shows how producing enormous quantities
drives others into unemployment: how competition for
distant markets leads to strife; how factory routine deprives
the w ork er o f opp ortunities such as cottage produc tion offers
for the deve lopment o f intelligence, initiative, and the artisticsense.
I say that the main cause o f world wars is the pursuit o fw orldtrad e, and that to dream o f peace on other conditions
than those o f local selfsufficiency is ridiculous. M oreov er, in a
brave new w orld, the cultural dom ination o f America is even
m ore to be dreaded than that o f England: for these U nited
States are not even a bourgeoisie, but a proletarian society fed
on “ softbun bread” (these words arc those of a wellknow nlarge scale baking com panys advertisement o f its produc t), and
thinking softbun thoughts. The citations above arc encourag-ing at least to this extent that if, as some think and hope,
“ modern western ways o f life arc about to swallow up all other
forms o f ‘cu lture’ ” (which God forbid!); some o f these othershave no t the slightest intention o f going und er w ithou t a fight,
and that the end is not yet.
AKC
Bharatan Kumarappa, Capitalism, Socialism or Villagism? Shakti Karyalayam,Madras, 1946.
Aryan Path (Bombay), August 1945.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
March 28, 1940
Sir,
M r Durre ll, in your issue for January 24, 1940, p 209, thinksin Lao Tzu (and by implication in Chuang Tzu) there is
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 94/484
“nothing applicable to the Distressed Areas”. This is scarcelythe case, unless by “applicable” Mr Durrcll means to refer only
to symptoms and to ignore causes. The Taoist view is that evil
arises primarily from the interest we take in other peop les’affairs, and that the only real contribution that a man can make
to the b etterm en t o f the w orld is to im prove himself; ju st as inChristianity , it is a ma n’s first du ty to love him self and to seek
out his own salvation. So Chuang Tzu writes:
Prince: I wish to love my people, and by cultivation o f duty
tow ards o ne ’s neighbo ur to put an end to war. C an this be
done?
Hsu Wu Kwci: It cannot. Love for the people is the root o f
all evil to the people. C ultiva tion o f du ty tow ards one’sneighbour is the origin o f all fighting . . . . If your
Highness will only abstain, that will be enough. Cultivatethe sincerity that is witnin your breast, so as to be
responsive to the conditions o f you r cnvironcm ent, and be
not agrcssivc. The people will thus escape death; and what
need then to p ut an end to war? (Giles’ translation , chap
24).“Cultiva tion o f on e’s duty to one ’s ne ighbo ur” is the “ white
m an ’s bu rde n” as he conceives it, o f which the consequ-ence is the “neighbour’s” death. The responsibility for the
“Distressed Areas” rests on everyone who accepted the
curren t philo sophy o f life. (“ Civilization consists in the
multiplication and refinement of hum an w ants” , quoted in
a recent issue of Science and Culture.) As you have very justly remarked, the use o f mil itary force is hard ly
distinguishable, mo rally, from the use of econom ic force.
If we could only refrain, not only from doing evil toothers, but also from trying to do good to others (ic, goodas we conceive, it and not as they have conceived it), andtry instead to be good for them, there might be no need to
put an end to war. This , by the way, may not mean thatwar would entirely cease, but that it would take on againan entirely different and higher “value”.
Yes, man’s “only responsibility appears to be to himself.”
We are, unfortunately, too selfish, therefore too etfusive, toendure such a lim itation o f ou r responsibility; “ we have desired peace, but not the thin gs that make fo r peace.” It is, however,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 95/484
prcciscly such a minding one’s ow n business as the “ limitation
o f respon sibility” implies that Taoism envisages a remedy forwar.
I recommend to Mr Durrcll (and others) Rene Guenon’s La
Crise du monde moderne and Marco Pallis’ Peaks and Lamas.
An entirely different question: Mr Eliot wants a word toexpress the antithesis o f Christian. As we have “ A ntiC hris t” ,
why not “antiChristian”? Nothing that merely expresses
“Non Christian” will do, because the real issue is not as
betw een Chris tians and nonChristians, but betw een “ believ-
ers” and “nonbelievers”; or better, between “comprchensor”
and “profane”. In other words, the issue is between those
whose moral judgements arc based on principles, and those
whose conduct, whether “good” or “bad”, is always unprinci pled.
AKC
Chuang Tzu, translated by Herbert Giles, London, 1889.
Rene Guenon, La Crise du monde moderne; English version, The Crisis of the
Modern World, London, 1942. See Bibliography.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, various editions; sec Bibliography.
To STEPHEN HOBHOUSE
July 15, 1945
Dear Mr Hobhouse:
Many thanks for you r letter o f June 4. I certainly hope you
will be able to publish an A merican edition o f William Law; Ithink it would be widely read, especially by those who know
som ething o f John W oolman and his like, and that it would
have a good sale.
Regarding the second paragraph on p 309, I think that in thenote you might point out that the doctrinc which some(amongst others, E. Lampert, more recently, in The Divine
Realm, 1944) reject is certainly Roman Catholic, see St Thomas
Aquinas, Sum Theol 1.45: Creatio, quae est emanatio totius esse, est ex non ente, quod est nihil.
P 97: essentially a discussion o f “ Platonic love” (an expression
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 96/484
first used by M arsilio Ficino, and made the basis o f thefraternity o f his Academy), o r as formulated in the Upanishads,
that all things whatever arc dear, not for their own sakes, but
for the sake o f the Self, the imm anent deity, Selfsame in our
neigh bou r and ourselves. C f my “ Akim canna: sclfnaughting”,
in N ew Indian Antiquary, III, 1940. Other refs: Hermes XIII.4,“Wouldst that thou, too, hadst been loosed from thyself’;Rumi, M athnawi, 1.2449, ‘Were it not for the shakle, who
would say ‘I am I’?”; Maitri Upanishad VI.20, “he who sees thelightning flash o f the spiritualSc lf is o f him self bere ft” , and
V I.28, “ If to son and wife and family he is attached, for him,
never at all” (like Ch ris t’s “ If any man w ould be my disciple,
let him hate his father and mother. . .yea, and his own self
also”). . . . [and cfthe] Skr ahamkara, the “Imaking concept”And as I also wrote,
Contra Cartesium
That / can think is proof Thou art,
The only individuality from whose dividuality
My postulated individuality depends.
w ith reference, in part, to the expression o f the Bhagavad G ita:
“undivided in things divided”.The fundam ental problem o f w ar is in ourselves; actual war
is the external reflection of the inner conflict of self with Self.
W hoever has made his peace with him self will be at peace with
all men.The imp ortance o f occasional reference to the O riental
parallels is especially great at present, because “ peace” , w ith allits implications is something in which the whole world must
cooperate, it cannot be imposed on the w orld by any part o f it;and the basic doc trinal formulae represent the language o f the
com m on universe o f discourse on that level o f reference w here
alone agreement can be reached on the first principles inrelation to w hich activities must be jud ged. Partly for thisreason (but also for clarification), in my own writing, I alwayscite “authority” from many different sources, as demonstrationo f an actual agreem ent that we often overlook.
I w ou ld be happy to receive any o f the reprints o f you r pam phlets that you speak of.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 97/484
Stephen Hobhouse, Broxbourne, England, editor, Selected Mystical Writings
of William Law, London, 1940.
William Law, eighteenth century Anglican divine, nonjuror, and spiritual
w riter influenced by Jacob Boehme.
Following are several editorial notes relevant to the above letter, the first
from the N ew English Weekly, March 9, 1944, p 180:
Coomaraswamy contra Descartes forms an antholo gy o f angry and yet
deeply reflective com m ents, o f wh ich the m ost striking is this brie f poem
(vide supra). He him self thou gh t the poem so concentrated that few could
grasp its meaning, and accordingly added a note when it was first
published: ‘T he arg um ent is not Cogito ergo sum, but Cogito ergo E S T —we
become, because He is’.
Elsewh ere in his writings, he returned to Descartes’ famous ax iom,
sometimes with irony, sometimes with comments developed from Indian
me taphysics: ‘“ S elf is no t an inference draw n from beha viour, bu t directly
known in the experience ‘I’; this is a proposition quite different fromDecartes’ Cogito ergo sum, wh ere the argum ent is based on behav iour and
leaves us still in an egocentric predicament.” (Time and Eternity, Ascona,
Switzerland, 1947, p 23). O r again: Bu ddh ist doc trine proceeds by
elimination. O ur ow n con stitution and that of the world is repeatedly
analyzed, and as each on e o f the five physical and mental factors o f the
transient person ality with w hich the ‘un taug ht m any folk’ identify
‘themselves’ is listed, the pronouncement follows, 'That is not my
self. . . . You will observe that am ong these childish mentalities w ho
identify themselves with their accidents, the Buddha would have included
Descartes, with his Cogito ergo sum (Hinduism and Buddhism, New York,
1943). A gain: ‘The ego dem on strated by De scartes’ Cogito ergo sum (a
phrase th at represents the nadir o f E uro pean metaphysics) is noth in g but a
fatally determined process, and by no means our real Self ("Prana-citi”,
Journal o f the Royal Asiatic Society, 1943, p 108).
And in a manu script note in the possession of Rama P. Co om araswa m y,
AKC wrote: ‘The traditional position is that God alone can properly say
‘I’. Descartes’ Cogito ergo sum is a circular argument, an ego subsisting in
both the subject and the predic ate .’ See also the le tter on pp 91 1.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
May 3, 1944
Sir,
M r John Bate’s point about the East, made in your issueo f M arch 30, is well taken. It is perfectly true that the East that
can be easily known—the minority East that Westerners caneasily meet—is already dazzled by modern Western civilization(the situation is very clearly exposed by W. Massey in his
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 98/484
Introduction to Rene Guenon’s East and West). When I said “ We
(Asiatics) do no t adm ire or desire the forms o f modern western
civilization” , I was including in this “ w e” , no t the aforesaidm ino rity, but (1) a very few, such as the Pasha o f M arrakech,
and Mahatma Gandhi (with his “unmodern attitude to the
technolog ical achievements o f Western civilization, [and] hisdistaste for Western democracy”, to quote Captain Ludovici),
and a good many others who know the modern West only too
well, and w ho often appear to be “ W esternized” , but are in fact
profoundly orthodox, old fash ioned and reactionary , and (2) an
enorm ous m ajority w ho, because of their “illiteracy” or
inaccessibility and for other reasons, arc still “in order” and
m ore o r less im m une to infection. Even in Japan there survives
at least a profound belief in the divinity o f kings, and that is the best g round on which one w ho hopes for better things there
could try to build. Mr Quaritch Wales has pointed out in his
Years o f Blindness that western governm ents have never wo n the
hearts o f Eastern peoples, and that very much o f the Oriental
imitation o f Western manners amounts to little mo re than
lipservice paid to the dominating power in order to weather
the storm.
General ChiangKaiShek and Pandit Nehru arc not “Asia”.From our po int of view such men, h ow ever “ great” , are
already lost souls, and all that “we” expect from them arc the
expediencies that m ay be necessary to the preservation o f our
very physical and political existence; “we” do not look to them
for enlightenment. I am w ell aware that “ our” still vast majorityis on the losing side (at least in appearance) and diminishing in
num bers , and I suspect that all hum anity is destined to reach the
subh um an levels o f the m odern West before an effective
reaction can be hoped for. I do not mind belonging to what
may seem to be the losing side and a forlorn hope; for if one
docs not take the rig ht side, regardless o f what seems likely tohappen (and all things arc possible with God!), one bccomcs a
fatalist in the bad sense of the w ord . I callcd attention to the pasha o f M arrakcch bccausc it is allim portant for those,
however few, who in the West arc all against the present(dis)ordcr, to kno w and join hands with, and to cooperate
with those elsewhere who arc seeking to preserve what theW estern “w orld o f impoverished reality” has already lost,those for whom life still has a meaning and a purpose, and who
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 99/484
would rather save their souls alive than have “all these
things”—modern plumbing included—added to them. I think
it w ou ld be true to say that the m ajority o f colored peoples still
despise the white man and his works and would rather than
any thing else in the w orld, be rid o f him.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY
March 16, 1944
Sir,
I shou ld like to call your readers’ atten tion to the w ords
o f the Pasha of M arrakech (Morocco) reported in an interview
which was published recently in the Boston Herald, and may not
have comc to their notice. The Pasha says: “The Moslem world
docs not want the wondrous American world or the incredible
American w ay o f life. Wc w ant the w orld o f the Koran. . . . A t
the bo ttom o f A merica’s attitude is the assumption tha t all the
world desires to be American. And this assumption is false.”What is thus stated for the Moslem world, and is true for the
greater part o f it, is csscntialy true for the greater part o f the
w hole A siatic w orld. We (Europeans) are only conscious o f this
profound and welladvised cultural resistance to our “civilizing
mission” because (1) to admit it would be offensive to our pride
and (2) our contacts with English speaking Asiatics (and in
India, often only with the servant class) arc only with a
minority in whom wc have been able to implant the seeds of
discontent with their own traditions, or who fawn upon us, for
the sake o f w hat they can get ou t o f us. At the same time, it
m ust not be overlooked that amongst those Orientals w ho havelived, and studied longest in the West arc to be found some of
those w ho are least o f all inclined to accept what the W esternworld now means by'“progress’, and who feel (to quote PowysEvans from you r issue o f Decem ber 23rd) that “ if the w rongroad is taken, the greater the progress down it, the worse the
result, and the sooner there is a reaction, the better.” Speakingfor these and for the inarticulate majority that has not beeninfected by the delusion o f “ progress” , I w ould say that we
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 100/484
(Asiatics) do no t adm ire or desire the forms o f modern Westerncivilization, but only to reform (reconstitute) our own.
.AKC
To SIDNEY L. GULICK
May 6, 1943
Dear Mr Gulick:
It is very likely true that further correspondence will not help
us much. However, I will say a few words on this matter of
“ pro gress” . It is a question o f values; where you are think ing o f
quantitative things, I am thinking in qualitative terms. Nodou bt every m odern sch oolboy knows many facts o f which
Plato was unaware, and there is no harm in that, but rather
good, i f good use is made o f the knowledge. But theknow ledge itself docs no t make the schoolboy any wiser than
Plato was. We have acquired material means far beyond our
capacity to use them wisely. These means look “good” to you,
partly becausc they imply power in the hands of those who
possess them; to the backward races, so called, they are know nalmost only as powers o f deathdealing.
You will probably cite advances in medical knowledge. It
w ould be strange indeed if a long period o f concentration on
scarch for im pro vem en t in means o f physical well being had
produced no useful results. Still there is much to be said, and
that is said by d octo rs themselves, as to the balancc of goo d inall this. For exam ple, as to the distinction o f curativc from
preventive medicine. Take modern dentistry: wonderfu l, nodoubt; yet search has shown that primitive people, not living
on ou r kinds o f soft foods and w hite bread have almost alwaysno need for dentists, And once again, in the m atter o f health
and disease, the socalled backward peoples are chiefly aware o fw hite m en as bearers o f diseases— measles, influenza, veneraldiseases, tuberculosis, etc. In the matter of tuberculosis, in particular, missionaries have a very special responsib ility, inthat their failure to distinguish nudity from depravity has been
the chief cause of the spread of this disease.Th e late D r Joh n Lodge, one o f the mo st highly educated and
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 101/484
cultivated Americans I have ever known, used to say to me:
“From the Stone Age until now, quelle degringoladeY' Let me
also quote from Werfel’s Forty Days (1934):
But we don’t want your reforms, your ‘progress’, your
business activity. We w ant to live in God, and to develop in
ourselves those powers which belong to Allah. Don’t youkn ow that all that which you call activity, advancem ent, is o f
the devil? Shall I prove it to you? You have made a few
superficial investigations into the essence of the chemical
elements. And what happens then?—when you act from
your imperfect knowledge, you manufacture the poison
gases, with which you wage your currish, cowardly wars.
And is it any different with your flying machines? You will
only use them to bomb whole cities to the ground.Meanwhile they only serve to nourish usurers and profit
makers, and enable them to plunder the poor as fast as
possible. Y our whole devilish restlessness shows us plainly
that there is no ‘progressive activity’ not founded on
destruction and ruin. We would willingly have dispensed
w ith all your reforms and progress, all the blessings o f you r
scientific culture, to have been allowed to go on living in ou r
old poverty and reverence. . . . You tell us our governmentis gu ilty o f all this bloody injustice, but in truth , it is not our
government, but yours. It went to school with you.
The R ev Edw in W. Smith (African missionary), as President
o f the Royal A nthropolog ical Society, said in 1934:
T oo often missionaries have regarded themselves as agents o fEuropean civilization and have thoug ht it part o f their duty
to spread the use o f Eng lish language, English clothing,
English music—the w hole gam ut o f ou r culture.
He quotes Charles Johnson of Zululand:
The central idea was to prize individuals of f the mass o f the
national life. . . . African Society has a religious basis. . . can you expect the edifice to stand i f the foundation iscut away? Is no t the adm inistration justified in decreeing thatthe Africans are not to be Christianized because thereby they
are denationalized?You are doubtless right in saying that I have “missed
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 102/484
som ethin g” in my understand ing o f Christianity. I am sure I
have missed much in my understanding o f other confessions,
also. Is it not inevitable that we should all have “missedsom eth ing ’ until we reach the end o f the road?
Very sincerely,
PS: Since writing the above I happen to have received ErichMeissncr’s Germany in Peril, still another example of the nowabunda nt “literature o f indictmen t” o f w hat passes in modern
Europe and the modern world in general for “civilization”.
The author remarks:
If we say that European civilization, the ancient traditions o f
C hristendom , arc imperiled . . . the shortest way o f statingthe case is this: during the last few centuries a vast majority o fChristian men have lost their hom es in every sense o f the
w ord. The n um ber o f those cast out into the wilderness o f a
dehumanized society is steadily increasing. . . . The time
m ight com e and be nearer than w e think, when the antheap
o f society, w orke d ou t to full perfection, deserves only one
verdict: unfit fo r men. . . . Beauty is a spiritual force.
Capitalism has exiled men to a world o f extreme ugli-ness. . . . The industrial w ork er . . . as Eric Gill puts it, has
been reduced to a ‘state o f subhuman irresponsibility’. . . .There are tw o main weaknesses o f ‘organized’ natural
education. One is the intellectual inferiority which is the
result o f com pulsory education on a large scale . . . the resultis: the young people . . . do not know what knowledge
is . . . this explains the dangerous gullibility which prop-aganda exploits. . . . Education becomes a province o f its
own, detached from life. Great philosophers have believed
. . . that a disintegrating society can be cured by makingeducation a wellbuilt ark that floats on the waters of
destruction. . . . [But] education . . . reflects necessarily therealities o f the society o f which it is nothing bu t a part. . . . It
is therefore w rong to attribute a function to education w hichit cannot perform . . . compulsory education, whatever its practical use may be, cannot be ranked am ong the civilizing
forces of the world. . . .
Roughly speaking, there are only tw o sets o f combatants.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 103/484
Those who say “let us push ahead; everything will come rightin the end”, and the others who say: “Let us try to stop. We
seem to be on the wrong road. We may have to go back to find
the righ t road again. . . . ” The first set o f fighters includes both
the capitalists and the communists. . . . The Catholic Church
has taken up her position in the opposite camp, hostile to thosefatalists*. . . . One cannot say that the . . . Church has been
very successful in this struggle. . . . But who would wish to
belittle this if the alternative is an increased in tensity o f
disintegration, veiled as progress? What is there, in fact, in your
“progress”, which you can possibly have the courage to offer tothe rest o f the w orld, and even to wish to force upon it?
Very sincerely,
* Obviously, much has transpired since these remarks were written. The
Ch urch has embraced so m any aspects o f the modern w orld that she is no
longe r herself. And the institution— save for a rem nan t here and there— to
wh ich even no nC atho lics looked as a bastion o f sanity, is now perceived as
converging with a world in hastening decay—the world from which she
should offer the hope of salvation.
Mr Sidney L. Gulick lived in and wrote from Honolulu, Hawaii. He had
written a letter to Asia and the Americas in March, 1943, in which heattem pted to distinguish the w ork o f missionaries from the devastating
effects of western economic expansion.
To MR SIDNEY L. GULICK
July 21, 1943
Dear Mr Gulick:
Many thanks for you r letter o f June 27. You ask why I stay inthe U nited States if I hold these views. 1 remain here because
my w ork lies here. O ne can make oneself at hom e anywhere;
one can live one’s own life; it is not compulsory to own a radioor to read the magazines.
I have emphasized before that I am not contrasting West andEast as such, but modern antitraditional, essentially irreligiouscultures w ith others. Th is point o f view is one that is shared by
many A mericans, w ho have spent all their lives here. 1 havelived more than 25 years in Europe and as long in America andso it is rather ironical to hope that I may yet see more and more
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 104/484
o f yo ur better side; I think I am well aware o f this side, thoughit may be one that survives in spite o f rather than because o f
contemporary tendencies to stress the quantitative rather thanthe qualitative aspects of life.
Incidentally, in reading your letter to Asia . . . as printed, I
note you speak of Sir Rabindranath. This is not good form, ashe repudiated the title many years ago, after the Amritsar
massacre.
It is o f course, a truism to observe that every people and
culture has bo th good and bad aspects. O ne does no t therefore
have to assume a latitudinarian and uncritical attitude to this or
the othe r set o f conditions, however.
I wonder i f you ever consider such books as Aldous H uxley’s
Ends and Means or Gerald Heard’s Man the Master ?Very sincerely,
Mr Sidney L. Gulick, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Rabindranath Tagore, the well known Bengali writer.
Th e A m ritsar m assacre occurred in 1919, in the city o f that nam e in the
Punjab. In a walled enclosure, Jalianwalabagh, a British general had his men
fire repeatedly into an unarm ed crow d w hile arm ed soldiers blocked the only
exit. According to the official count, 379 people were killed and 1200wounded and left on the scene unattended.
T o MR SIDNEY L. GULICK
N o day or m onth given, but the year was 1943
Dear Mr. Gulick:
Many thanks for your letter o f A ugust 25. It is quite truethat, like Christianity, Buddhism stresses that it is man’s firstduty to work out his own salvation, and that the socialapplications o f his religion are m ore obvious in H induism.
Nevertheless, consider such a dic tum as the Buddha’s mostfamous royal advocate, Asoka, [who] him self publicallyrepen ted o f his conquests and recorded this [repudiation] in hislithic Edicts. You say Buddhism repudiates the “self’. This is a
vague statement, if we do no t specify which o f ou r tw o selves(duo sunt in homine, Aquinas, etc), the outer or the inner man, isrepudiated. The Buddha certainly never repudiated “selfs
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 105/484
im m ortal Self and Leader” ; the “ se lf ’ that he repudiates is the
one that C hrist requires us to “ hate, i f we w ould follow H im ” ,
or again “ utterly den y” (Math xvi, 24). This latter expression is
very forceful and certainly o f m ore than ethical significance.These dicta underlie, o f course, Eckhart’s “ the soul must pu t
itself to death ” , and so forth.Finally, it is not safe to take your opinions regarding other
religions from current translations, even those of scholars; you
must have read the original texts.*
Very Sincerely,
* The reader is referred to the comments o f the Introduction apropos this
situation.Mr Sidney L. Gulick, Honolulu, Hawaii.
To FATHER HENRICUS VAN STRAELEN, SVD
N ovem ber 18, 1946
Dear Father van Straelen:
I admired your book, The Far East Must Be Understood, verymuch, and now I have to thank you for the other.
I fully agree w ith you that “ the unifying o f m ankind in a
spiritual sense can only be brought about by religion”; also, I
recognize how great a change is taking place in these times inmissionary methods — although much o f the harm has been done.
But to identify religion with Christianity, I can only regard as
insane (and this strong w ord I mean); ju st as much so as it
would be for a Hindu to take up an antiChristian position. Iwould not bar the eastern ports to anyone having personal
religious experience; but, the missionary can no longer be
allowed to do good abroad, he can only be allowed to be good.
Incidentally, I tho ug ht some o f the Chinese Vicar Apstolic’sremarks (p 57), eg, “ China has given p ro o f o f a wholesomenessthat we seek in vain among older peoples”, as arrogant asanything that has been said by the most ignorant Europeans—who have themselves everything to learn from Turks and
Hindus about a “wholesome attitude to sex”.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 106/484
Father Hcn ricus van Straelen, SVD , D utch m issionary to Japan.
The Far East Must Be Understood, by Henricus van Straelen, London, 1945.
To F. W. BUCKLER
Date uncertain
Dear Professor Buckler:
I’ve been reading y ou r letter to Gulick and feel that I ough t to
say that while 1 was talking primarily about the “proselytising
fury” o f the West, I w ould say the same regarding Christians as
such. I think in fact that a proselytising fu ry implies a state of
mind that would be disgraceful in anyone. Christians as suchshould produce a Christian civilization and make that their
“witness”.You would wish to change a religion without destroying a
culture. Because our culture has been secularized it is natural for
us here to think that such a thing is possible. But in a social
order such as you have in India you can no more separate
religion from culture than soul from body. There, the divorce
o f a profane from the sacrcd hardly exists. H induism penetrateseverything: one might say that the languages themselves are
calculated to embody religious ideas, and so you could not
substitute a new religion without substituting a new language
(which could only be a “basic” or “pidgin” English). The same
applies to all the m usic and literature and every way o f life. The
missionary is quite right, from his point o f view, in opposing
and ign oring all these elements o f the Indian culture— he must
do so, i f he is no t to be defeated by the whole situation. Add to
this, o f course, that it is impossible for him not to be o f his ow nkind, and therefore impossible for him not to carry with him
the infection o f m odern life. Th e on ly large scale effect o fmissionary activity in Asia, in other words, is not to convert,
but to secularize. You must resign you rself to the alternative: toconvert, you must destroy the culture, or if you do n ot destroythe culture, then you cannot convert.
Sincerely,
Professor F. W. Buckler, departm ent of church history, GraduateSchool of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 107/484
Theology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.Mr Sidney L. Gulick, as above.
T o REV PROFESSOR H. H. ROWLEY
July 4, 1946
Dear Professor Rowley:
Very many thanks for your kind letter rc “Religious
Basis. . . . ” R egarding missionaries, 1 am sure you no more
than I would wish to engage in any long controversy, but I
should like to say a few words. To begin with, one must
distinguish preaching from proselytising—the latter, indeed,leads only too easily to such indecent gloatings over real or
imagined results, as can be observed in a recent article in the
Journal o f Religion. Second ly, granting the right to prcach, I take
the strong est stand against the bringing o f foreign m oney to
found educa tional institutions to be used as an indirect method
o f proselytising; this is no thing b ut a sort o f bribery (or
inverted simo ny); an d un de r current conditions (Indian poverty
and the eco nom ic value o f an “ English education”) this kind o f
brib ery has no doub t been m ore effective than the “ rice” th at
gives rise to the expression “riccChristian”. However impor-
tant the end may seem to be, one cannot respect those who
employ underhand methods to gain it; the economic tempta-
tion is one tha t, indeed, few Indian parents can afford to resist;
and while one admires those who can resist, one can only
marvel at the m issionary w ho is willing to “ get at” the children
by bribing the parent.
Foreign educators should be called in only by Indiansthem selves, and on ly to give instruction in special subjects. It is
quite true that whatever Indian Christianity there will be
should be an Indian Christianity. But the idea that Indiancultural values can be preserved amongst proselytes is almost
entirely a fantasy. In the first place, in a traditional order like
the Indian it is impossible to draw any dividing line betweenreligion and culture; in oth er w ords , there hardly exists such a
thing as a “ pro fane ” c ulture there. Secondly, only the smallestfraction o f foreign teachers ever does, o r even can acquire a realgrasp o f o r assimilate Indian (or Chinese) values or oth er alien
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 108/484
values in such a vital way as to be able to com munica te them ; to
do that w ould demand the giving up o f as much o f on e’s ow n
life to those values as has been given to those in which one was
bred (values, indeed, arc only really understood to the extentthat one lives by them ). Even if a missionary w ished to
“preserve Indian values”, has he the patience to spend, say, 15years in India as a student, during which time he might absorb
them, and during which time he would have to live as Indians
live if he wants to understand their life, before he opens his
mouth to preach? The question answers itself; and besides,
patience apart, he senses a real danger, that w ith real under-
standing, he might no longer wish to change anything; he
might come to desire only to be good, and to question the
possib ility o f doing good in any other way.I am quite sure and aware that there are some exceptional
missionaries, and even that the general intention of missions isnot quite as blind as it was once; still the general effect is
•inevitably destructive and only to a very limited extent
palliative o f the other aspects o f the essentially materialistic
impact o f modern W estern culture. G ranted, the missionary is
no t h im self awarely a materialist; bu t bro ug ht up as he is in an
atm osph ere o f nom inalism, skepticism, and in a w orld entirely
dominated by economics, he is the bearer of materialisticvalues, ju st as a man may be a carrier o f typho id thou gh he does
not kn ow it. He takes for granted the normality o f the
separation of things sacred and profane.In the same w ay “ conversion ” is not the acceptance o f a new
dogm a, but the taking o f a new point o f view, and literally a“ turning a rou nd ” o f the vision from the phenom enal shadows
to the light that is their first cause; this sunwise turn is a
“turning and standing up to face the sun” (Hesiod’s phrase inanother context, Works, 727) and a heliotropy that is bestdescribed in P lato’s account o f the emergence from the Cave(Republic 514 f). This “turning round from the world of
becoming until the soul is able to endure the contem plation o fessence . . . the turnin g round o f the soul’s vision to the regionw here abides the most blessed part o f reality” , a turning that hecom pares to the revolution o f a stage setting (Republic 518 C;
526 E, c f also 532 A and B; 540!; Phaedo 83 B; Symposium 219; Philebus 61 E, etc); Ruysbroeck’s instaerne, (“instaring”), is precisely that “ inverted vis io n” (avrtta-caksus) with which the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 109/484
contemplative, seeking the immortal, secs the immanent solar
Spirit within him ( Katha Upanishad IV, 1). But, as Eckhart says
(Evans’ trans, Vol II, p 137): “anyone who turns within before
his sight is clcarcd will be repelled, for this light blinds weak
eyes” , and this is why prisoners o f the Cave strive to kill
w hoever w ould lead them out o f it ( Republic 517 A); Professor
Shorey’s “Hardheadcd distaste for the unction or seeming
m ysticism o f Plato’s languag e” (Locb Library Republic 1, 135,
note d; cf 146, note d) is “a rancour that is contemptuous of
immortality, and will not let us recognize what is divine in us”(Hermes Trismegistus, Asclepius, 1.12, b); is an exhibition of
this murderous temper, for to pretend that Plato was a
“ hu m an ist” is indeed to slay him. For wha t does Plato mean by
“truth” and by “philosophy”? “Not such knowledge as has a beginning . . . ” (Phaedrus 247 E, cf Philebus 58 A and Laws
644, etc). “ H um an w isdom is o f l itt le or no w orth ” ( Apology 23
A), and on ly G od is w orth y o f ou r m ost serious attention ( Laws
803 C ), the p hilosop her is a practitioner o f the Ars moriendi
(Phaedo 61, 64, 67), “the Bacchoi arc the true philosophers”
(Phaedo 69 C and D); there is much that cannot be demons-
trated, “ for it docs n ot at all adm it o f verbal expression like
other studies, b u t as the result o f much participation in thething itse lf and living w ith it, it is suddenly bro ug ht to birth in
the soul, like as a light that is kindled by a leaping spark”
(Epistle VII, 341 C); and he continues, even so far as the nature
o f reality can be stated pub licly, this w ou ld be unnecessary for
the few who need but little teaching, and misleading to the
many w ho w ou ld only despise w hat they could not understand
(cf Theatetus 155 E— “ take care that none o f the uninitiated
overhear”). There is nothing here to correspond to what a
modern rationalist and nominalist understands by philoso-
phy . . . .
Sinccrcly,
Rev Professor H. H. Rowley, D. D, Fallowfield, Manchester, England; alsoof the department of Semitic languages, University College of North Wales,Bangor.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 110/484
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Dear M:
I would agree with you that even the highest “cultural”values— considered as the rich man’s “ great possessions”— may
be sacrificed w hen it becomes a matte r o f Worth that transcends
all values. What I revolt at is the destruction o f values that
results w hen one aspect o f this Worth is set up as its only true
aspect. 1don’t think anyone can altogether ignore the position
o f very many deeply religious persons who w ould hold with,
for example, Jung w ho says “ to flatter oneself that C hristianity
is the only truth, the white Christ the only redeemer, isinsan ity.” I w ould take this last w ord quite literally, or possibly
substitute for it the word paranoia.
You m ention Africa. I my self do no t know (do you know, oronly suppose?) w he ther “ the African spiritual basis o f life is
equally good w ith that o f H indu ism ” or not; I have not lived
the Bantu life for 15 years. In an analagous case, the well
known American anthropologist Ashely Montagu has said that
“we arc spiritually, and as human beings, no t the equal o f theaverage Australian aboriginal, or the average Eskimo—we are
very definitely their inferiors” (and has expressed this view tome even more strongly in correspondence)—and in this
connection, the criterion “ by their fruits . . . ” m ight well
apply. Professor Northrop (in The M eeting o f East and West, p
22), remarks that
It takes ideals and religion to enter into the imaginations and
em otions o f all and lay waste their very souls. N ot untilman’s cherished beliefs are captured can his culture bedestroyed . This evil aspect o f our ow n highest moral ideasand religious values has been overlooked; in our blindness to
ideals and values other than our own we see only the neweffects which our own provincial goods create and not theequally high value o f the old culture w hich their com ing hasdestroyed. O nly a merging o f civilizations which proceedsfrom the k now ledge and appreciation o f the diverse ideals
and values o f all parties to the undertaking , can escape evilsso terrible and extreme as those wrought by the Christianreligion in Mexico.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 111/484
As for Africa, again [Jung writes]:
Th e stam ping ou t o f polygamy by the missions has
developed prostitution in Africa to such an extent that in
Uganda alone, twenty thousand pounds yearly are expended
on antivenereal measures, and furthermore the campaignhas had the worst possible moral cousequences. The good
European pays missionaries for these results.
(Italics m ine). Ev ery anth rop ologist know s that this and similar
statements are true.
Indeed, the missionary must be paid — and all his appara tus
m us t be paid for, if he is no t merely to preach, bu t also to
prosely tise, and to m ake propaganda fo r specifically modern
W estern, but really provincial patterns o f “ m orality” . I say provin cia l, because there are no patterns o f conduct that can be
callcd universal; only principles arc universal. It is becausc the
missionary must be paid that he must misinterpret the peoples
whose guest he has been or w ill be, if he is to persuade the pious
Am erican to shell out. T o give such an account o f India as can
be found, for exam ple , in the w rit in gs o f Sir Georg e B irdw ood
or Sister N ived ita w ou ld hardly op en up purse strings; for there
m ust be stories o f infanticide, Jugg ernau t and people likeKatherine Mayo.
To sum up, whatever good missions have done, I am very
sure the evil outweighs it. One last point: a preacher can be a
gentleman. Can a proselytiser? This is a world in which we
have to learn to respect one another. We m ust not assume that
God has only been really good to one chosen people.
With kindest regards,
Recipient not identified.M. F. Ashley Montagu, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland,USA; well known anthropologist.Professor F. S. C. Northrop, department of philosophy, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.Sir George Birdwood, KCIE, CSI, MD. For his bibliography, see his bookSua, London, 1915.Sister Nivedita (Margaret E. Noble), a convert to Hinduism* who wrote
The Web of Indian Life, London, 1904.Katherine Mayo, an American who wrote Mother India, a book which gavegreat offense to Indians.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 112/484
*It should be noted that in the view o f the orthodox , entry into H induism is
only via birth into one o f the traditional castes. A KC elsewhere posits the
one theoretical exception— that o f the mteccha (barbarian or nonH indu) who
becomes a santiyasin, an utter renunciant.
To WALTER SHEWRING
Date uncertain
Dear Walter Shewring:
The following is by way o f answer to o ther m atters raised in
your letter. 1have not used Senart very much, but should call
his translation good, though as in translating Plato, I hold thatno one whose mentality is “nominalist” can really know the
conten t o f “ realistic” texts. I like Teape’s Secret Lore of India
very well, though the versions are not literal, they are very
understanding. O f the Gita, Edwin Arnold is good, but I
generally work most with the Bhagavan Das and Besant
version (with word for word analysis) published by the
Theosophical Society. I don’t need to tell you that the greatest
scholars often betray their texts; for example, in the Laws o f M ann 2.201, Buhler renders that the man who blames his
teacher will become a donkey in his next life; actually, the text
has becomes {present tense), and nothing whatever about the
“ next life” ! I have often tho ught o f translating the Gita, and
many other texts, but that is a very great task, for which
perhaps I’m hardly ready, and anyhow , I haven’t so far been
able to avoid the w ork o f the exegesis o f special problem s. I
was very pleased that you could approve o f the “ K no ts” ; I have
tho ug ht o f that article as representative o f what I am trying todo; yet it is only a little part o f w hat shou ld be a w hole book on
Atman, or even on the Sutratman alone.A bout “ tolerance” : I did not expect, o f course, yo ur full
agreement. I w ould like to write a volume o f “ Extrinsic and
probable proofs” o f the tru th o f Chris tianity. I regard thenotion o f a conversion from one form o f belief to another asanalagous to change from one monastic order to another;
generally speaking, undesirable, but not forbidden, andappropriate in individual cases (eg, Marco Pallis*). Hinduism,like Judaism , is a nonprose lytising religion. Th e Jew will say,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 113/484
“ I cannot m ake you to have been bom o f Abraham, butw hatever yo u find true and go od in m y forms you can apply to
you r o w n .” B uddh ism, on the othe r hand, is proselytising inthe same sense as Philo; a making more easily available what is
universal apart from the special laws by which the particular
traditions are practiced. In Islam, it is fundamental that theteachings o f all the P rophets are o f equal authority, bu t there is
the rather impressive argument that one ought to follow most
closely the teachings of the Prophet of the Age, in this case,
Muhammed. However, I would not distinguish time and place
from this po int o f view, and w ou ld interpret this also to mean
that the no rm al cou rse is to follow the Prophet of one’s own
people, w hose teachings are enuncia ted in the com m on terms
o f their ow n experience. O ne can regard the Eternal Avatara as
unique, bu t this does not mean that one m ust think o f his
descent as having been a unique event.
O f course, a pa rt from all this, I have no doub t we are fully
agreed as to all the reservations that should be imposed as a
m atter o f duty to w hoeve r seeks to proselytise; I am referring
to the ob ligation to kno w and u tilise the culture o f the people to
whom one speaks. This is recognized at least by som e Jesuit
missionaries who in China, I understand, arc required to have
earned their living in a Chinese environment and to havefollowed a Chinese trade, before they are allowed to preach.
The average Protestant missionary is an ignoramus, and docs
not even know enough to bring to such peoples as the Hindus
what would most attract and interest them in Christianity.
Further: to the point that to be a professing Christian is not
indispensable for salvation may be added the fact that it is
recognized that the nonChristians may have received the
“baptism of the Spirit”, although not that of the water—and if Iund erstand the first chapter o f Joh n rightly, the baptism o f the
Spirit is superior.Myths common to India and Greece—notably the dragon
slaying (Hercules— M inurta— Indra) as now generally reeog
nized (there is a big literature on the subject). Then, the whole
conception o f the Janua Coeli, o f which the doors are theSymplegades, ie, enantiai, dvandvau, contraries: this is Indian,Greek, European folklore; and above all, aboriginal American,
too! N ext, I w ould think o f the whole concept o f the W ater o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 114/484
Life (of which the sourcc lies beyond the aforesaid con traries, in
the divine darkness), Indian, Persian, Sumarian, Greek, Norse
and the w hole concep t o f the Eucharist and transubstantian
connected therew ith. Then also, o f course, many things which
are not so much myths as doctrines, eg, duo sunt itt homine
(Vedic, Platonic, Christian). Also the concept o f the idealw orld, that o f the “w orld P icture” or speculum aeternum. Iunderstand Huxley is doing an anthology, but I very much
doubt that he is in a position to get at the fundamentals,
although with all their great limitations I think both he and
Heard arc not w ithou t some virtue. Huxley, how ever, is rather
sentimental, and canno t accept that “ darker” side o f God w hich
Behmen, perhaps, understood better than most.
I have lately been reading w ith great interest Scholem ’s Major Trends in Jew ish Mysticism where certain HebrewIndian para-
llels are very striking, eg, Abulafia’s “Yoga”, the concept of M i
(“What?”) equivalent to the Sanskrit Kha (“What?”) as an
essential nam e o f God; the concept o f transm igration (qilul =
Ar, tanasuh) — “ all transm ig rations are in the last resort only the
m igrations o f the one soul w hose exile atones for its fall” ; that
every art o f man should be directed to the restoration o f all the
“scattered ligh ts” (cf Bodhisattva concept); “ in the beg inning” ,
our in principio, arche, regarded as a “ po in t” and identified with
the Fons vitae.
Regarding Eric’s letters, if you have in mind som e archive in
which all would be gathered together, keep mine, otherwise
return them. I passed on your message to Graham Carey and
hope he will not delay to respond.
With kindest regards,
*Who bccamc Buddhist following upon his contacts with and deep
penetration o f th e M ahayana in its T ib eta n fo rm .
Walter Shewring, identified on p 23.
Th e reference in the first paragraph is to translations of the Upa nishads;
W. M. Teape, The Secret Lore of India, Cambridge, England, 1932.
'Svayamatrnna: Janua Coeli', in Za lm oxis, II, Paris, 1939.
‘Symplegades’, in Studies and Essays in the History o f Science in Homage to
George Sarton on the Occasion o f his Sixtieth Birthday, edited by M. F. AshleyMontagu, New York, 1947.
Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Jerusalem, 1941. Letters o f Eric Gill, edited by Walter Shewring, New York, 1948.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 115/484
4Klta and Other Words Denoting ‘Zero’ in Connection with the Metaphysicsof Space’, AKC, in Bulletin of the School o f Oriental and African Studies, VII,1934.
T o ERIC GILL
June 14, 1934
My dear Gill:
I am very grateful to you for your kind letter, and delighted
by your apprecia tion. A fter all, there is nothing o f m y ow n in
the book except the w ork o f putting things together, so there is
no reason w hy I should n ot m yself think it imp ortan t as regards
its matter. I have definitely come to a point at which I realise
that one’s own opinions or views so far as they are peculiar or
rebellious arc merely accidents o f one’s indiv iduality and are
not properly to be regarded as a basis for comprehension or as a
guide to conduct. I am from my point o f view entirely at one
with you in the m atte r o f religion, ie, as regards essentials, the
only important divergence being that for me the one great
tradition (or revelation) has had many developments, none of
which can claim absolute perfection of (dogmatic) expression
or absolute authority. That is, for me, the solar hero—the
Supernal Sun—is always the same Person, whether by name
Agni, Buddha, Jesus, Jason , S igurd, Hercules, Horu s, etc. O n
the whole I can go fu rth er in by means o f the Indian T radition
than any other, but it can hardly be doubted that my natural
grow th, had 1 been entirely a produc t o f Eu rope and kn ow n noother tradition, would ere now have made me a Roman
[Catholic].I am only too pleased you quote “The artist is not a special
kind o f man etc” It will interest you tha t only yesterday I had afew w ords w ith one o f the H arvard professors in the Fine Arts
Department there and he said he was constantly citing thesevery words in his lectures. Such things, and the review in the
Times, sho w at least that there does not prevail an entirely contra
point o f view and that we have friends “ in the w orld” . I look
forward to yo ur new book very m uch and I am very sure that itwill, as all your writings do, very wisely express from the practical point o f view, the m atter. Y ou will unders tand o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 116/484
course that it is a m atter o f definite policy on my part to w orkwithin the academic and even the pedantic sphere; that is
analagous to the idea o f the reform o f a school o f tho ug ht from
within, instead o f an attack from w ithout . . . .
I remain ever cordially,
PS: I send this to England in case you are back fromJerusalem. I cannot help feeling that my w ritten response to the
caritas o f yo ur appreciation is inadequate, but I am very m uch
sensible to your generous expressions!
Eric Gill, Ditchling, Sussex, England. See Introduction. He had written to
AKC thanking him for The Transformation o f Nature in Ar t (sec Bibliogra-
phy), sa ying “ I am really overw helm ed by it . . . . It seem s to me splendid ,
magnificent, marvellous and altogether excellent . . . . ”
The quotation referred to in the letter reads in full: “The artist is not a special
kind o f ma n, bu t every m an should b e a special kind of artist” (AK C). Art
and a Changing Civilization, London, 1934.
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREYELWES
March 3, 1947
Dear Father CareyElwes, O.S.B.
M any thanks for yo ur very kind letter of Feb 13. I aminterested to see that you arc at Ampleforth College, and so a
colleague o f W alter Shew ring w ith w hom I often exchange
correspondence. My little “Note” was intended only to
support your article in The Life o f the Spirit.
About Christianity and “other religions” or, as I should pre fer to say, “ other fo rms o f re lig ion” (avoid ing the plural)
my position can be summed up in the proposition Una veritas in
uariis signis varie resplendent and that this stands ad majorem
gloriam Dei. I think, therefore, o f their admirable variety assom ething very pleasing to Him , w ho must be very well awarethat nothing can be know n b ut according to the mode o f the
knower.Therefore, 1 cannot think o f any one form o f religion as a
preparatio n for another. Such a view w ould seem to me
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 117/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 118/484
To CONRAD PEPLER, OP
January 27, 1947
Dear Dr Pcplcr:
I don ’t know if you w ould like to publish this little note in
The Life o f the Spirit. You will see, o f course, that 1 am not
arguing that the Christian writers derived their wording from
Gnostic or Hermetic sources, but that (as I carefully word it),
the existence o f these contem porary ways o f thinking w ould
have facilitated the acceptation o f Fr CareyE lwes’ equation in
people ’s minds.
Very sinccrcly,
N ote on “The Son o f M an”
1 think Fr CareyElw es is perfectly right in equating “ The
Son of M an ” (or perhaps better, “o f the Man”) with the “Son
o f G od ” . I am w riting now only to point out that while this
can be deduced as Fr CareyElwes docs from Old and New
Testam ent texts, the possibility o f this m eaning having been
so understood by Christian writers is increased by the fact
that this was explicitly a contemporary Gnostic position.Thus Irenacus I, 6, 3, describing Valcntinian Gnosticism
says: “There arc yet others amongst them who declare that
the Forefathers o f the Wholes, the ForeSource, and the
Primalunknowable One is called ‘man’. And that this is the
great and abstract Mystery, namely, that the Power which is
above all others and contains the Wholes in his embrace, istermed ‘Man’. Epiphanous ( Panar. 31, 5) similarly speaks of
the Father o f T ru th as having been called “by the mystical
name o f ‘m an’” . C f also Hermetica I. 12 where “the Father ofall gave birth to the Man, like unto H im se lf . . . bearing theimage o f his Father, and as was like to be, G od delighted in
the Man, whose form was His (God’s own”; bearing in mindthe traditional view according to which in all generations the
father him se lf is reborn in the son. It will be seen that thesestatements imply that there must have been also in the Fathera Manlike nature.
Father Conrad Pcplcr, OP, was editor of The Life of the Spirit.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 119/484
T o FATHER COLUMBA CAREYELWES, OSB
Dear Father CarcyElwes:
I am no t quite sure if I ou gh t to address you as “Father” . Inany ease I thank you for yo ur very kind letter o f M arch 9,
which I am so rry I had to neglect so long. I look at the different
religions as “ m odes” o f know ing God (in terms o f the
“affirmative theology”) but think each makes slightly different
group s o f affirmations for m ost o f which equivalents can be
traced in the different traditions (it is a favorite task on m y part
to do this): bu t I am no t quite sure that they can be com bined in
any syncretic statement. O n the other hand, w hen w e consider
the “negative theology”, in which, eg, as Cusa says, “God isonly infinite, and as such neither Father, nor Son, nor Holy
Ghost”, then we find an absolutely common ground, trans-
cending all the dogmas and formulae, however valuable these
arc (cf M aitri Upanishad IV. 5, 6 which I am sure Shcwring will
have, or you can get from a library, in Hume’s The Thirteen
Principal Upanishads —not a very good book— especially as
regards the Introduction—but adequate for the present point,
viz, contrast of the + and — theologies). Hence acceptance o fthe truth o f all religions is com paratively rare from the
standpoint o f dogm atic theology, but the rule in mysticalliterature (notably Islamic Sufism). Practically all that aChristain holds about Christ is acceptable from a Hindu point
o f view; . . . from the point o f view o f Clem ent o f Alexan-
dria . . . the Eternal Avatara . . . has appeared again and again
in the w orld in the persons o f the successions o f proph ets
whose essence is really one and the same. Besides which therearc what w e should call “ partial avataras” . O f course, by
whatever nam e one is accustom ed to love God, one is hum anly
inclined to regard as the Eternal Avatar—the “only Son ofGod”—precisely thus, for example, the Vaishnava thinks ofKrishna. But the really important thing is His presence in us:
the bringing to birth o f Ch rist—A gni— Krishna— w ithin youuntil one can say with St Paul, “ I live, yet no t I, bu t Christ livesin me”—making Him what we should call a jivan-m ukta ,
“ released in this life” , and m aking him in fact (if we take theword quite literally, as 1 am fully prepared to do) an alter
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 120/484
Christus. In other words, one who being self-naughted has
fulfilled the ph iloso pher’s task o f practising d ying all his life
(Plato), one who has fulfilled the injunction “Die before ye
die”, attributed to MuhammCd, and stated by Angelus Silesius
in the words Stib ehe du stirbat. I believe that is the great work to
which we are all alike called. That Christ’s religion is not onlydoctrinal but factual has many parallels: for example, it is said
o f Bud dha emphatically that “ as he says, even so he does”—
and this is one of the explanations of the epithet Tathagata.
(Probably tatha and agata, “ who reached the truth ”— “T ru th ” is
in fact his “n am e” , as it had been that o f his Vedic antecedent
Agni, and was later o f Brahm a and finally o f the Sikh God.)
The values o f Christianity cannot be overestimated, bu t that
does not assert its universality as a necessary corollary. It is atleast for me, the essence and not the mode o f religion tha t is
truly universal and immutable. So there is no opposition to
Ch ristianity from a Hindu point o f view, but only to certainactivities o f Christians, notab ly as evangelists. T his last
opposition is absolutely inevitable because in the traditional
civilizations religion and culture arc inseparably combined, andthe missionary is therefore always bound to seek to destroy
existing cultures (this may sound exaggerated, but the necessity
is apparent and I could cite authoritative sources for the fact.) N ow the fact that a given activity in which one seeks to make
ano ther person “one o f us” necessarily arouses opposition in
the very best and most devout hearts already casts suspicion on
the activity itself. In one sense or another it means war. And it
is such a pity because it would be so much easier to cooperate. I
hate to have to waste my time re the activities o f missionaries.
I’d much rather be engaged on exegesis, whether Christian or
Hindu; only, I cannot expect you to agree with all this but haveto say that I regard as the two greatest weaknesses—anddangers—o f Ch ristianity, its claim to absolute superiority, and
its dependence u pon a supposed historical fact. Nevertheless, as Ihave said before, even i f you are not w ith us, we are w ith you.
Yes, I believe in the efficacy o f prayer, but am no t m uch practised in it, except in so far as I fully hold that labore est orare
and do regard my work as a vocation. You have the advantage
ove r m e in that you are living a kind o f life that has a fo rmal religious basis and backgroun d. We look forward to benefiting by som ething o f that kind when we return to India. So I can
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 121/484
utter a prayer for you, but only in the simplest and mostinformal manner, while your prayer for me may be morecorrect, so to speak.
Very sinccrcly,
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREYELWES, OSB
June 14, 1947
Dear CareyElwes:
Many thanks for your letter. I have asked Shcwring to lend
you . . . M y Brother’s Keeper. Asfor jum pin g out o f one’s skin
(or as Americans say, “ out o f one’s pajam as”) 1 am afraid the
East, though still far less extroverted—less turned inside
out— than the West, is doing its best to jum p, too. T his means
that East and West have a common problem. I do not doubt
that you arc right in saying that in the West order survives in the
life of such orders as yours, nevertheless I find even Jesuits
infccted by disorder and urging India to “progress” by secular
means only — ic, yie lding to U to pianism , (Laus Deo!).
I recommend very high Bharatan Kumarappa’s Capitalism, Socialism or Villagism? (Madras, 1944); you will see what I mean
when you have read it; it is in the deepest sense instructive, and
constructive. On the other hand, how many so callcd “re-
forms” are “deforms”!A noth er very fine book, o f a different kind, is H. Z im m er’s
Der Weg sum Selbst (Rascher Verlag, Zurich) abou t Sri Ram ana
Maharshi—probably the greatest living Indian teacher, and
[proponent of] the great question . . . “Who am I?”
With kindest regards,
Sri Ramana Maharshi, previously identified; his collcctcd works haveappeared in both English and French versions.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 122/484
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREYELWES, OSB
July 25, 1947
Dear Brother Columba:
Ifl may assume so to write,—I will try to answer more fullylater, but in the meantime I do want to say right away that I do
most assuredly believe in revelation past, present, and future,
and beginning, o f course, w ith the “ Invisible things o f Him,
known by the things which are made.” And secondly that,
most emphatically I do not agree that m yths arc “n atura listic” ; Ileave all tha t kind o f nonsense to people like Sir J. G. Frazer and
LcvyBruhl; see the sentence underlined in the N ote 7 of the
enclosed. Also that you underestimate the place of Love in
Hinduism and Bu ddhism (of which very few Christian apolog-ists have any firsthand knowledge). How often does anyone
cite the Buddha’s words spoken to a disciple when both were
visiting a sick man: “Whoever would nurse me, let him nurse
the sick” ? O ne o f the most strongly emphasized Buddhist
“exercises” is that o f the deliberate and conscious projection o flove and sym pathy tow ards all living beings in every quarter o f
the universe (on this “ brahma-vihara ’ sec briefly in my Figures o f
Speech . . . , pp. 14, 78). Regarding Christ: he is not for memerely “ this m an” Jesus, presumab ly historical, but one o f the
manifestations o f the “ Eternal A vatara” w ho— to quote C le-
ment o f Alexandria—“ has changed his forms and names from
the beginn ing o f the w orld, and so reappeared again and again
in the w or ld” ; and one o f whose names is Krishna who, to cite
the Bhagavad Gita, says o f himself: “ For the deliverance o f meno f right intent, the confusion o f evildoers, and for the
con firmation o f the Eternal Law, I take birth in age after ag e.”But I do not believe in a revelation uniquely Christian, but
rather with St Thomas (II Sent dist 28 q 1, a 4 and 5) that Godhas also “ inspired” the peoples o f “barbarous nations” w ith theknowledge that is necessary to salvation. As for “parallels”, my
fundamental interest is not ju st literary or historical, bu t indoctrinal equivalences; that these are so often expressed inalmost identical idioms pertains to the nature o f the com m onuniverse o f discourse tha t transcends the Babel o f separatedlanguages.
With kindest regards,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 123/484
PS: When I speak o f doctrina l parallels I mean such things as: Hoc nomen, qui est, est maxim e propritun nomen Dei (St Thomas
Aquinas, Sum Theol, I, 13, 11 [This name, He Who Is, is most
properly applied to G od .])— “He is, how else might that be
apprehended? He should be apprehended as ‘He is’” (Katha
Upanishad 6.12, 13)— “ In Him that is” (Satapatha Brahmana 2.3.2.1). Parallels of this exactitude arc innumerable and I do
not see how you can m aintain that they arc “ not true parallels” .
Sir Jam es G. Frazer, well kno w n co llator o f my thological ma terials.
Lucicn LcvyBruhl, author of Primitives and the Supernatural, London, 1936,
etc. T he article with “ N ote 7” is not identified.
To FATHER COLUMBA CAREYELWES, OSB
August 18, 1947
Dear Father CareyElwes:
I do thank you for you r birthday letter o f the 13th inst. O n
the question, when and to whom God has revealed Himselfmost fully, or to all according to their respective capacity, we
shall have to differ, but for the rest I am in fullest sym pathy. As
to how I regard my life, I would not use the word “illusion”,
but w ould describe my personal temporal, and mutable
existence (ex eo sistens, qui est [standing forth, appearing fromHim Who Is—Editor]) as “phenomenal”, using this word
deliberately having in view that a “ phen om enon” must, by the
logic o f the w ord itself, be a manifestation o f som ething other
than the mere appearance itself: and in this case, as I believe, o f my real being, in eo sistens, qui est [standing fast in Him WhoIs—Editor]. In general, in Oriental philosophies, human birth
is regarded as a great opportunity—the opportunity to become
what we are. So that one never wishes one had never been born, but only to be born again, once and for all, never m ore to besubject to the cond itions o f m utabilitym ortality that areinseparable from being bo m into any form o f temporal
existence.For the rest, I can only say that I am very sure that your G od
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 124/484
and my God arc one and the same God “whom”, as Philo said,
“all peoples acknowledge.”With all best wishes,
Very sinccrcly,
PS: Did I ever tell you that I know tw o brothers, Europeans,
both men o f prayer, one a Trappis t monk, the oth er a leading
Moslem, and neither has any wish to “convert” the other?
To BERNARD KELLY
N ovem ber 26, 1945
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Regarding “Extra Ecclesiam . . .” , 1 have before me a letterfrom the Secretary o f the Archb ishop o f Boston (R C), in
which he says that his form ula “ is of course, one o f the most
knotty problems in all theology.”Also in an article on the subjcct byj. C. Fenton in the American
Ecclesiastical Review, CX, April 1944 (also from the R C point
o f view). The article is much too long to quote but it is stated at
one point that to be saved one must belong to the Church
form ally “ or to the soul o f the Church , which is the invisibleand spiritual society com posed exclusively o f those who have
the virtue o f charity. N o such society, how ever, exists on
earth.” This last statement seems to me to beg the whole
question with which we arc concerned. Also, “every man who
has charity, every man in the state of grace, every man w ho is
saved, is necessarily one who is, or who intends to become am em ber o f the Rom an Catholic Ch urch .” This seems to me
contrary to the commandment “Judge not”. I believe theChristian has no right to ask whether anyone is or is not in a
state o f grace. (St Jo an ’s answ er to the question was, “ If not, I pray God that I may be, and if I am , I pray God keep me so” ).
Th ere is also the expression “ baptism o f the Sp irit” which, Iunderstand docs not necessarily apply only to members o f the
Church who, as such, have rcccived also the baptism withWater. Arc there specific limitations attached to the notion of baptism by the Spirit? O n the face o f it, one w ould presume
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 125/484
that such a bap tism was o f almost infinite value and involved a potentia lity for salvation.
If it be said that to comc to Jesus C hrist is a prerequisite forsalvation, then the question before us takes this form: arc wecertain that “Jesus” is the only name o f the Son o f God? (here I
do not say “Jesus Christ” bccausc “Christ” is an epithet,“anointed” and = Vcdic ghrta as applied to Agni, and such an
epithet is a recognition o f royalty rather than o f essence.) Agni,
the High Priest, is also Prajapati’s Son, and would not Prajapati
be a good name for H im exguo omins paternitas. . .nominatur (at
a ccrtain stage o f the ritual, the Sacrificers say: “ We have become the children o f Pra japati”).
It is quite likely you will no t think it ncccssary or desirable to
raise the ultimate question of extra ecclesiam. . . in the presentand introd ucto ry Sym posium , in which matters of full agree-
ment are to be first considered. In any case, these arc ways in
which I have tried to consider the matter. Everything dependsfinally on the interpretation of “ Ecclesia” and of the “ Son o f
God”
Very sinccrcly,
Bernard Kelly, identified on pp 201, Windsor, England.Fenton, J. C., author of 'Nulla salus extra Ecclesiam’, American Ecclesiastical Review, CX, April 1944.
To FATHER JOHN WRIGHT
January 15, 1944
Dear Father Wright:
Miss Maginnis has kindly shown me your letter, and I readDr Fenton’s article with much interest. I may say first that
while I do not lccturc on Scholastic theology, I do read Latinand Greek as well as Sanskrit, and I think I do have sufficienttheological background to sec the problem in its general
context. The sense in wh ich I am interested in the problem , youwill gather from the enclosed paper. I would like to have DrFenton’s address (I expect Catholic University o f America), as I
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 126/484
w ould like to ask him for a copy o f the reprint. I probably believe in the greate r part o f Chris tian doctrine more really than
many unthinking Christians do. What I am “after.” is to
discover ju st w hether and how far the proposition Extra
ecclesiam nulla salus stands in the way o f such a synthetic view o f
religions as 1 have discussed. For me, this becom es a m atter o fthe essential meaning of ecclesia and of “ Ca tholic” , and indeed,
o f “orth od ox y ” ; I cannot restrict any o f these concepts to that
o f the Roman Catholic Ch urch. It seems to m e that when C hristspeaks o f having com e to call, n ot the jus t, bu t sinners (M att 9,
13) that this implies the existence then (and if so, w hy no t
now?) o f a spiritual society o f persons having the virtue o f
charity and whose salvation would not depend upon their
particular acceptance o f his own teaching. You arc quite right,o f course, in saying tha t the prob lem has a context, bu t in case
you should be kind enough to reply, I would say, let us take it
for granted that we arc in agreement about such matters as
Grace, Providence and Free Will, and that there is an
ascertainable Truth.
Very sincerely,
Father Joh n W right, secretary to the Archbishop o f Boston, Cardinal
Cu shing, and later to become h imself a Cardinal and m em ber o f the Curia.
Alice H M aginnis, D avision o f M useum Extension, M useum o f Fine Arts,
Boston, where Dr Coomaraswamy worked for the most productive period
o f his life, 19171947.
To DONA LUISA COOMARASWAMY
1935
Darling:
. . . I have been having some correspondence w ith Gill inwhich I argued against his distinction o f Christianity from
Hinduism, one which as a Catholic he has always been carefulto make. Now I am really touched when he writes “I know
you’re right and I’ve been ashamed for years at the superficialityand cheapness o f my a ttem pt to state the differences betweenChristians and Hindus.” Whatever you feel about Gill’s work
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 127/484
or writing, I do think it takes a real quality in a man to“confess” in that manner. . . .
AKC
Dona Luisa Coom araswa m y, wife of AKC, in India at that tim e on a study
mission. Eric Gill, Ditchling, Sussex, England.
To WALTER SHEWRING
March 30, 1936
Dear Professor Shcwring:
Many thanks for your very kind letters, and the Golden
Epistle which I read w ith pleasure and profit. It will probab ly be
at least 3 years before I get to putting together a book on
Medieval Aesthetic (by the way, in the meantime I find that
Integritas is more nearly “precision” or “correctness” than
“Unity”). I shall send you the other articles as they appear in
the A rt Bulletin so that you will have plenty o f time to annotate
them. If you have time to do this for the first article in thecourse o f a year from no w that will be ample. I shall o f course
acknowledge your help when the time comes.
As to nature and grace, I think the distinction is present in
Indian thou gh t. C f for example the discussion in Pope’s
Tiruvakakam (Oxford). In the older literature, too, we meet
with such expressions as “those whom He chooses”. Becauseo f the strongly metaphysical bent o f Indian thou ght, how ever,
the emphasis is often more on necessitas infallibilitatis than on
Grace—“ask and ye shall receive” , with the idea that God cannot
but respond to the prepared soul. I do not for the present expect
to find com plete acceptance o f othe r religions by Christians butdo cxpect, what there is even now no objection to, an
agreement with respect to individual doctrines, the enunciationo f which is com m on to Catholicism and H induism; forexample, that o f the |one| essence and tw o natures, and apartfrom the question o f total acceptance, it seems to m e that the
Christian fidei defensor would be well advised to make use ofsuch agreements as being what St Thomas calls “extrinsic and probable proofs” , and have little doubt you w ould quite agree
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 128/484
w ith m e thus far. Y our poem on the picture is beautifully done.
I am happy to have introduced you to Guenon.
Very sincerely,
Walter Shewring, Ampleforth College, York, England
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt
The Golden Epistle, W illiam o f St Th ierry , translated by Walter Shew ring and
Justin McCann, London, 1930. Cistercian Publications, Spenser, Mas-
sachusetts, published a later translation by Theodore Berkeley, OCSO, in
1971.Tiruvafhakam, a collection o f hym ns o f the South Indian Saivite saint
M anikkavasa gar; these hym ns, along w ith others o f the Saiva Siddhanta are
noted for their intense devotional quality and exquisite expression.
To BERNARD KELLY
N ovem ber 14, 1946
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Jus t a line to say, when you review Figures o f Thought, by all
means correct my error about Transubstantiation. I don’t need
to tell you that I don’t mean to play with any idea. I have taken
quasi in Eckhart, etc, to refer always to symbols, which,
however adequate, give us only an inkling of the realities they
represent. Also, 1 think there is still this much tru th (and not anunimportant truth) in what I was trying to say: viz , that we
ought really to transubstantiate, or what comes to the same,
sacrifice (make holy) everything, by “ taking it out o f its sense”
in ou r apprehension— or, i f not, [we] arc living by “ bread
alone”.By the way, no one had ever remarked upon the repudiation
o f copyright in Figures. . . and in Why Exhib it . . . . I shouldn’t
mind if you do.
I’m grateful for your review of Religious Basis. . also,Grigson’s of Figures. . . in Spectator, October 25.
I suppose you go t either from me or otherwise, AlGhazali’s
M ishkat (published by Royal Asiatic Soc, 1924); well worth
having—the Introduction also good. On the whole, how much better Islam has fared than H induism in transla tion andcomment by scholars! For example, Gairdner is very wary of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 129/484
finding “Pantheism” in Islam. By the way, as regards thecriterion as annunciated on top o f p 39, I usually think o f
pantheism as asserting God = All, but not also more than all,
not also transcendent; doesn’t that come to the same thing? At
the same time, another point: isn’t there a sense in which we
must be pantheists; vis, this, tha t the finite cannot be outside theinfintc, for were it so, the infinite would be bounded by w hat is
external to it? But what is “in” God is God; and in this sense it
w ould appear correct to say that all things, taken out o f their
sense, are God, for as ideas in the divine mind, they arc not
othe r than that m ind. I think the righ t solution is “ fused but not
confused” (Eckhart) and bhedabheda, “distinction without
difference”. Perhaps I said before, the best illustration is
afforded by her ray—identical with the centre when it goes“ in” and individual when it goes “o u t” . If there were confusion
absolute, the notion o f the liberated as “m ov ersatw ill”(kamacarin) would surely be meaningless. So, as usual, the
correct position is one o f a middle way b etween absolute
identity and complete distinction.
I kno w the “ danger o f know ledge” ; and tha t’s largely why
we mean to go to India ourselves; not that realisations are not
possible everywhere, but partly to make a more definitetransition; also; partly, o f course for oth er reasons.
I m igh t approp riate to m yse lf the last two sentences o f the
M ishkat. “ Shining surface” : is no t this like the mass o f rays thatconceals the sun so that we do not “ see the w ood for the trees” ?
N ot so m uch a wall created by our blindness as created fo r us
by his m anifestatio n itself; to be penetrated, o f course.
However, the word “shining” is, I believe, only Edwin
A rno ld’s own; it is rather the dep th and stillness of the open sea
that the texts themselves emphasize.I note in Th e L ife o f the Spirit (Nov 1946): “The incarna-
tion. . . w hose meaning is reenacted in the life o f everyaiter-Christus.” In this sense I suppose St Paul (“ I live, yet not I but C hris t in m e”) is an “ aiterChristus” ?
Affectionately,
PS: about “choosing” a tradition, I fully agree. It is rather the “tradition”that should choosc us, cither by the circumstances o f ou r birth o r by a
subseq uent personal illum ination (cf St P aul’s).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 130/484
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England. Sec pp 201; Kelly was reviewing AKC’s
Figures o f Speech or Figures o f Thought ? (London, 1946) and had some
disagreemen t about A K C ’s discussion o f Transubstantiation. Both this boo k
and AKC’s Why Exhibit Works of A rt ? (London, 1943) bore the following
notice: “ N o rights reserved. Q uotations o f reasonable length m ay be made
w ithou t w ritten permission. ” The Religious Basis o f the Forms o f Indian Society;
Indian Culture and English Influence; East and West (all by AKC), New York,
1946. Mishkat al-Anwar (The N iche for Lights), al Ghazzali; translated by W .H .T .
Gairdner, Royal Asiatic Society Monographs, Vol XIX, London, 1924;
Pakistani edition 1973.
The Life o f the Spirit, a review o f spirituality published by the Do minican s of
England, Oxford.
“Pantheism, Indian and NeoPlatonic”, AKC, Journal o f Indian History, Vol
XVI, 1937; French translation in Etudes Traditionnelles, XLIII, Paris, 1938.
To BERNARD KELLY
December 29, 1946
Dear Bernard Kelly:
A bou t the E ucharist as a type o f a transubstantiation that
ought to be realised in secular life: Eckhart (Evans I, 408,
Pfeiffer 593), “Were anyone as well prepared for outer food asfor the Sacrament, he would receive God (therein) as much as
in the Sacrament (itself).” This is ju st w ha t I wanted to say, I
think this is true.
About alter Christus, ibid p 592: “ By living the life of Christ
rather than my own, so I have Christ as ‘me’ rather than
myself, and I am called ‘Christ! rathe r than Jo hn or Jacob orUlrich; and if this befalls out o f time, then I am transformed
into God.”About extra ecclesiam nulla salus: the Papal Bull Unigenitus
against Jansenism am ongst other things declared that the proposition “ Grace is not given outs ide the C hurch” is untrue.
Karl Adam, Th e Spirit o f Catholicism, 1929, says the Churchis the norm al institute o f grace, b ut the Grace o f Christ is nothindered from visiting particular men without the mediation ofthe Church; and those who arc thus visited by his Grace in thisimmediate way belong to the invisible Church (this is what I
mean when I sometimes talk of the “ reunion o f the Chu rches”in the widest sense).
This material in the last two paragraphs above is taken from
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 131/484
Bevan, Christianity, Home University Library, pp 194, 5.
Bevan, however, on p 215 says Christianity is either the one
religion for mankind, “or it is altogether nonsense”—whichseems to me to be a total non sequitur. “T he Lord know eth who
are his” (II Tim 2, 19); it is a presumption to think that we
know.
Kindest regards,
The following, part o f anothe r letter, was enclosed:
St Thomas, Lib I I Sententiarum, dist 28. q.l. art 4: “A manmay prepare him self by w hat is contained in natural reason for
receiving faith. W herefore it is said that i f anyo ne bo rn in
barbarous natio ns doeth w hat lieth in him , G od will reveal to
him that which is necessary to salvation, either by inspiration
or by send ing him a teacher” (here “by inspiration” show s that
St Thom as is not merely thinking o f Christian missionaries,
but o f direct illumination). In Summa Theol IIII.2.7 and 3, St
Thom as w ith reference to the salvation o f the Sibyls allows that
some persons may have been saved without any revelation,
because o f th eir faith in a M ediato r, in a Providence etc, no t
explicit but implicit “since they believed that God would
deliver mankind in w hatever way was pleasing to H im .” C f II
Tim 2, 9 & 19: “ the wo rd o f God is not b ou nd .” “T he Lord
knoweth who are His.”
I think it is not for us to pretend to know that. Job 19, 25: “I
kno w my Redeem er liveth” ; 1 have always felt that his is the
main thing, and that one cannot know that he “lived”, and I
cannot think that to believe that he “lived” (was born in
Bethlehem) is as important as to know that he “lives”.However, as regards “teachers”: everyman is virtually an
alter Christus, ie, poten tially capable o f being able to say “ I live,
yet not I, but Christ in me”; and I do not think it is anyman’s prero gative to say to what extent this perfection has beenapproached by any one. Marco Pallis’ Lama said of Christ, “ Isec he was a very Buddha”.
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.Marco Pallis, London, England.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 132/484
T o BERNARD KELLY
January 8, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Yours o f 2.1.47. As before, I accept the authority o f yo ur
definition as regards Transub stantiation strictu sensu, and expectyou to make the necessary criticism o f w hat I say in
Figures. . . . As regards most of the remainder, we arc, in the
first place agreed that there is una veritas; the question being
only whether in variis signis varie resplendeat. The problem
therefore resolves itself, as always, into “What think ye of
C hrist?” I do n ot think o f H im as having revealed Him self
visibly o nly as Jesus, nor o f the C hurch as being the literally
visible Roman Catholic universitas only; as you say, thequestion is o f “ religion” , no t really o f “ religions” . W hich boilsdown to asking whether, eg, Islam is religion. To this question I
say yes. Does a Roman Catholic have to say No? That is our
problem , isn’t it?
I agree to the formula “Jacob in Christ”; but also simply
Christ, if Jacob earns the right to say “ I live, yet no t I, bu tChrist in me.”
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.
To JOHN JOSEPH STOUDT
May 14, 1947M y dear D r Stoudt:
I am greatly indebted to you for sending. . ., through the publishers , your. . . vers ion o f Jacob Boehm e’s The Way to
Christ. It is a very fine piece o f translation, and I shall find anopportunity to review it, perhaps for the Review o f Religion ifthe publishers have not sent them a review copy, or if not, ifyou ask them to do so.
I would like to have seen fuller notes, for instance inconnection w ith the “ Spark” , p 246 (cf note 31 in the JA O Sarticle I am sending you, though there is much more material
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 133/484
than is mentioned there). Notwithstanding that Bochme was
“untaught”, it seems to me he must in some way have had
know ledge o f many traditional formulations. O n the same
page, “ sm ould ering w ic k” must be an echo o f M att xii, 23, and
this also is a reference to the “ Spark” , which Philo speaks o f as
asbestos, since it can never be totally extinguished. Very probably Bochme got his material on the Spark from Eckhart,
who uses the concept so often and equates it with Syntcrcsis.
As regards the “ Separator” (p xxix, c f 188) this is the Logos
Tomeus, on which E. R. Goodcnough has a valuable treatise in
Yale Classical Studies (III, 1932).
H ow ever, the chief thing I want to say is with reference to
yo ur occasional depreciation o f othe r religions, in the In troduc-
tion xxxi—xxxiii. These seem to me to mar the perfection andthe serenity o f your position. N o one, I think, has a righ t to
compare his own with other religions unless he knows the
latter in their sources (original languages and contexts) as well
as he knows his own; it is absolutely unsafe to rely on
translations by scholarly rationalists, themselves entirely un-
familiar w ith the language o f Western mysticism. Take for
example, “Boehme was not a Buddhist”. I daresay you know
there exists a considerable literature in which it is argued that
many things in the N ew Testam ent are directly o f Buddhist
origin; I do not believe this myself, but it shows how near
together these two come. There are many respects in which
Boehme is assuredly “Buddhist”; take for example the Super-
sensual Life on page 54, and the Buddha’s words: “Whoever
would nurse me, let him nurse the sick” (Vin 1. 302). O r again
compare Bochm e’s “ U ng run d” w ith the conception in Budd h-ism o f the Incom posite (= Nirvana, for which sec p 68, in the
review o f A rche r’s book which I am sending). Again Boehm e’sadvocation o f selfnaughting (harking back o f course to
Christ’s own denegat seipsum, which implies, according to theGreek verb here, an ontological even more than an ethical
denial) is quite as strong as Eckhart’s and Blake’s, and it isidentical with the Buddhist (and Hindu) conception no less thanwith Christ’s odet suam animam. Again, Supersensual Life, p 27,where the U ng rou nd is equivalent to “ noth ing and all” and this
is exactly equivalent to the B uddhist definitions o f N irvana as“ void” o f all things coupled with the affirmation that “he whofinds it findeth all” ( sabbam lagghatti, Khp viii).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 134/484
With Supersenaul Life, 24, I would like you to comparc the
Bhagavad Gita 6.5,6, on the relations o f the two selves (and ofcourse many parallels in Plato, and throughout the Christian
treatment of the accepted axiom duo sunt in homine)\ and for the
natu re o f their reconciliation, my article on the Hare (also sent
you, p 2, 3, passage as marked).May I suggest that in your forthcoming major work on
Boehmc (to which I look forward eagerly) you make no
references to other religions? Such references in no way
enhance the glory o f Christianity, but only tend to make the
non Ch ristian reader think that the w ork is nothing but another
piece o f Chris tian propaganda. It is easy enough to in te rest aH indu in the classics o f W estern m ysticism, bu t if these classics
are introduced w ith an accompaniment o f m isinterpretations o fhis religion he is little likely to be attracted, only repelled. The
same standards o f scholarship arc applicable to the whole field o f
comparative religion, not only to Christianity, and the conccpt
of truth demands an absolute sense of responsibility. It is just
because your ow n mind and your positive exposition are so
good that I would urge you to omit from the major work any
pejo rative references to oth er religions; Chris tianity has no-
thing to gain, but everything to lose by them.
One other point, p xxxl: in a general way there is a logical
distinction between the way o f devotion (bhakti in Hinduism)
and the gnostic way (jnana). But the end is the same. Consider
Rumi’s words: “What is love? Thou shalt know when thou
becomest M e.”
With kindest regards,
John Jospeh Stoudt, The Way to Christ, by Jacob Boch mc, N ew Y ork, 1947.
J A O S = Journal o f the American Oriental Society. Th e J AO S article referred to
was his review o f Joh n Clarke Archer’s The Sikhs in Relation to Hindus,
Moslems, Christians and Ahm adiyyas, in vol LXVII (1947, pp 67 30 ) o f this
journal.
Jo hn Layard’s The Lady o f the Hare: a Study in the Healing Power o f Dreams was
reviewed by A KC in Psychiatry, vol VIII (1945, part 4, pp 507513). See also
AKC’s “On Hares and Dreams”, in Quarterly Journal o f the Mythic Society,
vol XXXVII, no 1, 1947.Jalal ud D in Rum i, Sufi saint, founder o f a Sufi order, and one o f the greatestif no t the greatest o f Sufi m ystical poets.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 135/484
T o FATHER GEORGE B. KENNARD, SJ
Octobcr 12, 1943
Dear Father Kcnnard:
Many thanks for your kind and long letter. I shall try to seeFather Jo ha nn ’s article. I w ould say that many o f these thingsarc m atters o f fact. 1 agree that the West has som ething
“ invaluable” to offer in Christianity, bu t the converse is no less
true.
As to the matters o f fact: you say or cite that India has to be
taught the w ay o f selfconquest, and also the doctrine o f creatioax nihilo. I do not know why this should be so, seeing that both
arc already integral parts o f Vedic philosopy. As to the first,
you w ill find some o f the material in the “Akim canna” paper I
am sending, and which I am sorry I must ask you to return, as I
have only a lending copy. As in Plato, with his mortal and
imm ortal soul, the Vedantic mortal self and its “ im m ortal Self
and Leader” (= Pla to’s Soul o f the soul) and St Paul’s Spirit as
distinguished from soul (Hcb iv, 12), the question is, which shall
rule, the better or the worse, superior or inferior. The most
direct statement abo ut sc\{-conquest is, I think, that of Bhagavad
Gita VI. 5,6:
Let him uplift self by Self, no t let self sink dow n; for verilySelf is th e friend o f the self, and also se lf s foe. Se lf is the
friend o f the self in his case whose self has been conquered (jitah, the ordinary m ilitary term , as in jaya, victory), b ut acts
as the foe in hostile conflict with se lf undaunted.
Regarding creatio ex nihilo, I would have to write a longer
exposition, dealing with kha (chaos), akasa (light as quintess-ence), and the Gnostic topes; with reference also to Sum Theol (Aquinas) 1.45.1: emanatio omnis entis ex non ente quod est nihil* (I
quote from memory); to the equation o f God with nihil in Eckhartand other m ystics, it is obvious tha t the first cause o f “ thing s”must be no thing; and the w hole m atter o f intelligible formsand sensible phenom ena in West and East sources; and also takeup the uses of teino and its Sanskrit equivalent tan (extend),together w ith the thrcadspirit doctrine (cf in m y “ Literary
Sym bolism” in the Dictionary of World Literature, 1943, where itis briefly cited); and the use of elko. In our theology God is the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 136/484
Supreme Identity o f beingandnonbeing ( sadasat ), and these
are his essence and his nature, which latter he separates from
him self as a m other o f w hom to be born (of coursc, I could give
you all the references, but won’t do that now). Hence the
precise sta tement o f Rgveda X.7214: “being is born of
no nb eing” . It is interesting, too, that just as ou r “no thing” isalso “evil” , viz , naughty, so a-sat, nonbeing has also precisely
this value o f “naugh ty” in Sanskrit contexts. So too, the
process o f perfecting is a procedure from a “ tobedone” to a
“havingdonewhatwastobcdone”, ie, potentiality to act.
We are thus dealing w ith a whole system o f equivalent notions.
In my view, then, it is no t so much a question o f introducing
any new doctrinal truths to one another, as it is o f bringing
together the equivalent formulations and so establishing thetru th on the basis o f bo th authorities. Th is I conceive to be the
proper w ork o f “ compara tive religion” , considered as a true
discipline and not mere satisfaction o f curiosity. T he different
scriptures rather illuminate than correct one another.
With reference to the Cross: consider the implications of
teino, with reference to the crucifixion as an extension. From
our po int o f view, the Eternal Avatara (and o f course, we
should regard Christ as one of His epithets) is extended in
principio on the three dimensional cross o f the universe that he“fills”, that would be involved in the “eternal birth”, while the
historical crucifixion in the two dimensions would be the
necessary projection of the same “event” in a world of contraries(enantiai, right and left, etc).
I am afraid I cannot, although your kind invitation is
attractive, now prom ise to w rite on any o f the problems yousuggest, for the reason that I am “snowed under” by existing
commitments and unfinished articles. Incidentally, in the firstissue of the Bookman, I am disagreeing with Beardsley and
Wimsatt’s statements on “Intention” in the Dictionary o f World
Literature, and maintaining that criticism must be based on the
ratio o f intention and result, the classical standard o f jud ge -ment, and I believe this will interest you.
I shall, in accord w ith wha t you say, expect return o f onecopy of Why Exhibit. . .? presently. M ost o f the Englishreviewers either, as Catholics, agree with the general thesis, or
as aestheticians cannot bear to agree that art has any other purpose than to produce sensations, or bring themselves to
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 137/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 138/484
comprehended Tru th” ( M ajm u’l Bahrein, Introduction). I think
that this is the position one would reach by really thorough
com parison o f any tw o forms o f religion.
But to return to the immediate problem. You speak ofreading sources. Unless I am assuming wrongly that you do
not mean original Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Pali or Chinese
sources, I must point out that such translations as are available
in European languages are o f a very varying quality. Perhaps
the best in a way are those that come nearest to being “cribs”.
The trouble is that the earlier ones were made chiefly by
missionaries for their own ends, and the later arc mostly by
rationalistnom inalist scholars to w hom the language o f the
Schoolmcn w ould have been as incomprehensible as that o f the
Eastern scriptures themselves. They simply did not know the
English equivalents for the metaphysical terms that they foundthemselves coping with for the first time in their lives; not to
mention that even they, too, had inherited from the “Christian
civilisation” o f Europe, in which they no longer believed, a
superiority complex. One must be, therefore, exceedinglychoosy in one’s use o f translations; and even i f one learns one o f
the languages for oneself, still the literal reading will not reveal
the conten t until one has reached the point o f endow ing the
original keywords with all their pregnant significance, nolonger attem pting to think o f them simply in terms o f some
one English equivalent.
All that you, and many others have to say positively about
the content o f Christian religion is well w orth reading. But in
making a negative statement with rcspcct to any other form of
religion can there be any value? You know how hard it is to
“prove a negative”. I think I have never made a negative
statement about any religion. To make such negative state-ments necessarily arouses opposition, and that is the last thing
one wishes. As I sec it, the two greatest dangers to which
Christianity is exposed at the present time arc 1) its claim to
exclusive truth and 2) its overemphasis on the supposedlyhistorical event; perhaps these are the two main points onwhich Christianity could p rofit by the study o f Hinduism .
As I said previously, I am not at all an uncritical admirer ofHuxley, but I do think he has greatly grown in the last few
years, and may go further yet.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 139/484
Father Gerald Vann, OP, Blackfriars School, Laxton, England.
T o THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
N ovem ber 28, 1945
Sir,
M r Francis G lend enning is indeed in a predicam ent. If he
assumes that “ C hristianity is the judgem en t upon all non
Christian re ligions” , it becom es impossible for any Christian to
teach Comparative Religion, as other subjects are taught,
objectively. And yet, the und erstand ing o f other religions is anindispensable necessity fo r the solution by agreement o f the
econom ic and political problem s by which the peoples of the
world are at present more divided than united.
If C om pa rative Religion is to be taugh t as other sciences are
taught, the teacher must surely have realised that his own
religion, how eve r true, is only one o f those that arc to be
“ com pared ” . In other w ord s, it will be “ necessary to recognize
that those institutions which arc based on the same premises, let
us say, the supernatural, m ust be considered together, o ur ow n
amongst the rest”, whereas “today, whether it is a question of
imperialism, or o f race prejudice, or o f a comparison between
Christianity and paganism, we arc still preoccupied with the
uniqueness . . . o f ou r own insti tut ions and achievements, our
own civilization” (Ruth Benedict).
O ne cannot b ut ask w hether the Christian w hose conviction
is ineradicable that his own is the only true faith can
conscientiously perm it him self to expoun d another religion,knowing that he cannot do so honestly; he will be almost
certain, for instance, to use the expression “pantheism” or
“ po lythe ism ” as terms o f abuse withou t having considered the
actual relevance or irrelevance to a given case. The only
alternative, at present, is to leave the children to their ignorance,or to have Comparative Religion taught by nonChristians
who, in Philo’s words, can speak o f the O ne God w hom “ with
one accord all the Greeks and barbarians acknowledgetogether. ”
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 140/484
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
December 1946
Sir,
In further response to M r Glendinning, I agree, o f course,that no subject can be taught objectively, absolutely. It is,
how ever, every teacher’s du ty to com municate the real conten t
o f the subject as objectively as possible. M y po int was that
Christians commonly refer to other religions and use a few of
their technical terms (such as karma, nirvana) without any
personal know ledge o f the connotations o f the terms or the
contexts in which they are employed; they rely on translations
made either by propagandists or by scholars who are usually
rationalists unacquainted w ith the terms o f theology and
indifferent o r hostile to religion o f all kinds; and tha t I regard as
irresponsible and disingenuous.
As for the uniqueness o f Christianity: in the first place, thiscan only be a matter o f faith, not o f historical certainty; one
cannot have it both ways because, as Aristotle says, factual
know ledge can be only o f what is norm al, no t o f exceptions. In
the second place, I can only say that I am happy to disclaim
uniqueness for my own beliefs, and that I can, and often do,defend the truths o f Christianity accordingly. I am very surethat it redou nds to the greater glory of God that Una veritas in
variis signis varie resplendeat.
AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
January 8, 1946
Sir,
— I am afraid th at Gens thoroughly misunders tands m y position. In fact, I agree w ith him in alm ost every thing. I nevermaintained and I do not hold that Comparative Religion, oreven on e’s ow n, can be taught “ as other sciences are taught” . I
said that Comparative Religion must be taught with at least asmuch regard for the tru th as teachers o f science usually have,and objectively in this sense, that the scriptures of the “o ther” re
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 141/484
ligions must not be misconstrued. I fully agree that no one can
teach religion, whether his own or another’s or even talk “sense”
about religion until religion has been a real experience in his
ow n life. B ut fo r the teaching o f tru th about other religions it is
not enough, however indispensable, to have had experience of
one’s own; it is also necessary to be as familiar with the texts ofthe o the r religions as one is (or shou ld be) with those o f on e’s
ow n. W hat I com plain o f is that Christian w riters (who often
rely upon translations that have been made by scholars who,
learned as they may be so far as language goes, arc rationalists
and quite ign ora nt b oth o f religious experience and o f the
traditional terms in which it has been described) continually
make use of the technical terms of other religions while
kno w ing n oth ing personally o f their etymo logy, history or usein the original contexts. We find, for example, “Maya”
rendered by “ illusion” ; bu t M aya is that “a rt” , or in Jacob
Boehme’s sense “magic” by which the Father manifests
himself; the analogues o f M aya being G reek Sophia or Hebrew
Hochma, that “wisdom” or “cunning” by w hich G od operates.
We find “ N irvana ” rendered by “ annihilation” (no one stops to
ask o f what?), thou gh the w ord means “despiration” , as
Meistcr Eckhart uses the term. I accuse the majority ofCh ristian w riters o f a certain irresponsibility, or even levity, in
their references to other religions. I should never dream of
m aking u se o f a Gospel text w ithou t referring to the Greek, and
considering also the earlier history o f the Greek w ordsem ployed, and I dem and as m uch o f Christian writers.
As for Folk lore and M yth olo gy , these, indeed, are sources o f
sacred know ledge, bu t to u nderstand them requires som ethingm ore than a collector’s o r cataloguer’s capacities. 1 have no
respect wha tever fo r the app roaches such as those o f Frazer or
LevyBruhl and often have said so. I am far, indeed, from
denying that heresies are current, and may arise anywhere, or
that they do arise when people “think for themselves”. In
reality, this is not a m atter o f thinking at all, b ut o f
understanding. I agree with Blake that “there is no naturalreligion” . W hat I regard as the prop er end o f C om parativeReligion is the dem on stration o f fundamental truths by a cloud
o f witnesses. O u r task is one o f collation rather than com pari-son. I agree w ith G ens that “C om para tive Religion” is a ratherun fortu na te phrase, since it is no t really “ religions” but religion
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 142/484
that w c arc talking about. What wc are really com paring is the
idioms o r sym bols in which d ifferent peoples at different timeshave clothed the revelations of Himself that God has given
them. The idioms differ (although far less than is commonly
supposed) bccause “nothing can be known but in accordance
w ith the m ode o f the kno w er” , but wha t variety there is in noway infringes the truth propounded by St Ambrose, that “all
that is true, by whomsoever (and however) it has been said, is
from the Holy Ghost”, or, as St Augustine says, “from Him
whose throne is in heaven, and [who] teaches in the heart.”
AKC
To PROFESSOR ARTHUR BERRIEDALE KEITH
1937
Dear Professor Keith:
I am alw ays appreciative o f your tolerant attitude tow ards
my “ idealistic” approach. I am o f course ready to agree that in
an article like “M an ’s last en d” (which, by the way, will be
prin te d in Asia ), 1 am considering both systems in their highest
and deepest— paramarthika — significance. H ow ever, it is at least
as necessary and proper that this should be done by some and forsome, as it is to study religions also in their lower aspects. So
my reply to your criticism would take this form (using your
own words with very slight change). “After all these systems
are what they mean to the deeper minds concerned with them,
no less truly than they are what they mean to the average
believer.”Ju st as in mediaeval exegesis the possibility o f interpre tation
on at least four levels o f reference (literal, moral, allegorical andanagogic) is always recogn ized, so I think one can approach the
Indian texts from different poin ts o f view, each o f w hich is
legitimate— so long as one is perfectly conscious o f w hat one isdoing at the time.
With kind regards, very sincerely
Professor Arth ur Berriedale Keith, U niversity o f Edinburgh, Scotland.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 143/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 144/484
‘Th e Indian Doctrine o f M an’s Last End ’, Asia, XXXVIII (1937), pp
186213.
This letter was in response to one from Prof. Keith in which he com m ented as
follows on said article: ‘It is very brilliant and attests as usual your
remarkable familiarity both with Christian and Indian thought. My only
objection is to yo ur conclusion in the form in which you have fram ed it. Youhave certainly established the fundamental identity of the views of certain
profound aspects o f Chris tianity and Hin duism , but these aspects make up
but a very litt le part o f w hat we unders ta nd as H in duism and Christianity,
and yo ur conclusions wou ld seem to be very far from reality to many Hindu s
and Christians alike. After all, these systems arc not what they mean to the
deeper minds concerned with them, but to the average believer. . . .’
TO ADE DE BETHUNE
May 6, 1937
Dear Adc de Bcthune:
In the first place I enclose an extract from a letter from an
English C atholic o f considerable standing, though no t a
professional theologian.
Secondly, I should like to say that I have not the slightest.
interest in trying to “placate” anyone, but only in the Truth,which I regard as One. It would take too long to show here
ho w hard it w ould be to say wha t doctrines (Matters o f faith, as
distinguished from matters o f detail) arc not common to
Christianity and Hinduism (as well as other traditions, the
Islamic for example). As to reincarnation, the doctrine has been
profoundly misin te rpreted, alike by scholars, Thcosophists,
and neoBuddhists. On the other hand, the doctrine aboutwhat is under and what beyond the Sun is expounded in almost
identical terms in both traditions.
I often find m yse lf in the position o f a defender o f Catholic
truth, and willingly enough; all the doctrines usually regarded
as difficult seem to me to both intelligible and to be representedin Hinduism. On the other hand, though individual Protestants
may be truly religious, I cannot seriously equate Protestantismwith Christianity, and regard the Reformation as a Reforma-tion.
It is very easy to discover apparent contradictions betweenChristianity and Hinduism, but it requires a very thoroughknowledge o f both and perhaps a faith in both , to discover
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 145/484
whether these apparent contradictions are real. The principal
difference in actual formulation is perhaps that Hinduism
strictly speaking deals almost exclusively with the Eternal
Birth, which in exoteric Christianity is, so to speak, only the
m ore im portan t o f the tw o births, tem poral and eternal.
In the last sentence I say “strictly speaking” because inBuddhism , which is an aspect of Hinduism , related to the
orthodox tradition somewhat as Protestantism is to Catholic-ism, the manifestation o f the Eternal Messiah (or as we express
it, Avatara) is given a tem poral form. I may add that m y faith inthe tru th o f Ch ristianity (“ faith” as defined by St Thom as)
w ould no t in the least be affected by a positive d ispro of o f the
historicity o f the Christ, and I w onder if yo ur friend could say
as much.I send you separately a few othe r papers of mine, o f which I
will ask you to return those on Exemplarism and on Rebirthand Omniscience, as I have bu t few copies. I send also 3 copies of
“Man’s Last End” for which you can send me 34 cents instamps. I need hardly say that this paper, which was originally
a broadcast and will be printed in Asia for May, was necessarily
a very b rie f and undo cum ented statement; a sum mary, in fact,
o f some material collected for a com parison o f Indian andChristian concepts of deificatio. The other papers will suffice to
show that I have a back groun d for what I say. I w ond er indeed
if yo ur friend has anything like a similar background from
which to speak o f “ w hat only a Christian believes” , ie, formaking statements as to what is not believed elsewhere. I often
wonder why so many Christians resent the very thought that perhaps the truth has been known elsewhere, although express-
ed in other idioms. Since for me there is in the last analysis onlyone revealed tradition (of which the different form s are so
m any dialects), it is for me a source o f interest and p leasure to
recognize the same truths differently expressed at different
times and by d ifferent peoples. C f p 331 o f the Speculum article.My article in the A rt Bulletin, Vol. XVII (a translation and
discussion of Ulrich Englcbcrti, De Pulchro), would probablyinterest you.
Yours sincerely,
A de de B ethu ne, identified p 28. She had w ritten to A KC abou t his article
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 146/484
‘The Indian Doctrine of Man’s Last End’, raising objections both on her part and on the part of her (Protestant) friend about the correlation ofHindu and Christian positions. The enclosed ‘cxtract’, mentioned in the first
paragraph, was from a letter by Eric Gill concerning the same article, and isrepeated here: . 1 am very glad to have it. It seems to me faultless,though I suppose the pious practising Christian would feel that it left himrather high and dry, as it leaves out (necessarily, from the point of view ofmetaphysics) all the personal loving contact which he has with Christ asman, brother, lover, bridegroom, friend. . . . I don 't think there is anythingat all wrong with what you have written: I think it is all just true, but it iswritten at a level removed from that of the ordinary consciousncss and. . .‘Two Passages is Dante’s Paradiso', Speculum XI (1936), 327328.‘Mediaeval Acsthctic. I. Dionysius the PsucdoAreopagite and UlrichEngelberti of Strassburg’, Art Bulletin, XVII (1935), Pt 1, 3147.In later years, Dr Coomaraswamy changcd his views on the orthodoxy of
Buddhism, and would no longer have referred to it as ‘Protestant’.
T o PROFESSOR MYER SCHAPIRO
Octobcr 18, 1946
Dear Schapiro:
1 do n ’t find much conflict between religions, except, o f
course when individuals arc expressing individual opinions andm isunderstand ings. If understoo d according to Philo, the Jews
would not have disagreed with the idea of “eternal creation”;
no doubt, any “fundamentalist” would, but the fundamental-
ists on their side arc as bad as some scientists (eg, Haldane who
writes on “Time and Eternity” in the current Rationalist
without ever even mentioning the traditional and almost
universal definitions o f eternity as not everlasting bu t now — this
means, o f course, that he is only talking abou t what hesupposes eternity to mean, and is not dealing with the subject
historically at all) are on theirs. I think also, it might be difficult
to find a do ctrine o f the eternal fixity o f species as such; mosttraditional philosophers as such (like many modern psychol-
ogists) regard the existence o f “ thing s” (men included) as
postula te, usefu l as such for pragm atic purposes, but not suchthat one can say “ is” o f them ; this is repeatedly pointed out in
Greek and is equally Buddhist; Augustine also emphasizes themutability o f bo dy and soul, almo st in B uddhist terms.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 147/484
M ycr Schapiro, professor o f art history, Co lumbia U niversity, N ew York.
To PROFESSOR SIDNEY HOOK
undated
Dear Prof Hook:
I have given a large part o f my life to the study o f
comparative religion, using the original sources (Latin, Greek,Sanskrit, Pali and to some extent Persian). I deny absolutely
your assertion in the Nation Jan 20th, that the elements of
religion “ must be thinned dow n to the vaguest phrases” if they
arc to be universally acccptablc. On the contrary, the differentscripturcs arc full of precise and detailed equivalents, and in fact, 1
m yse lf hardly ever expound any doctrine from only a single
sourcc.
Very sincerely,
Sidney Ho ok, professor o f philosophy, N ew York University, N ew York,
USA.
T o PROFESSOR J. WACH
August 23, 1947
Dear Professor Wach:
1 read y our paper in the July Journal o f Religion with much
interest. For me, o f course, theology is a “ science” com m on toall religions, and no t the private property o f any. In view o f
Aquinas as cited in the enclosed, p 60, it would seem to me
virtually impossible for any Roman Catholic to maintain that
no nonChristian scripture can have been inspired. Indeed,from the poin t o f view o f those w ho are opposed to all religion,nothing could well be more laughable than for anyone to claimthat his religion alone has been “revealed”. I hold with Blake
that “there is no natural religion” (which parallels yourcitations from Newman and Soderblom). I am sending a copyo f your paper to a R. C. friend o f mine in England who is
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 148/484
devoting him self to a consideration o f this question: “What is to be the attitude o f Rom an Catholics to the Oriental religions as now better known than heretofore?”; for which purpose he
has learnt Sanskrit himself. We are both agreed that neither of us is in search o f a solution in terms o f “latitudinarianism”.
Here I might also mention that I know two European brothers, one a Trappist monk, the other a leading Moslem; both are
men o f prayer; neither has any wish to convert the other; and
know, too, o f a learned and aged nun who said to us: “I see
there is no ncccssity for you to be a Christian”. The Hindu
attitude m ight be expressed as follows: Hinduism “has outlived the Christian propaganda o f modern times . . . . It is now able
to meet any o f these world religions on equal terms as their
friend and ally in common cause” (Renaissance of Hinduism, D. S. Sharma, 1944, p 70). I have myself often said to
Christians, “even if you arc not on our side, we are on yours.”
As regards the collation o f doctrines, Christian and non
Christian, I think this task has so far only been begun. For
example, who has ever stressed the Buddhist “Whoever would
nurse me, let him nurse the sick” in relation to “In as much as
yc have done it unto one o f the least o f these . . . yc have done
it unto Me”? Even as regards preChristian Greek, compara-tively little has been done; mainly, I suppose, bccausc such tasks arc distasteful to most Christians. O f course one finds a similar attitude elsewhere also; there arc some Indians who resent my own position, according to which there is nothing
unique in Indian religion, apart from its “local color”, ie, historical expression in the language o f those whose religion it has been (“nothing can be known except in the mode o f the
knowcr”). There are, indeed, two kinds o f persons; those who take pleasure in recognizing identities o f doctrines, and those who they offend (and who, as Schopenhauer long ago pointed out, strive to show that when the same things arc said in as nearly as possible the same way, the meaning is different);
In the case o f the HinduM oslcm problem in India (which is now mainly a political rather than a religious matter), the solution can only be found . . . starting from the position unequivocally affirmed by Jahangir and Dara Shikosh that
“their Vedanta is the same as our Tasawwuf”. It is from men like these (and like Plutarch) that we have to learn how to tackle the problems o f “comparative religion”. By the way, I do not
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 149/484
think this is such an unfortunate term, because it is significant
that the word religion is used in the singular; comparative
religion and the his tory o f religion* are no t qu ite the samething. The form er, I think, can only be studied by men w ho arc
themselves religious.
Very sincerely,
Joachim Wach, professor at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island,
USA.
Jahangir and Dara Shikosh, see p 48.
To JOHN CLARK ARCHER
Date unertain, 1945 or ’46
Dear Professor Archer:
I greatly appreciate your review o f m y “ Recollection. .
and . . T ran sm igra nt” in Review o f Religion. I would only
like to say, I think you must be aware that I am anything but
indifferent to “religion”. But I look to God to satisfy my headas well as my heart, and it seems to me perfectly legitimate in
any particular study to confine onese lf to the intellectual aspects
o f on e’s belief, since one is no t, for the mom ent, concerning
onese lf w ith the active life. At the same time the intellectualaspects lead, in fact, to the same practical conclusions in ethics
as those which you defend. “Love thy neighbour as thyself’: it
was long ago pointed out by Deussen [that] this holds good a
fortiori if thy neighbo ur is, essentially, thyself, i f what we loveeither in ou rse lf or in others is no t really the individual, bu t the
immanent deity in both. This was also Ficino’s conception of
“Platonic love”. Then, I would call your attention to the factthat the term “ V edanta” occurs in the Svetasvetara and Mundaka
Upanishads, and docs not apply only to Sankara’s philosophy. I
gave enough questions, I think, to show that his “onlytransmigrant” dictum had ample older authority. Lastly, if, asAristotle says, “eternal beings arc not in time”, I cannot see
ho w they can be thou gh t o f as “ continually learning” , astem pora l o r acvitcrnal beings migh t be; .the latter, indeed, inBuddh ist doctrine, arc notably thought o f as capable o f further
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 150/484
learning and o f rising higher. By the way, also, “many summits” would imply to me a polytheism; but perhaps I miss your meaning here. You may be interested to know I shall be reviewing your Sikhs . . ., mostly with cordial appreciation, but with criticism of a few minor points (esp Rumi’s supposed
belief in reincarnation, and the reference to Buddhism as a nastikasystem). Incidentally, I wonder if you have ever noticed that the Buddha is several times referred to in canonical texts as saccanama, and that all his “undergraduate” disciples are sekha.
Very sincerely,
John Clark Archcr, Hoober Professor of Comparative Religion, Yale
University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.‘Recollection, Indian and Platonic’ and ‘On the One and Only Transmig-rant’, both by WKC, were published as Supplements to the Journal of the
American Oriental Society, LXIV (1944).The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino, P. O. Kris teller, New York, 1943.The Sikhs in Relation to Hindus, Moslems, Christians and Ahmadiyas, by JohnClark Archcr, reviewed by AKC, JAOS, LXVII, 1947. Nastika, reductionist, nothing more than. . . . Dr Coomaraswamy contri- buted significantly towards dispelling notions of Buddhism as merely aheresy of Hinduism,
To JOHN CLARK ARCHER
May 21, 1947
My dear Professor Archcr:
Many thanks for your kind and patient letter. I will take up the points in the same order. I did not mean to suggest that you had stated any direct connection o f Sikhism with Buddhism, but in this connection thought it worth while myself to call attention to a remarkable continuity o f the Indian tradition in thinking o f God as truth, a tendency extending from the Rgvedato Gandhi (for I might have cited also Rgveda V.25.2: sa hi satyah).
Regarding caste, the difference between “exclusively” and “utterly different” as in the referents. That part o f Hocart’s
book which deals with caste elsewhere than in India does not deal with “class distinctions” but with the real equivalents of caste elsewhere, and I therefore cited him in illustration o f the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 151/484
view tha t caste is no t “exclusively Indian” . O n the other hand,
/ said that caste is “utterly different” from the class distinctions
that arc so conspicuous in the socalled democracies. I did not,therefore, contradict myself.
As regards Buddha, you repeat that he “denied the reality of
God”; and . . . this was what I contradicted, and still do. Iexpressly omitted to point out that he delieved in Gods,
thinking that would have been irrelevant to the actual point. I
am thoroughly familiar with, I think, all the Pali sources
bearing on this poin t, and am satisfied that he not only believed
in Brahma (as distinct from Brahma), but was himself
“Brahmabecome” (having been a Brahma in previous births).
You said that N anaka w as “not a nastik w ith respect to G od ” ;
but that the Buddha was. I can’t agree. But to prove my poin twould amount to a short article with full citations.
Regarding the “only transmigrant” (Sankara’s phrase, not
mine): I see nothing strange in the view that all things are
infused by a power that operates in all. In fact, I should have
thought that most Christians would think that.
I must apologize for seeming to credit you (I use the word
advisedly) with the sentence ending “one perfect source”.
N o doubt your diagnosis o f our different tem peraments ismore or less correct. But I think you will allow that I never
express personal opinions, but speak always samula, always
citing authorities. What I would say is that I do not think a
“ realistic, dualistic, ind ividualistic” mental makeup looks at alllike one naturally adapted to in terpret Indian or related types o fthought without distortion.
Sincerely dnd cordially,
PS: I can ’t agree tha t we are saying the same things abou t Rumi;
you said explicitly that he believed in reincarnation, and I produced chapter and verse to show that he did not do so, inthe now commonly accepted animistic interpretation of the
word. Nor can I agree with you than any Sufi (or Vedantist)identified himself (Boehm e’s “that which thou callcst ‘I’ or‘myself ”) with God; it is the immanent God in “us”, not “this
man, soandso”, that can be identified with God, and must be,if there is to be any sense to the faith o f those (like Cusa, and theGreek Orthodox theologians) who consider man’s last end one
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 152/484
of thcosis by the elimination of omnis alteritatis et diversitatis.
Sinccrely,
John Clark Archer, Hoobcr Professor of Comparative Religion, YaleUniversity, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Dr Archer had written toAKC: ‘I myself find it difficult to associate so intimately the Rgveda, Plotinus and St Thomas . . . . But a mystical sense disregards time andspace . . . . Your article drips secretions of the mystical. I am myselfsomewhat more realistic in my reading of the Rgveda, and of the Upanishadsalso. ’ Under this latter, AKC wrote: pour rire, si non pleurer !— ‘to laugh, ifnot rather to cry!’ Nankar, or Guru Nanak, founder o f the Sikh religion. Nastik, a ‘nothing moreist’ or reductionist.
Brahma, the Supreme Principle. Brahma, first named in the Hindu Trimurti or triple manifestation of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. The word brahma also refers to a member of the highest ofthe four traditional Hindu castes.
To GERSHOM G. SCHOLEM
November 9, 1944
Dear Professor Scholcm:I have been reading your Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism
with the greatest interest, and am only sorry I have been unable to procure a copy here. If, by chance, it is still available in Jerusalem, I should be very much obliged if you would direct your bookseller to send me a copy, with the bill.
Tsimtsum seems to me to correspond exactly to William Blake’s expression “contracted and identified into variety”.
Throughout I have been interested in the Indian parallels, which I have long since learnt to expcct everywhere, since metaphysics is onescience, whatever the local coloring it takes on. In this connection I am sending you a copy o f my article on “Recollection, Indian and Platonic” and Transmigration, in which I touched on the treatment o f “recollection” by Jewish writers. You will see that the (true) Indian doctrine o f transmigration is similar to that o f gilgul (= Ar tanassul). I am
dealing with the whole subject further in an article on “Gradation and Evolution” which will appear in Isis.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 153/484
G crshom G. Scholcm, professor o f Jewish m ysticism, H ebrew University,
Jerusalem, and author of Major Trends in Jew ish Mysticism, Jerusalem, 1941.
‘Recollection, Indian Platonic’ and ‘on the One and Only Transmigrant’,
published as Supplements to the Journal o f the American Oriental Society,
LXIV, 1944.
‘Gradation and Evolution’, Isis, XXXV, 1944.
T o HELEN CHAPIN
Dcccmber 22, 1945
Dear Helen:
. . . I think you (like Aldous Huxley) arc much too much
afraid o f w hat you call “ sugar” ; and on the other hand, 1suspcct some tracc of “ sugar” in your “ love o f natu re” . O f
coursc, wc all “love nature”; but we don’t have to go so far asto exclaim tha t “ only God can make a tree” , as if he was not
ju st as in te rested in making fleas. Blake was “ afraid that
W ordsw orth w as fond o f na ture ” ; and as Eckhart says, “ to findnature (ie, natura naturans) as she is herself, all her forms m ust be
shattered.”
I sec no sugar in Ramakrishna! Bhakti in the Bhagavad Gita is
“ scrvice” (in the sense of giving to anyone w hat is their due,service as a servant) or “attendance”, rather than “love”
literally. “ Platonic love” is no t the love o f others “ for
them selves” , but o f w hat in them is divine, and as this isidentical w ith w ha t in us is divine, is ju st as much selflove (ie,
love o f Self) as love o f others; the notion o f “ I” and that o f
“others” is (as in Buddhism) equally delusive, and what we
need is not “altruism” but Selflove in the Aristotelian and in
the Scholastic sense.
Very sincerely,
Helen Chapin, Bryn M aw r College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ; see
table of contents for othe r letters.
Ramakrishna refers to the major nineteenth century Indian saint, and to the
accou nt o f his life and teaching, Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, New York.
Bhakti, usually translated as love or devotion (to God). For a classical Indian
exposition of bhakti, see Narada Bhakti Sutras, translated by SwamiTyagisanada, Madras, India, 1972.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 154/484
To LIGHT, LONDON
May 21, 1942
Sir,
Apropos o f the article on “ Reincarnation” by M rs RhysDavids and the leading article “O f Reb irth” in you r issue o f
January 8, 1942, and with special reference to the remark “InIndia it is a cardinal point o f H indu D og m a” , may I say that
while there is in India a doctrinc o f Transmigration (in the senseo f passage from states o f being to other states o f being),
Reincarnation (in the sense of the return o f individuals to
incarnation on earth) is not a Hindu doctrinc. The Hindu
doctrinc is, in the words of Sankaracarya that “There is noother transmigrant ( samsarin) but the Lord.” That this is the
teaching o f the U panishads and older texts could be amply
supported by many citations, and follows directly from the
position that our powers arc “merely the names of his acts”,
who is “the only seer, hearer, thinker, etc, in us”, and from the
view, common to Hinduism and Buddhism that it is the
greatest o f all delusions to consider “ I am the do er.” In
succcssive births and deaths it is Brahma, not “I”, that comes
and goes; “ goes” w hen wc “ give up the ghost” and as this spirit
“returns to God who gave it.” This is also the teaching of
Christ, w ho says that if we w ould follow h im w c m ust hate oursouls, and that “ no man has ascended into heaven save he who
came dow n from heaven, even the Son o f M an, which is
heaven.”
The transm igrating Lord occupies, indeed, bodies o f which
the character is casually and fatally determined, but he “never
becomes anyone” , and it fo llows that no one w ho is stillanyone can be “joined unto the Lord” so as to be “one spirit”.
For nothing that has had a beginning in time can come to be
immortal; if there is a way out it can only be in the realisationthat “I live, yet not I, but Christ (or Brahma, or by whateverother name wc speak o f God) in m e.”
Surely, before we discuss “Reincarnation” wc ought to besure that a doc trinc o f Reincarnation has been maintained by
anyone but the Thcosophists.AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 155/484
M rs A. F. R hys Davids, Surrey, England, D irector o f the Pali Te st Society.
The article in question had appeared in Light (Londo n), LXI1, N o 3182,
January 8, 1942.
T o RUTH CAMPBELL
January 6, 1938
Dear Miss Campbell:
Many thanks for your kind letter and the careful attention you
have given my article. I shou ld like to say first that y ou r “ office
dogs” missed the point as regards “transmigration”. What Isaid was that reincarnation was not taught and represented an
impossibility. This does not exclude the validity of metemp-
sychosis on the one hand (for which by the way, “Hermes”
uses migration, no t (rammigration) and o f transm igration on
the other. I had th ou gh t I made it very clear that transm igration
has nothing to do with time or place, but takes place entirely
“ w ithin y ou ” , and is from the periphery to the centre o f being.
I believe this is made so clear in the article that only a rereading
is required.As to the “editorial” problem, how would it be to print the
first part in smaller type with a footnote to the effect that the
reader may prefer to read the second part first. I feel myself that
to scatter the first part through the second would too much
inte rrupt the sequence o f ideas; and that on the other hand it isvery necessary to in some way set aside our notions of
“philosophy” before we can begin to grasp the philosophia
perennis, the theme o f which is rather pneumatological than psychological, and gnostic rather than epis temological.
I might add that a “limitation by Christianity” would not
stand in the w ay o f understanding, if this “ Christianity” were areal know ledge (o f Ch ristianity as understood by Dionysius,
Bonaventura, Thomas and Witelo, as well as Eckhart). Myexperiences of “Christians” is that it is very rare to meetw ith one w ho has any real conception o f w hat “ C hristianity”means.
Perhaps you would let me know your view on these notes.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 156/484
Ruth Campbell, assistant editor of The American Scholar (the Phi Beta Kappaquarterly), New York, USA.‘The Vedanta and the Western Tradition’, The American Scholar, VIII, 1939.
A n o n y m o u s
Date uncertain
Sir:
Apropos o f your remarks on Reincarnation in your issue of June 4, may I say that I am rather familiar with Plato, Plotinus, Philo, Hermes, etc, and that my writings abound with citations
from these authors. I share the view o f Rene Guenon that all apparent references to reincarnation o f the individual on this earth arc to be understood metaphorically. This was also the
view of Hierocles, stated in his Commentary on the Golden Versesof Pythagoras, V.53. Passages can be cited also from Christian and Islamic authors which appear to enunciate a doctrine o f reincarnation, yet cannot and do not really do so.
An adequate treatment o f the subjcct would take a large
book. It must first be realized that in the traditional philosophy our everyday life is not a being but a becoming, a perpetual dying and being reborn; that is one kind o f “reincarnation” . Then that from the same point o f view a man is “reborn” in his children, who will represent him when he himself has transmigrated elsewhere. And finally, that both the Vedanta, and in connection with the doctrinc o f “Recollection”, Plato maintained that it is not the individual soul, but the Universal Self that transmigrates, entering into every form o f existence whatever; in the words o f Sankara, “Verily, there is none but the Lord that transmigrates.” We cannot, in fact, even begin to discuss the problem until wc have arrived at some understand-
ing o f the question “Who and what am ‘I’?” Before we can ask whether or not “we” reincarnate or transmigrate, we must make it clear to which o f the “two selves”, mortal or immortal, that all traditions, whether Greek, Christian or Oriental assume to coexist in “us” , w e are referring. Most o f the Indian texts
that seem to speak o f a “reincarnation” are cither descriptive o f this present life, or any kind o f living, or rather o f the Life that is common to all things, and passes on from one to another
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 157/484
w ith absolute impartiality. T ha t is no t, o f course, to deny tha t a
laity, taking for granted an identity o f the individual soul
throughout life, have never assumed that this “soul” or
“personality” reincarnates; we simply mean to say thatsuch a
point o f view is unorthodox, w hether in West or East.
1canno t, o f course, agree with you that East is East and West
is West, as was said by K ipling, o f w ho m the late F. W. Bainremarked that “Hindu India was for him a book scaled with
seven seals.” There is, indeed, a gu lf dividing w hat is
“modern” from what is truly Oriental; but that is not a
geographical distinction, or one that could have been recog-
nized before the fourteen th century. All that Kipling m eant was
that he had never understood the East. M ay I com m end to you
Rene Guenon’s East and West, and in particular the chapterentitled “Agreement on Principles”? There are many different
ways o f saying the same thing, bu t [this] does not imply
contradictory truths. In your view, either the East or the West
m ust be all wro ng ; and that is only really true if we are
contrasting, not East and West, but the modern antitraditional
world with the traditional cultures based on universal princi-
ples.
A KC
T o PROFESSOR E. R. DODDS
June 19, 1942
Dear Professor Dodds:
M any thanks for you r letter o f May 8. I agree that P lato’s
“mortal soul” cannot be reincarnated. His “imortal soul” is
essentially the “ divine p art” o f us. If this perpetually reincar-nates it is in its universal aspect and ju st in the sense tha t for the
Vedanta, “God is the only transmigrator, forsooth” (Sankaraon Brahma Sutra 1.1.5, and supported by innumerable texts).
HenGe Katha Upanishad speaks of those who are liberated as“filled for embodiment in the worlds”—that would be in the
sense that for Plato “Soul” (not a soul) “governs all things”.But the divine extension which is temporally determined by agiven individuality (by association with a mortal psycho-
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 158/484
physical becoming) can be libera ted from its necessitas coactionis
and then operates only according to necessitas injallibilitatis, ie,its own nature as it is in itself.
If “ w e” can identify our consciousness o f being w ith it in this
free aspect, then “we” are liberated from “reincarnation” in
any pejorative sense. And finally, this is the absolute liberation: because the w orld process itself is part and parcel o f our way o f
thinkin g and from the eternal and divine poin t o f view is no t a
process but G od’s knowledge o f him self now evcr and apart
from the time that is a factor in any concept o f reincarnation.
I believe that this, and the related doctrine of anamnesis are
tw o points in which the agreement o f Plato and Vedanta is most
fundamental. Anamnesis, furthermore, makes pronoia intelligi-
ble; since it precisely an omnip re sence o f “ soul” (ie, “ spirit”) toall things that implies omniscience or “Providence” (Skr,
prajna, equivalent of pronoia etymologically and in meaning).
Sincerely,
E. R. D od ds, lecturer in classics, Un iversity College, Reading, and au tho r o f
Select Passage Illustrating Neoplatonism, London, 1923.
To H.G. RAWLINSON, CIE
December 6, 1946
Dear Rawlinson:
I think I am familiar with all the passages where dipa means
“ lam p” , or means “island”, or is amb iguous. The am biguity isno t im po rtan t at D .II. 101; the p oint is that atta-sarana viharatha
is an injunction to “ so walk as having Self for refuge” . C f S. III.
143, “Take refuge in the Self’; D.II. 120: “I (Buddha) have
made self my refuge; Vis, 393 and Vin 1. 23: “Seek for theS e lf’. Surely one does no t as a Bu ddhist resort to o r take refugein the com posite self “ that is not m y S el f’ (na me so atta,
passim).Besides all that, there are many contexts in which there is a
clear distinction o f the tw o selves: D h 380 (Self the L ord andGoal o f self); A. 1.149, 249, 4.9 (the Great or Fair, distingu ishedfrom the little or foul self); UdA 340 (Self identified w ith
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 159/484
Tathagata); J.6.2 53 (Self the C harioteer); also the many passages on being “ Self guarded” or “ Selfb lamed” , in all o fwhich cases one must remember that nil agit in seipsum.
I’m just now writing a longish piece on “reincarnation”,arguing that it was never anywhere a doctrine, but only a
popula r belief, bound up w ith belief in the Ego o f which theBu ddha denied the reality; in the case o f Buddhism , I agree
w ith scholars like T. W. Rhys Davids, B. C. Law, D. T.
Suzuki, etc, all o f w ho m deny that reincarnation was a
Bu ddh ist doctrine. Incidentally, the word itself does no t appear
in English before 1850, and it smacks o f “T heosop hy ” .
Very glad to hear you got over your illness.
Very sincerely,
H. G. Rawlinson, identified on p. 39.
“ Reincarnation” w as incomplete at the tim e o f A K C’s death and has not
been published.
To WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING
February 1942
Dear Professor Hocking:
Further with respect to reincarnation: while it would beimpossible to treat the whole subject adequately in a letter, it
does occur to me to say that very m any texts o f the
Upanishads, etc, only appear to assert a reincarnation (in thenow accepted sense o f the word) only because we have that
no tion in ou r minds. You will be able, o f course, to refer to
Bhagavad Gita 11.22, which I suppose most readers would thinko f as a statem ent abou t reincarnation. But observe that Platoand Eckhart use almost the same words, with respect to thenature o f this present life itself. T hus , Phaedo 87D, E: “eachsoul wears o ut m any bodies, especially if the man lives manyyears. For i f the bo dy is constantly, chang ing and being
destroyed while the man still lives, and the soul is alwaysweaving anew that which wears out, then when the soul perishes, it m ust necessarily have on its last garm ent” (the case
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 160/484
for the sou l’s not perishing resting, o f course, upon the fact that
it survives each o f these changes o f garment, and if so, w hy notthe last o f them?). And Eckhart (Pfieffer, p 530) “ A ug ht is
suspended from the divine essence; its progression is matter,
w herein the soul puts on new forms and puts o ff her old ones.
The change from one into the other is her death, and the onesshe dons she lives in ” . In H um e’s . . . Upanishads, he oftenassumes that the subject is “this man” when it is really “Man”,
and hence he thinks that we reincarnate, w hen really, as Sankara
says, “There is, in truth, no other transmigrant than the Lord.”
Very sincerely,
William Ernest H ocking was professor o f philosophy at Harvard University.
To WILLIAM RALPH INGE
Date uncertain
Dear Mr Inge:
As regards karma, literally act, “work”, it is most importantto recognize that this concep t has no inevitable connection with
the doctrine o f “ reincarnation” . Buddh ism does not differ from
other traditional religions in holding that “nothing happens by
chance”. That is, every happening has antecedent causes, and
becomes in its turn a cause o f subsequent events. Karma then,as implying hetu-vada, literally “aetiology” per se, involves
nothin g bu t a doctrine o f the invincible operation 'of “ mediate
causes” , and m igh t be described as ju st as much a Christian as
an Indian doctrine—just as also krtva = potentiality, and
krtatrtyah (Pali katam karanityam )= “all in act” . Perhaps as
good an enunciation o f karma as one could w ish for is St
Augustine’s “as a mother is pregnant with the unbornoffspring, so the w orld itse lf is pregn ant w ith the causes o f
unborn beings” (De Trin III.9; cf also St Th om Aquinas, Sum
Theol I. 115.2 ad 4).
If one believes in “ reincarna tion” , then o f course one thinks
o f it in term s o f this same causality that governs the presentlyobserved sequence o f events. B ut karma does no t presuppose“reincarnation” (as ordinarily understood). What Buddhist or
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 161/484
H indu liberation is “ from ” is precisely “ becom ing” , present or
future, ie, from mutability; body and soul (as also pointed out
by St Augustine) being mutable; and in accordance w ith the
w hole traditional philosophy for which the use o f the w ord“is”, implying being, is improper for anything that changes. In
precisely the same way fo r Buddhism , the body and the soulare “not my Self’.
Hence the necessity o f sclfnaughting (denegat seipsum) if one is
to “be oneSelf”—selfnaughting = Self realization. T he psycho-
physical personality , EG O , self, being subject to the operation
o f mediate causes, ie, “ fate” (cf St T ho m Aquin [Sum Theol
I—1.116, contra , 2] “ Fate is in the created causes thcmselves
. . . . fate is the ordering o f second causes to effects foreseen
by G od”). O nce the Ego illusions have been overcome, thew hole problem o f “ becom ing” , whether now or hereafter,
loses its meaning; explicitly, therefore, the Buddhist Arhant cannever ask: What was J? What shall I become? What am /? In
fact, for Christian and Islamic mystics equally, the words I, Is,
can p rope rly be said only o f God , and none else has any righ t to
say I am, though one may do so conventionally for purely
pragm atic purposes o f every day existence, but always w ith the
mental reservation that (as modern psychologists have alsorecognized) I is nothing but a postulate made for convenience
and reference to a sequence o f behaviours.
Sincerely,
William Ralph Inge, C V O , D D , w as Dean o f St Paul’s Cathedral. London,
H onorary Fellow o f Jesus College, Cam bridge; and o f Hertford College,
O xfo rd. He was a Lady Ma rgaret Professor o f Divinity at Cam bridge,
author of the two volume The Philosophy of Plotinus (London, 1923) and oneo f the m ost popu lar ecclesiastical w riters o f his day.
T o DONA LUISA COOMARASWAMY
1932
. . . The Rgveda teaches resurrection (in a glorified body),
no t reincarnation in the curren t sense of the word. It is doubtfulif “ reinca rnation” is taug ht even in Buddhism , w here it isexpressly emphasized that nothing (no thing) is carried over
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 162/484
from a past to a future existence, though the latter isdetermined by the former; ie, as far as births on earth are
concerned, it is another nama-rupa (individuality) that will reap
the rewards of our conduct. The expression “rebirth as ananim al” w ill then, for example, mean that if all men behaved in
a purely animal fashion, the result would be that in time,animals only would be born on earth, life as determined by
mediate causes (karma) would find none but animal expression
here.
Roughly speaking it is not the personality that is reincar-
nated, no t an individual but a type: Le roi est mort, vive le roi, not
Henry IV is mort, vive Henry IV. What is transmitted is not an
entity b ut a type o f energy (virya)-, practically, “seed”, as in
“ seed o f A b raham” . . . .
Do na Luisa Co om arasw am y, wife of AK C, spent two years in India
studying Hind i and Sanskrit. T he above was part o f a personal letter, from
which personal material has been deleted.
To WESLEY E. NEEDHAM
May 20, 1945
Deat Mr Needham:
M any thanks for letting m e see the readings. I agree with the
translation, except I would say “rite”, not “ceremony”. By no
means are all ceremonies rites, and while rites must be formal,
they need no t be ceremonious. I made m yself a copy, as thetransliteration will help with other Nepal texts.
I am afraid I distrust Theosophy as a whole, though in fact, I
had a high reg ard for M rs Besant personally. The no tion o f a personal physical rebir th is not orthodox Brahmanism or
original Buddhism, since there is no psychic constant “I” thatcould be reborn. I treat o f this briefly in my “ O ne and O nly
Transmigrant” ( J A O S Suppl 3, 1944, p 28), though a fullertreatment is needed. All scholars are agreed that a doctrine ofindividual physical rebirth is not Vedic, and this fact alone
should give one pause. I agree that some have been led toEastern thought through meeting with Theosophy, but the
best o f these have realized that they must go to the sources
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 163/484
themselves sooner or later. I am sure you will not mind my
stating m y exact position in the m atter, even if you differ!
Very sincerely,
Mr Wesley Needham, West Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To WILLIAM RALPH INGE
February 15, 1947
Dear Dean Inge:
It so happens that I am writing a book on “Reincarnation”.In your admirable work on Plotinus, I find the extraordinary
statement that in India there was “no deliverance from rebirth
(and) hence the Budd hist revolt against the do ctrine.” T he first
part o f this phrase seems to me to be entirely meaningless; andas regards the second, while it is true that in early Buddhism, it
is taught that reincarnation is not an ultimate truth, but only a
fa(on de parler bound up w ith the animistic belief in the reality o f
the mutable “self’; this cannot be called a “revolt”. I had towrite the little footnote that is attached.
I do feel that one oug ht n ot to speak at all of oth er religions
than one’s ow n unless one has a knowledge o f their scriptures
com parable to that w hich one has o f one ’s ow n. Th is is
especially true as regards Indian religions, where one who does
not read Sanskrit or Pali has to rely on translations made by
scholars who are themselves usually nominalists and rational-ists, quite ignorant o f the technical terms o f theolog y and
metaphysics. The result o f relying on them is only to add to the
already too prevalent misunderstandings. In my own writings,in which I constantly correlate India, etc, doctrines with
Christian, what I say is based on reading the Christian sourcesin Latin and Greek, and never on what nonChristians mayhave said “about” Christianity. Do you not think thatChristian writers ought to feel a similar responsibility whenspeaking of the teachings of other religions?
Footnote: As regards your question, whether the concept ofRegeneration (transformation, resurrection or other equivalent
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 164/484
phrasing) is absent from any Eastern religion, I could only
answer “ N o ” for Islam, H induism and Buddhism, so far as my
positive knowledge goes. But it w ould certain ly surp rise me ifthis idea could be show n to be or have been wan ting anyw here,
even in “primitive religions”.
I kn ow my letter was strongly worded ; still, it could be that,even i f it gave you a “shock” , that m ight have its uses; a shock
is perhaps ju st w hat m ost Christians need at the present day.
Anyhow, many thanks for your kind and gentle reply. And
incidentally, I am sending you a little boo k o f mine, ju st out,
and in which som e o f these matters are touch ed on.
What I say above, by the way, docs not exclude the
possib ility o f m akin g sincere mistakes in one’s positive
interpretation o f the doctrines o f another form o f religion; forexample, Bernard Kelley tells me I somewhat misinterpretedthe Christian m eaning o f “ transubstantiation” ; in reply, I told
him by all means to correct m e in his review. And as I have also
said before, I natu rally agree that the necessity for a confutation
o f heresies m ay arise anywhere; as the cthym ology o f the w ord
is, o f thinking wha t one likes to think instead o f the sometimes
hard things that one ought to think.
Very sincerely,
William Ralph Inge, identified p. 126.
Bernard Kelley, identified p. 20.
Figures o f Speech or Figures o f Thought, London, 1946.
To BERNARD KELLY
February 10, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Yours o f 4.2.46 with two citations from Hinduism and
Buddhism. As regards “the universal is real, the particularunreal”, I don’t think we need have much trouble. I wasequating reality with being. So I mean what St Augustine
means w hen he says o f created things that Te comparata nec pulchra, nec bona, nec sunt. Such being as they have, such realitytherefore, is by participation, not o f themselves. “Exis-
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 165/484
tent” = ex alio sistens. Again Augustine (Conf VII. 11): essequidem, quoniam abs te sunt, non esse autem, quoniam id quod es nonsunt. Moreover, at least “in so far as men are sinners, they have
not being at all” (St Thom, Sum Theol 1.20.2 and 4). The
general principle I have in mind is that things that are always
changing (like body and soul), St Augustine, Sermo 241 2.2;3.3, cf Conf 7.11: “that trully is, which doth immutably
rem ain”— it cannot be said o f them that they are.Secondly, on the question w hether the imm ortality o f a
created soul is conceivable. I had supposed that is an in-
violable axiom, that “whatever has a beginning must have an
end”, also that mutability and mortality are inseparable—“all
change is a dying” (Plato, Eckhart, etc). So we attribute
immutability, immortality, and no beginning to God. My point in saying “ im possib le” w ould be that G od cannot do
anyth ing con trary to his ow n nature, and that to accuse H im (as
I shou ld express it) o f making anything at a given time that
should not also end in time would amount to a kind of
blasphemy, based on a false in te rpreta tion o f the principle that
“all things arc possible with God”, which possibility does not
actually include selfcontradiction, such as would be involved
if, for example, wc thoug ht o f H im as making things that have been not have been.
If the “ soul” (as St Augustine and the Buddha say) is
mutable, never selfsame from moment to moment, what can
one mean by “its” immortality? What is “it”? Surely, like my
own personal name, only a word which conveniently summa-
rizes a sequence o f chang ing behaviour and experiences. I have
always, o f course, in m ind the trinity o f bod y, soul and spirit;
the latter is the Spirit o f God that becom es the spirit o f man (St
T hom Aquinas, sum Theol 1.38.2) which we “give up when we
die” (as Ps 104, 29; Eccl 12, 7). W hen Jesus died he “ gave up the
ghost” (John 19, 30), and so do other men (Acts V.5 etc). If,then, we w ould be imm ortal, we m ust be born again o f theSpirit, “ and that w hich is born o f the Spirit is Spirit” (John III,3—8, c f I C o r VI, 17); in the m ean time ou r con tinued existencedepends on the continued presence o f the G iver (StBonaventura I Sent d 37, p 1, al, conc). As in Prasna Upanishad
V I.3: it is a question o f “ in w ho m shall I be departing” (inmyself, or in the Self of the self, or Soul of the soul). I do notneed to tell you that psyche and psychikos are generally speaking
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 166/484
pejo rative te rms in the N ew Testament, or that the W ord of Godextends to “ the severing o f soul from Spirit” . I could quo te
much more, but in sum I cannot see what authority there is for
the supposition that anything created can never cease‘to exist;
and if you could point to one, it wou ld irrevocably show that
the truths o f reason and the truth o f Christian revelation cannever be reconciled, which for me would be a horrible
conclusion, since I hold that both are from Him.
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England; identified on p. 20.
To DR P. F. VAN DEN DAELE
September 30, 1946
Dear Sir:
I appreciate your inquiry, but I suppose I must say that 1
cannot agree with your philosophy. I certainly hold with theTraditional philosophy that “nothing in the world happens by
chance” . I can only think about free will on the basis o f thetraditional doctrine duo sunt in homine (Ego and Self, Outer and
Inner Man), which doctrine is presupposed in all such
expressions as “selfcontrol”, “selfgovernment”, “be your-
self’; these imply the duality because one and the same thing
cannot be both active and passive at one and the same time in
the same relations. For me, free will means willingness to obey
the dictates o f the inner man, whateve r the likes or dislikes of
the outer man might drive him to “choose” or “prefer”.As to whether phenomena are “illusions” depends a good
deal on w hat w e mean by “ illusions” . It must be adm itted that
things are not always what they seem to be, and in such cases
(the skeptic and Vedantic example being that o f the rope
mistaken for a snake) the phenom enon as it presents itself iscertainly illusory. It has always been recognized, too, that because o f the ceaseless change that all things in tim e and space
und ergo , it cannot be truly said that they are, but only that they become. The w ord phenom ena always implies an “o f” ;appearances, but “ o f w hat?” A ny reality the phenomena have
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 167/484
m ust derive from the reality o f that “o f w hich ” the phenomena
are the appearances. “Evolution”, too, involves the question,
“unfolding of what?”On this subject see my article in the currcnt issue of Main
Currents (“Gradation, Evolution and Reincarnation”). On the
whole, I think it best that I return your booklets.
Very sincercly,
Dr P. F. van Den Daele, D. C. Battle Creek, Michigan, USA, had written
to AKC to enlist his support for his ‘new philosophy’, the ‘Absolute and
Relative Philosophy’, which among other points held that ‘phenomena in all
their endless variations are not illusions but a grand reality. . .’, and that
‘chancc is not an unscientific concept, but that it plays an important part in
the vast dram a o f evolution thro ug ho ut this entire universe. . . .’‘Gradation, Evolution and Reincarnation’, Main Currents in Modern Thought,
IV, 1946; reprinted in Blackfriars, XXVII, 1948.
To BERNARD KELLY
April 9, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
. . . As regards “ soul” , surely it will depend on which o f thesenses in w hich the w ord is used whethe r or not it be anathema
to deny its imm ortality. O ne cannot overlook that the W ord o f
God “extends to the sundering o f soul from Spirit” (Heb
IV, 12). Now, it is God “who only hath immortality” (I Tim
VI, 16). C an, therefore, anything b ut “ the Spirit o f God (that)
dw ellcth in yo u” (I C or III, 16) be imm ortal? This Spirit is the
Psych opom p; surely there is no hope o f imm ortality for thesoul as such, bu t only if she dies and is reborn in and o f the
Spirit? When St Paul says “I live, yet not I, but Christ [liveth] in
m e” he is expressly denying himself, and one can associate “ his”immortality with the saying “no one hath ascended intoheaven, save he which came down from heaven, even the Son
o f (the) M an w hich is in heaven ” . So, while there is a sense inwhich one can speak o f m an ’s “ imm ortal sou l” , I think tha t in
view o f the fact that m en arc mo st unconscious o f theam biguity o f the w ord psyche and still more unaware of the pejo ra tive im plications o f the w ord psychikos, and the fact that
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 168/484
in these days men are only too ready to be “lovers o f their ownselves” (II Tim 111, 2), it is much safer to think and speak of
ou r souls as mortal, and to think only o f the “g ho st” that we“give up” at death as immortal. This Spirit is that in us which
knows, and cannot pass away. It is diversified by its accidents
(naturing) in Tom, Dick and Harry, but “ye are all one inC hris t” . The Spirit is not even hypo thetically destructible.
I am so glad to know that after your 18 month’s “grind” you
are now really enjoying its fruits. It is, indeed, absolutely
indispensable to learn to th ink in Sanskrit to some extent, ie, to
be able to use certain te rms directly, w ithout putting them onto
English “ equivalents”, no one o f which can com municate their
full content; and as soon as one can do this (however many
“aids” one still needs in continuous reading) one begins at onceto see a great deal that had otherwise been overlooked.
I have been losing time lately by a cold that saps one’s
energy; and besides that is seems impossible to cope with halfthe things I ought to be doing.
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England, identified p. 20.
To PROFESSOR JOSEPH L. MCNAMARA
May 7, 1943
Dear' D r M cNamara:
M any thanks for your letter and appreciation. As to the mainquestion, is it no t one o f the relation o f the On e to the Many?As to this, “He is one as he is in himself, but many as he is his
children.” Put down a dot on paper; assume it to be the centreo f a circle. Ev iden tly the radii o f such a circle cannot be w itho ut
the centre, but it can be without them, both before they aredrawn and after they are rubbed out; evidently, then, the radiiare less “essential” than the centre in which all participate.
Individuality, the psychophysical entity, is a process ratherthan an essence. It includes “consciousness”, ic, perception,etc. All this is a means, not an end in itself (is it not so, indeed,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 169/484
in our own experience, whenever a man “devotes” himself
entirely to any end beyond this se lf s advantage?) In this sense,
“individuality” would appear to persist throughout the states
o f being “ und er the sun ” , ie, w ithin the cosmos; it always
implies som e degree o f limitation, o f course. What it means to
be free o f all such limitation is “ ineffable” ; but a becoming more
cannot be equated with an annihilation o f the original less. It is
the same awareness o f being that says “ J am ” , and that having
outgrown that stage can say “J am (“yet not ‘I’, but . . .”).
The individuality becomes an evil only when we make it an
end in itself, rather than a tool or means to the Inner Man who
“wears” it. When it serves him, like a well trained horse, or as
in the pup pet symbolism, then indeed one can think o f it as
“ sanctified” ; and each o f the tw o selves “ lends its e lf ’ to theother.
As to “ reb irth” . If we are thinking o f births on this earth
and in general, we can only say that reb irth is o f the imm anent
Self, the ultimate reality of every man’s Inner man. But you
have the individual in mind. This individual dies and is reborn
every moment, and by analogy should be reborn after the
special case that w e call death o r decease. I f so, still as an
individual, until the regular process of rising “ on stepping
stones o f ou r dead selves” leaves us w ith awareness o f being the
Self itself o f all beings— the last “ reb irth” (“ regeneration”).
This is no t, o f course, a complete answer. “ N ob od y” is a
“ bo dy ” o f which no thing can be affirmed; free from all lim iting
affirmations (de-ftni-tions). I think the surviving “identity” towhich you “ cling” is simply that o f the valid and indefeasible
awareness o f essence—“ Th at art tho u” , w here art impliesessence.
I felt a little prejudice against Th e Return o f the Hero, at first,as being a literary treatm en t o f traditional material, the work o f
a “literateur”. But I think it is beautifully done, and like it; it
seems to m e a legitimate “ developm ent” o f the material,without distortion; and there is much excellent doctrine voiced
by Oisin , whose account o f Tirnanog is as good a “ descrip-
tion” o f heaven as one could have g ot (where all descriptionmust be symbolic). Thanks for sending it.
In the May C A T . . . sent you, do read Margaret Mead. . . .
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 170/484
Jospch L. McNamara, Roslindale, Massachusetts, USA.The Return of the Hero, a novel by Darrell Figgis, New York, 1930.C A T = Catholic Art Journal.
ANONYMOUS
Date uncertain
Sir:
In the July issue o f JP, p 371, Karl Schmidt referring to the expression “master o f m yself’ implies that this is an inexplicit and indeterminate conception. It is, on the contrary, explicit in the traditional philosophy that there are two in us, and what
they arc. I need only cite Plato, Republic 604D; IiCor IV, 16, isqui forts est\ St Thomas Aquinas, Sum Theol IIII.26.4, in homitteduo sunt, scilicet natura spiritualis et natura corporalis; and call to mind the Indian (Brahmanical and Buddhist) doctrine o f the two selves, mortal and immortal, that dwell together in us. In all these literatures the natures and character o f the two selves arc treated at great length, and the importance o f the resolution
of their inner conflict emphasized; no man being at pcace with
himself until an agreement has been readied as to which shall rule. In this philosophy w e are unfrec to the extent that our willing is determined by the desires o f the outer man, and free to the extent that the outer man has learnt to act, not for himself, but as the agent o f the inner man, our real Self.
It is hardly true, then to propound that “The saying does not comit itself* to the statement that there arc two in us, or explain what these two are. Further, innumerable phrases still current in English preserve the doctrine of the two selves; for example, such as “self-control”, “self-composure”, “conscience” , “self-possession” . It is in connection with “self- government” that Plato points out that there must be two in us; since the same thing cannot function both actively and passively at the same time and in the same connection.
Yours very truly,
The two passages that follow are taken from AKC’s manuscript notes or from other letters, and are included here for the bearing they have on “ the two in us.”
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 171/484
We are never told that the mutable soul is im m orta l in the sameway that God is immortal, but only “in a certain way”(secundum quemdam modum, St Augustine, Ep 166, 2131).
Quomodo? “in one way only, viz, by continuing to become;
since thus it can always leave behind it a new and other natureto replace the old” Plato, Symposium, 207D). It is incorrect to
speak o f the soul indiscriminately as “ im m orta l” , ju st as it is
incorrect to call anyone a genius; man has an immortal soul, as
he has a Genius, but the soul can only be immortalised by
returning to its source, that is to say by dying; and man
becomes a Genius only when he is no longer “h im self’.
With respect to the word “soul” (psyche, anima, Heb nefes)
translated sometimes by “life” ( Luke XIV, 26, “and hate nothis own life also”; John XII, 25: “Hatcth his own life in theworld”). Do not forget that this world usually denotes “the
animal sentient principle only” (Strong, Concordance, Gk
dictionary, p 79) and is sharply to be distinguished from the
“Spirit” (pneuma), spiritus, Heb ruah, as in Heb XIV, 12: “the
dividing asunder o f soul and spirit” . In place of the w ord
“spirit” can be used such expressions as “ Soul o f the soul” (so
Philo); the word “soul” is ambiguous, and before the usage
became precise we often find “ soul” employed (as in Plato)
where “spirit” must be understood. In any case, one mustalways consider the context; in general the Gospels are not at all
enthusiastic about the kind o f soul that the psycholo gis t is
concerned abou t, and Ju ng ’s “man in search o f a sou l” is
looking for something that the religions want to have done
with once and for all.
To THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
1939
Sir:
. . . no valid distinction can be drawn between jiv an-m ukti
and videha mukti. . . . That “deliverance can be obtained in the
earthly life as in every other state” docs not mean that it is with“earthly mindways” that perfection can be obtained; it meansthat these can be discarded now. “That art thou” was never said
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 172/484
o f “this man” as he is in himself. And i f the bodily functions of the vimutto persist, this is a “reality” rather for others than for him, who is no longer “alive” in the common sense, but much rather Rumi’s “dead man walking.”
The latter excerpt was part of a letter of AKC in response to a commu-nication from Mrs C. A. F. Rhys David; see journal of the American Oriental Society, vol LXIX, pp. 11011, for the full exchange.
To FATHER MARTIN C. D’ARCY, SJ
April 20, 1947
Dear Father D ’Arcy:
Writing recently to a Roman Catholic friend in England, I
expressed m yse lf as very much disappointed in your Mind and Heart of Love not only becausc it treats the subject only from the
standpoint o f the European tradition, ignoring the enormous
Sufi and Indian literature on the subject (let me mention only
Dara Shikuh’s equation o f ‘ishqwith maya, and Rumi’s “What
is love? Thou shalt know when thou becomest me'*!) but more especially with reference to Chapter VII, “ Anima and Animus”, m which the traditional values o f these terms are completely ignored, which seemed to me very strange in a Jesuit author. You begin with a ridiculous parable from Claudel, who is nothing but a pseudomystic, and has no idea o f the correct use of theological terms. For anima and animus, William of Thierry’s Golden Epistle, pp 50 and 51, is a good source; he
says, eg, “For while it is yet
anima, it lightly becometh
effeminate, even to being fleshy, but animus ttel spiritus hath no thoughts o f anything save o f the manly and the spiritual”, and also that this mens vel spiritus is precisely the imago Dei in us. For the terms anima and animus earlier, see Cicero, De nat deorumIII. 14, 36; Acad II.7.22; Tusc 1.22.52, Cum igitur nosce te dicit, hocdicit , nosce animum tuum, and V. 13.38: Cum decerptus ex mentedivina. Also Accidius, Trag 296, Sapimus animo, fruima anima, sine animo, anima est debilis. Jung, o f course, uses the terms in a
special way o f his own, not incorrect in itself, but not in accordance with the traditional meanings.
Obviously, the animus vel spiritus is the “Soul o f the soul” (a
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 173/484
phrase th at fo r Philo and the Sufus often paraphrases “ spirit” )
[and] is the pro pe r object o f Selflove, as in St Tho m asAquinas, Sum Theol IIII.26.4: “ a man ou t o f charity, oug ht to
love h im se lf more than he loves any oth er person . . .’ more
than his neighbour.”
Th is tradition o f true Selflove (the antithesis o f Selflove = selfishness) runs back to Aristotle, Plato, and Euripides(Helen 999); in the East, cf Brhadaranyaka Upanishad IV.5, for
which there is an exact parallel in Plato, Lysis 219D 220B.
Th at you ignore the traditional meanings o f the terms animus and
anima seems to m e to take all the sense out o f your dep recation
o f “wissenschaftliche distinctions” on p 16, and seems to me to
show that such distinctions cannot be ignored w ithou t resultant
confusion, such as one sees in Claudel, in whose parable anima’ sSECRET LOVE CAN ONLY BE THE WORL D1.
I cannot but wonder, too, where you get your information
abo ut the sw astika (p 50) “ as an emb lem o f resignation ” ; such
rash statements ought never to be made without full discussion
and c itation o f authorities, if any. The swastika is a solarsymbol. Also on p 189, you confuse suttee (a formal sacrifice)
w ith m ere suicide, which last is condem ned by all traditions; cf
Evola, Rivolta contra il mondo moderno, chapter on “Uomo e
donna”.
Yours very sincerely,
Father M artin D ’Arcy, S J, som etime m aster o f Ca m pion Hall, O xfo rd and
later head o f the Jesuits in En gland. In his day, he was on e o f the m ore
popula r ecclesiastical auth ors , and w rote The Mind and Heart o f Love,
London, 1947. Paul L. Claudel, French poet and diplomat.
Rivolta contro il mondo moderno, Jacques Evola, 1934. This chapter wastranslated by Zlata Llamas (Dona Luisa) Coomarawamy, AKC’s wife,
and pub lished as ‘M an and W om an ’ in The Visva-Bharati Quarterly, vol V, pt
iv, FebA pril 1940, w ith a brie f introd uctio n by A KC.
William o f St Thierry, The Golden Epistle o f Abbot William o f St Thierry,
translated by Walter Shewring, and published in 1930.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 174/484
T o FATHER MARTIN C. D’ARCY, SJ
May 2, 1947
Dear Father D ’Arcy:
Many thanks for your kind letter in reply to mine. I read it very carefully. As regards the main point, I cannot but retain my strong objection to the use of established terms in new senses; at the least, unless the writer makes it perfectly dear that he knows what he is doing, and states in so many words that he is using the terms in a new sense. Thus when Jung calls animathe “soulimage” as envisioned by men and animus the “soulimage” as envisaged by women, he has a right to express his concept, but not the right to use these terms in a way that distorts their wellknown meanings, according to which—man consisting of body, soul and spirit— animais “soul” and animus “spirit”.
When you say you were aware of this, but “could not acccpt” the traditional usage, would it not have been better to make this clear, instead o f leaving the reader to wonder whether or not you were aware—as Claudel, whom you seem
to quote with approval, certainly cannot have been. It seems to
me that if you are writing as a priest, you have no right to say you “cannot accept” the terms o f traditional theology; that you might do if writing as an independent psychologist, expressing individual opinion. I am not a priest, still I will not take such liberties; where there is a consensus o f doctrine on the part of philosophers and theologians throughout many ccnturics, and in the diverse traditions, I regard it as primary business to understand, and in turn to write as an exegctc, concerned with
the transmission o f true doctrine. In any case, it is only when one adheres to the precise meanings o f theological terms both in East and West that one can make any valid or fruitful comparisons.
I quoted Cicero, not as a primary source, but as illustrating usage. In your reply, you do not take notice o f my further citation o f William o f Thierry, whose usage is the same and whose expressions are animus vel spiritus, and mens vel spiritus. When St Thomas Aquinas says that it is a man’s primary duty, in charity, to love himself, ie, his Inner Man (or as Philo and Plato would have said, the “Man in this man”), this is the same
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 175/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 176/484
Christian literature in which the Godhead is spoken o f as a “desert”, or nihill). Nirvana, then, is spoken o f as “annihila-
tion”, regardless o f the fact that it was a state realized by the Buddha when a comparatively young man, and that he lived a long, full and active life for very many years thereafter. If he
refused to define the nature o f the being or nonbeing after death o f one who like himself had realized Nirvana in this life (the word means literally “despiration” and implies what Angelus Silesius meant by his “Stirb ehe du stirbst ”, and Muhammed by his “Die before you die”) it is because, as a Christian might have expressed it, such are “dead and buried in the Godhead”, or “their life is hid in God”; of Whom, in accordance with the via negativa, nothing true can be said except negatively.
Nirva (the verb) corresponds to . . . the tw o
English senses o f the expression “to be finished”, all perfection involving a kind o f death, inasmuch as the attainment of beingimplies the cessation o f process o f becoming, and in the same way that for one who is “all in fact” there is nothing more that “need be done”. Further, Nirvana has applications even in “secular” contexts: thus a woman’s marriage to an ideal husband is referred to as a “nirvana”; in this case, the “death” is
that o f the maiden who is no more, ie, has “died” as such, when
she enters into the new state o f being, that o f woman and wife. So too in the successive stages of the training of a royal stallion (a common analogy of the training of a disciple), each is referred to as a nirvana, until finally the colt is no more and the stallion remains. I have given this example at length because it very well illustrates the absolute necessity of knowing the original sources if one is to cite the technical terms of another religion than one’s own. I follow this rule myself, and hardly
ever quote translations (even of the New Testament) from Greek without considering the original text and the usage of the terms in question in other contexts.
As regards the svastika , I think it a pity that you quoted King on the subject at all; it is a good thing that you did not use the svastika as a symbol o f “passive love” . Incidentally, his queer spellings of Indian words (Saeti for Sakti, Vichnaivas for Vaishnavas) are an indication o f the vagueness o f his scho-larship.
I shall send on your letter, or a copy, to my R. C. friend whom I spoke of. He has learnt Sanskrit recently for the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 177/484
purpose o f makin g m ore accurate corre la tion w ith Chris tian
doctrines, and tells me how much more he now finds in the Bhagavad Gita than he has been able to get from any translation.
On the whole, I am inclined to think that in the interests of
truth (and that concerns us all, since “Truth” has been a name
o f God alike in Christianity, Islam, H induism and Buddhism )one should refrain from making any, especially any pejorative
statements about “other religions” unless one knows their
literature a lmost as well as one kn ow s those o f one ’s own.
Very sincerely,
Father M artin Cy ril D ’Arcy, S. J., as above.
To FATHER MARTIN C. D’ARCY, SJ
May 27, 1947
Dear Father D ’Arcy:
It is no d ou bt true tha t w e take different views o f the full
meaning o f the wo rd “ tradition” , but this wou ld not affect the
criticism I had to make o f you r use of the term s Anim a and A nim us; my point there had to do only with the Western, ie,classical and Christain tradition, and in fact, with what might
be called the lexicographical tradition. M y objection was also to
you r use o f Claudel, and citations from King, both o f w ho m I
can only regard as “misty” mentalities.
I must confess that I see no difficulty whatever in under-standing the two contrasting senses in which the expression
“selflove” is used, in classical, Christain and Eastern contextsequally.
W hat I do no t understand is how you can form a judg em en to f the validity o f my “equivalents” , unless you are, as I am,
familiar with both original sources and contexts. I am quite awareo f the necessity for distinguishing betw een real and apparent“equivalents”; nevertheless, the latter are far too many to beignored. Moreover, no one denied that there are some truths
enunciated in other than the Christian religion—and as StAmbrose says, “Whatever is true, by whomsoever it has been said, is from the H oly G hos t” , and St Th om as A quinas (I I Sent disp
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 178/484
28, q i, a 4 and 4) grants the possibility o f a divine inspiration even o f “barbarians”.
I know there is nothing to be gained by treating these problems as a matter o f argument between ourselves. What seems to me clear, however, is that an Oriental scholar seeking
further information about the Christian doctrine o f love could not safely rely on what you have said.
I duly sent a copy o f your first letter to my R. C. friend in England and will only quote from his reply:
Consulting experts on Eastern thought will not do. One should be ashamed to speak about a tradition with scriptures as ancient as one’s own without a thorough familiarity with originals. Otherwise one’s only valid line—and theologically
it can be very useful—is to show why such and such a conception (whether or not anyone really uses it in the way one thinks) is wrong.
This was, approximately, the point o f the latter part o f my
preceeding letter.
Martin Cyril D’Arcy, SJ, as above.
Bernard Kelly, identified p. 20.
To FATHER GERALD VANN, OP
July 12, 1947
Dear Brother Vann:
Many thanks for your kind letter and the book. There is little or nothing in the latter I cannot agree with, or could not support from other sources, beginning with the praise of what St Thomas Aquinas calls the best form of the activc life, teaching, and all that Plato means by the illuminated philo-sopher’s duty to return to the cave—in action—but otherwise minded than before. Apropos o f the “Eternal N ow ” (p 193), I think my Time and Eternity (an exposition o f the doctrine from
Greek, Indian, Islamic and Christian sources) will interest you. I hcartedly agree with your “Remember the Mass . . . blessed” (on p 140). The Mass is like the Vedic sacrifice, a symbolic
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 179/484
personal immolation; and th ough it was undertaken only by the
three upper castes, it was not for their own good alone, for:
As hungry children sit around
About their mother here in life,
E'en so all beings sit aroundThe Agnohotra sacrifice.
Chandogya upanishad V.24.4
For, indeed, the creatures who may not take part in Sacrifice
arc forlorn; and therefore he makes those creatures here on
earth that are not forlorn, take part in it: behind the men are
the beasts, and behind the Gods arc the birds, the plants and
the trees; and thus all that here exists is made to participate in
the sacrifice.Satapatha Brahmana 1.5, 2.4
I am glad you have nothing to say in this book about other
religions” , o f w hich so few Christian apologists have any
firsthand knowledge. In exegesis, I think one should cite other
traditions only when one knows them firsthand, and only
when they throw light on the point to be made. My Roman
Catholic friend in England who has learnt Sanskrit lately
expressly in o rder to see for him self w hat is really said in theSanskrit scriptures writes to me (and here I agree with him
heartily):
Consulting experts on Eastern thought will not do. One
should be ashamed to speak about a tradition with scripturesas ancient as one’s own without a thorough familiarity with
originals. Otherwise one’s only valid line—and theologically
it can be very useful—is to show why such and such a
conception (whether or not anyone really uses it in the wayone thinks) is wrong.
It m ust always be bo rne in m ind that the greater part o f the
“experts” have been rationalists who, however learned, do notknow the language in which to express the metaphysical
conceptions to which, indeed, they are antagonistic by tem- peram ent and train ing.
There are some other Christian apologists who, like Father
D ’Arcy, SJ (Mind and Heart o f Love, ch vii) even make a hash oftheir ow n term inology . I am referring ta Father D ’A rcy’s abuseo f the terms anima and animus, and his citation as au tho rity such
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 180/484
pscudomystics as Claudel. Jung, too, misuses these terms, though in a better way, since he has something to say with his new meanings. Wilhelm in The Secret of the Golden Flower uses them correctly. I feel that all exegesis and apology demands the most scrupulous scholarship of which one is capable; since the
ultimate subject is One to whom the Christian and so many other religions have given the name of “Truth” .
Very sincerely,
Father Gerald Vann, OP, Blackfriars’ School, Laxton. England.
The Divine Pity, London, 1947.
The Secret o f the Golden Flower, Richard Wilhelm and Ca rl G. Jung , London,
1932.
To BERNARD KELLY
April 9, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
I just obtained a copy o f D’Arcy’s Mind and Heart of Love, and
must say that 1 find it disappointing, not to say even a little “nasty”, as well as ignorant (not only o f eastern matters) in a way surprising indeed for a Jesuit. I say this more especially with reference to Chapter vii, Animus and Anima; he begins with a ridiculous parable from Claudel, who is nothing but a pscudomystic and quite ignorant o f the traditional values o f the terms animus and anima, for which William o f St Thierry’s Golden Epistle, 50, 51, is the best source. William says “For
while it is yet anima, it lightly bccomcth effeminate, even to being fleshy; but animus vel spiritus hath no thoughts of anything save o f the manly and the spiritual”; and this mens vel spiritus is precisely the imago Dei in us. Obviously then, the animus is the “ Soul o f the soul”, the proper object o f true Self love as in St Thomas Aquinas, Sum Theol IIII.26.4: “a man, out o f charity, ought to love himself more than he loves any other person . . . more than his neighbour”, and the tradition of Self love running back to Aristotle, Plato and Euripides in
the West; and as in BU IV.5, for which there is a very close parallel in Lysis 219D—220B. I do not know whether the actual use of the terms anima and animus can be traccd further back
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 181/484
than Ciccro, De nat deorum III. 14.36 (cf Acad II.7.22, animus as
the seat o f “ perceptions” , ie, scientific concepts). Jung , o f
course uses the terms in a special way, not incorrect in itself,
but at the same time not in accordance with the traditionalmeanings. D ’Arcy seems quite unaw are o f all this, and this
makes nonsense o f his deprecation o f "wissenschaftliche distinc-
tions” , p 16). In other words, he is not transm itting dogm a, but
merely thinking sloppily.Turning to our own affairs, as regards the Trinity: Eckhart
calls this an “ arrang em ent” o f God, and indeed I can only think
o f it as one o f many possible formu lations o f “ relations” in
God. Moreover, the doctrinc is strictly speaking smriti rather
than sruti. Also, I cannot quite see how the U nity o f the Th ree
docs no t, in a sense, m ake a fourth ” , ie, a O ne as logicallytranscending the Trinity with reference to which St Thomashim self says “ Wc cannot say ‘the only G od ’, because deity is
com m on to several” . I think the closest com parisons m ust be
based on M U IV .4,5 (Agni, Vayu, Aditya as forms o f Brahm a
or Purusha).
Kindest regards,
Bernard Kelly, identified p. 20.
BU = Brhadaranyaka Upanishad MU = Maitri Upanishad Sruti = the highest degree o f revelation in Hinduism, knowledge by
identification. The Vedas, including the Upanishads, are considered sruti. Smriti = a low er degree o f revelation, from reflection on the sruti; among
such texts arc the Epics and usually the Bhagavad Gita. Analogous rank ings in
Christianity would be the Gospels (sruti) and the Pauline Epistles (smriti).
T o BERNARD KELLY
August 6, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
Yours o fju ly 16 :1have had in m ind to w rite on the “ Use andAbuse o f the terms anima and animus”, but 1) I must not
undertake any new tasks, but conserve energy to finish one’s begun (doctor’s orders!), and 2) I th ink you could do it better. Ithink it would be useful to do this, rather than w rite a critique
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 182/484
of D ’Arcy in a more general way. But you would have to read and refer to D ’Arcy’s Ch vii at least. I now add such references as I have come across, under the two headings o f use and absue:
USE: W o f Thierry, Golden Epistle 50, 51, animus vel spiritus and
mens vel animus-, Augustine, De ordine 1.1.3, qui tamen ut senoscat, magna opus habet consuetudine recendi a sensibus (corporali bus), to be added from the Retractio, et animum in seipsumcolligendi atque in seipso retinendi\ probably derived from Cicero, Tusc 1.22.52, neque nos corpora sumus. Cum igiture nosce te dicit , hoc dicit, nosce animum tuum: cf 5.13.38, humanus animus decerptus ex mente divina\ Varro, Men 32, in reliquo corpore ab hoc fente
diffusa est anima, hinc animus ad intelligentiam tributus (cf pene
passages cited in Rgveda 10.90.1.. . .); Enneads 3.8.10; Ruys brock, Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, c 35; Epictetus, 3.8.18; Shamsi-Tabriz, Ode XII in Nicholson, 1938; Philo, Prov 1.336 . . .; Det 83 . . .; Fug 1.95f and 182; Enneads 6.8.9. Accidius, Trag 296, sapimus animo, fruimur anima, sine animo, anima est debilis; Epicurus, De rer nat , C 3: “N ow I say that Mind (animus) and Soul (anima) are held in union one with the
other, and form of themselves a single nature, but that the head, as it were, and Lord in the whole body is the counsel
(consilium) that we call Mind (animus) or Understanding (mens). . . . The rest o f the Soul (anima), spread abroad throughout the body, obeys and is moved at the will and inclination o f the Understanding (mens)”; and notably Wilhelm, Secret of the Golden Flower , p 73, “In the personal bodily existence o f the individualities, a p’osoul (or anima) and a hunsoul (or animus). All during the life o f the individual these two are in conflict, each striving for mastery (psychomachy!). At
death they separate and go different ways (like nefes and ruah in the Old Testament = psyche and pneumain the New Testament, eg, Heb IV, 12). The anima sinks to earth as kuei (“dust to dust”), a ghostbeing (psychic residue). The animus rises and becomes shen, a revealing spirit o f God (daimon, yaksa). Shen
may in time return to Tao. . . .” Also Augustine, De ordine2.34: animus will be offended by the eyes, if the latter are attracted by falsity attractively presented. (A few o f the above
references arc merely taken from the Latin dictionary, but most I have seen).
ABUSE: D ’Arcy, loccit; Jung, Psychological Types, 1923, p 595:
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 183/484
“ If, therefore, we speak of the anima o f a man, we m ust
logically speak of the animus o f a wom an, if we arc to give the
soul o f a w om an its right nam e” , and 5967: “W ith m en the
soul, ic, the atiima, is usually figured by the unconscious in the
person o f a woman; w ith women it is a m an” ; and “ For a man,a w om an is best fitted to be the bearer o f his soulimage, by
virtue o f the w om anly quality o f his soul; similarly a man, in
the case o f a wo m an ” (for him, also, persona = “outer attitude”
and “soul” = “inner attitude”!). Jung has a real idea to express,
eg, as o f Beatrice as Dante’s “ soulim age”— but his is a reckless
abuse o f terms; he does no t realise that anima and animus are
“two in us”, is quiforis est and is qui intus est, whether “we” are
“ men” or “w om en” ! Anim us in Latin represents the daimon [?]
or pneuma [?], ic, conscientia that Socratcs and Aristotle called
infallible; the nous [?] within you. Hom o viv itur ingenio, coetera
mortis sunt! So 1 charge you to write on anima and animus. (I
forgot to add, you will find the terms misused also by E. I.
W atkin— w ho ou ght to know better—in The Wind and the Rain,
3, 1947, pp 179 84, following D ’Arcy and Jung. If all these
errors are not pointed out soon, we shall never be able to catch
up w ith them ). I should add also that while Jung almost always
“rejects metaphysics” and reduces it to “psychology”, in Two Essays on Analy tical Psychology, 1928, ch 4, p 268, Jung does
rightly use the terms Ego and Self, and the latter being
“ unkn ow able” (in the sense that “ the eye cannot sec itself”) and
in tha t passage is a metaphysician in spite o f himself.
About purusa and prakrti = mayin and maya, these are for me
St Th om as A quinas’ principium conjunctum from which the Son
proceeds— N ature being “ that N ature by which the Father
begats” (D amascene, D efide orth 1.18, as in Sum Theol II.45.5):*’I made m yself a moth er o f w hom to be born. . . . Th at
nature, to wit, which created all others” (Augustine, Contra V
H a erV = D e Trin XIV, 9) = Natura naturans, Creatrix Iniversa-
lis, Deus (sic, in Index to Turin 1932 cd of Sum Theol). C f Pancavimsa Br VII.6.1 to 9 (in 6, “eldest son” = Agni, see J U B
2.25. Brhati = Vac = mother of Brhat\ you will find this PBr
passage very in te resting from the standpoint o f “ filial proces-sion”.
E x necessitate naturae = necessitas infallibilitatis, I presume; jus tas it is na ture (necessity) o f light to illuminate; it seems to beerroneous to think o f such a “ necessity” as any limitation o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 184/484
“freedom” (what is “freedom” but to be free to act inaccordance with one’s own nature?).
Regarding proportion of natura naturans to natura naturata: as
Guenon would word it, God in act implies the realisation of
infinite possibility (this would not include the creation ofnonentities like the “ horns o f a harc“ or “ son o f a barren
w om an” , o f course, w hich wou ld involve a violation o f natura
naturans); but infinite possibility has two aspects, including
both the possibilities o f manifesta tion, and th ings that arc not
possibilities o f manifesta tion (the latter = arcana, known to
Cherubim , bu t to us only by analogy at best). It w ould seem tome that the pro portion between the possibilities o f manifesta-
tion and the actuality o f all things in time and space w ould be
exact; i f that w ere all, it w ould involve a kind o f pantheism, butthat is not all.
I d on’t seem to k no w Gabriel Th iery’s Eckhart. Bu t I have 12
fasicules o f the magnificent S tuttgart edition, still in progress,o f all the Latin and German w orks o f Eckhart; this is really a
splendid piece of work!I do think the Thomist duo sunt in homine is to be taken
seriously, as referring to is qui foris est and is qui intus est ; indeed,
without some such concept o f a duality the notion o f a psychomachy, internal conflict, would be meaningless. The “tw o” would seem to be the trace of the Divine Biunity o f Essence and Nature—one in Him but distinct in us. T h o \ as Hermes says, “Not that the One is two, but that the two are One”: which it is for us to restore and realise by resolution of the conflict in conscnt o f wills.
This is all I can manage for today.
Affectionately,
Bernard Kelly, identified p. 20.The romanized Greek words followed by bracketed question marks, p. 148.above, were added provisionally by the editors as the originals were eitherillegible or missing in the copy available to the editors. This letter,incidentally, can serve as a not untypical example of the complexity that oneoccasionally finds in AKC’s writing, particularly in some of his later papers.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 185/484
To BERNARD KELLY
August 19, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
I am so happy to hear that you will take up the anima-animus job .
Caland’s Pancavimsa Brahmana is Bibliotheca Indica no 255,
Asiatic Society o f Bengal, 1931; Wilhelm, Secret o f the Golden
Flower is Kegan Paul, London, 1932. Incidentally, the Royal
Asiatic Society (74 Grosvenor St, London WC1) might be more
convenient than the British Museum for looking up many
things, becausc o f its smaller size.
Re Golden Flower, it is Wilhelm’s part to which I referred;Jung’s is properly dealt with in a Preau, La Fleur d’or et le
Taoisme sans Tao, Paris, circa 1932 (based on the German
edition o f W ilhelm and Jung , 1929), esp p 49:
. . . que cct au teur (Jung) parle a plusiers reprises du Soi (das
Sclbst) qu’il oppose au moi (das ich), ne peut faire impression
sur personne. Aussi longtcmps qu’il n’a pas dit que ce “Soi”
est un tcrminaison de l’Esprit primordial, qu’il est d’ordre
universcl et identiquc au “ Grand U n” , il n ’a rein dit; et ilreste expose a l’objection que ce qu’il y a de vcritablement
intercssant dans la pcnsec orientalc du Taoisme, de celle sans
laquelle l’idec du Rctour devient inintelligible.
In The Secret . . . itself, Ju ng on p 117 repeats his misuse o f the
term animus, remarking (without giving any source) mulier non
habet animan sed animum. I w onder if he even know s that the
word animus has a history! Incidentally, in The Secret . .
throughout for mandala read mandala.I am sending you “ Recollection. . . . ”
I have o f the Stu ttgart Eckhart, the Lateinische Werke I, 1160(chiefly Expositio Libri Genesis; III, 1240 (Expositio S Ev sec
Joannem)-, IV 1240 (Sermones); and V, 1128 (Miscellaneous
tracts). A few o f these I have obtained since the war.
In my “Loathly Bride”, p 402, note 3 has bearing on animus as “lawful husband” of anima.
I believe this is all I can add at present.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 186/484
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.
To BERNARD KELLY
August 29, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
I suppose the “ tw o in us” are respectively the substantial and
the actual fo rma of the soul, fo rma corresponding to eidos in
Phaedo 79, A & B, Timaeus 90 A. I feel quite prou d to have you
ask me for a Thomistic reference! viz, Sum Theol IIII.26.4:
Repondeo dicendum guod in hominis duo sunt, scilicet natura
spiritualis et natura corporalis; the meaning is quite dear from therest o f the con text, which deals w ith m an ’s first duty to love,
after God, seipsum secundum spiritualem naturam — Homo seipsum
magis ex charitate diligere tenetur, quam proximum being the same
as our modern “Charity begins at home” (though we arc apt to
interp ret this aphorism cynically!). Some o f the older referencesfor selflove = love o f Self as d istinguished from self, are:
Hermes Lib 4.6.B (cf Scott, Hermetica 2.145), Aristotle, Nich
Ethics 9.8 (cf Mag M or II.xi,xiii,xiv). On true Selflove, B U 4.5(cf also 2.4) like Plato, Lysis 219D220B!; “Platonic love” as
for Ficino (see Kristeller, pp 279287), B U 1.4.8; cf Augustinecited in Dent edition of Paradisco, p 384). Plato, Republic 621C,
Phaedo 115B (care for our Self = care for others), Laws 731E
and (a very impressive context) Euripides, Helen 999. C fContext of Homer and Hesiod 320B. That there “two in
us” = Plato Rep 604B . . . (f Phaedo 79 A,B; Timaeus 89D).
Why “must be?”, because, to quote at greater length, “wherethere are tw o oppo site impulses in a man at the same time abo utthe same thing, we say there must be two in us”; and similarly
436B, and many passages on internal conflict, eg, Rep 431 A,B,
439, 440, and notably Aristotle M et V .3.8 9 (1005B) “ the most
certain o f all principles, tha t it is impossible for the same property at once belong and not to belong to the same thin g inthe same relation”—all resumed in St Aquinas Sum Theol
1.93.5: nil agit in seipsum.
“Charity begins at home"; note that what is said in the NewTestament about the indwelling Spirit (eg, I Cor 3, 16: to
pneuma tou theou oikei en hurnin is said of the imm anen t D aimon
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 187/484
in Platonic and other Greek sources (eg, Timaeus 90C. . . .
Many, many other references for to pneuma = Socratic
daimon = conscience.
In other words the whole problem is involved in the
psychom achy, and is only resolved when a man has made his
peace w ith him Self (c f resu lt in Homer-H esiod 320B and
AA 2.3.7). I have m any pages o f references for “ tw o in us” , andfor “psychomachy”!
Ph ilo’s “ Soul o f the soul” in Heres 55 is the hegemonikon part,
the divine pneuma as distinguished from the “bloodsoul”; and
O p i f 66 = nous. Heres 55: “The word ‘soul’ is used in two
senses, with reference either to the soul as a whole or to its
dominant part, which latter is, properly speaking, the ‘Soul of
the soul’ ” (= M U 6.7, atmano’tma netamrtakhya — netr being precisely hegemonikos. In general, for the “ tw o in us” : John
3,36, II Cor 4, 16, SumTheo l 1.75.4; C U 8.12; M U 3.2; J B 1.17(idvyatma), Hermes 1.15, and Ascl 1; Mark 8, 34; Prasna Up 6.3,
etc, etc.
Again, “Soul o f the soul” as hegemonikon = Dhammapada
380, atta hi attano natho atta h ig a ti . . ., c f ib 160 (in PTS M in or
Anthologies . . . I, p 124 and 56). Pali atta = Sanskrit atman.
Guillaume de Thierry, D e contemplando D ei 7.15: Tu te ipsum amas in nobis, et nos in te, cum te per se amamus, et in terntum
tibi unimur, in quantum te amare meremus.
This is about all I can manage for now.
With kindest regards,
PS: A nother ref for animus: Em pero r Julian ’s last words
animum . . . immaculatum conservavi. I think you have enoughreferences for the history o f the w ord animus to be able to deal
adequately with its modern misuse.
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England, identified p. 20.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 188/484
To BERNARD KELLY
September 8, 1947
Dear Bernard Kelly:
N otably in Heb 4, 12, St Paul distinguishes the “ tw o in us” .So often St Augustine distinguishes w hat is mortal and m utable
in us from w hat is im m utab le and imm ortal, the latter Intellect;
for St Thomas Aquinas it is similarly the “intellectual virtues”
that survive. But also (w ith Plato, etc) one can speak o f the
“ w hole so ul” or o f its parts; o ur business is one o f integration,
to restore the unity auto kath' eauton. I agree it is the sam e to say
animus is anima considered according to her spiritual nature, as
to say that animus is the spiritual “par t” o f the soul. It is in so faras we are divided against ourselves (psychomachy, schizophre-
nia) that we must speak o f parts. In origin, anima is more than
the animating principle; rather, as such, she is an extension of
the Spirit, his ancilla, from w ho m he receives reports o f the
sensible world—and when she is purified, his fitting bride. In
the Sum Theol 1.45.6, guod dom inandogubernet at vurlicetguae sunt
creata. . . .— it is really the Spirit that quicken every life.
I do n’t think you should think o f G uenon’s initiatorysuccession as even possibly diabolical; don’t forget how serious
he is, and how he him self distinguishes true from “ cou nter”—
initiation. Baptism, qua “new birth” was certainly originally an
initiation, though now rather more like a consecration only.*
Obviously no great urgency about A rt and Thought, Vol II,
since even Vol I is still in press. Bharatan Iyer’s address is:
Office o f the Accoun tant General, Rangoon, Burm a. It w ould
certainly please me to have your anima-animus as your
contribution, but I hardly suppose a second volume couldappear before the end of 1948, which seems far off.
I will write to Iyer soon, and com m end y ou r article to him; I
am ju st com pleting a piece on A thena and Hcphaistos ascooperators in the Greek concep t o f creative art, bu t divorcedin industrial production.
Affectionately,
PS: I note: Jacques Maritain, A N ew Approach to God, says “inthe inner stimulation o f culture, it is thro ugh Christian
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 189/484
philosophy, in addition to the irre fragable onto logical tru th prom ulgated by every great religion, that the new civilization
will be spurred.” That is how I see “the great religions”
working together, but I hardly expected it from him! (In Our
Emergent Civilizatio n, ed by R. N. Anshen, New York, 1947,
p 288).
* Ba ptism , assum ing the integ rity o f the rite, is an initiation no w if ever it
was; however, it doubtless remains virtual more frequently now than in
form er time s, du e to the ‘prog ressive ’ deterioration o f the cycle.
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England.
Art and Thought, festschrift issued in honor o f D r C oom araswam y on the
occasion o f his seven tieth birthday ; edited by K. Bhara tha Iyer, L ondo n,
1947. A second volume was planned but was never realized.
Jacques Maritain, French Thomist philosopher, convert to Roman Catholic-
ism as a young man; became leading neoThomist and taught at Paris,
Princeton and Toronto.
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
March 6, 1943
Sir,
1should like to say a few w ords on G ens’ review o f a book by“ N icod em us” in your issue o f December 23rd, 1943. As to
“being and becoming” (essence and existence) this is indeed a
vital distinction with which everyone has been concerned—in
the Western world from Plato onwards, as well as in the East.
What is unorthodox is to treat the two as alternatives. The
Supreme Identity is o f both; the single essence w ith tw o naturesis o f a being tha t becomes, and o f a becom ing that is o f being.
To argue for a becom ing only is like speaking o f a “ significant”
art of which we cannot explain the significance: to believe in a
being only is a monistic fo rm o f monophytism. The argument isnot Cogito ergo sum, but Cogito ergo E S T —we become because H e is.
G ens’ objection to the opposition o f spirit to soul is quiteirregular. As St Paul says, the W ord o f God extends to the
sundering o f soul and spirit; the sp irit is willing (ie. wills), butthe flesh is weak. The Old Testament word for “soul”(nefesh = anima) always refers to m an ’s lower, animal and fleshy
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 190/484
nature; it is this soul that Christ asks us to “hate”, and requires
us to “ lose” i f we w ould save the soul “o f the soul” , ie, spirit)
alive; and o f wh ich M eister Eckhart says that “ the soul must
put itself to death”— as St Paul m ust have done, if he said tru ly
that “I live, yet not ‘I’, but Christ in me”, being thus what we
should call in India a jivan-m ukta , “freed here and now”. This“soul”, “self’ or Ego to be overcome is the sensitive “soul”
(nafs, Arabic form o f H ebrew nefesh) that Rum i through out the
M athnawi equates with the “Dragon” that none can overcome
w ithou t divine aid. Th e distinction o f spirit from soul is o f our
immortal form from our mortal nature, and wise indeed is he
whose philosophy like Plato’s is an ars moriendi\ or, in Rumi’s
words, has “died before he dies”, or in Buddhist terms, has
become a “nobody” .
To DAVID WHITE
September 17, 1944
Dear Mr White:
Practically the w hole answer to the problem o f the “death o fthe soul” is contained in the sym bolism o f sowing: “ Except a
seed fall to the groun d and die . . . ” It is the life o f the seed that
lives. Hence St Thomas also enunciates the law, “no creature
can attain a higher g rade o f nature w ithou t ceasing to ex ist” ,
and Eckhart: “he would be what he should must cease from being w hat he is” . T o cease from any state of being is to decease.
This death o f the soul should take place, if possible, before ou r
physical death . M uham m ed’s “ die before you die” coincides
with Angelus Silesius Stirb, ehe du stirbst. Evidently St Paul hadso died (“ I live, yet not ‘I’ ”); as we should say, he was a
jivanm ukta, a freedman here and now. Jacon Boehme: “ Thus weunderstand h ow a life perishes. . . . If it will not give itself up
to death, then it cannot attain any other world (ie, any otherstate of being).
The intellectual preparation for selfnaughting will be theeasier if w ith Plato, P lutarch, Buddha, etc, we already realize
that ou r empirical “ s e lf ’ cannot be thoug ht o f as “ real” becauseo f its m utability; and so detach ou r sense o f being from thingsthat are only our instruments or vehicles (physical sensibility,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 191/484
mental consciousness based on observation, etc). When we
injure our body and say “I cut myself’, but should say “my
body was cu t” only ; to say “ m y feelings were hurt (by an
unkind w ord) is m ore correct than to say ‘7 was hu rt” .If the N ew Testam ent sometimes seems to speak o f saving
the “soul” itself, you must always bear in mind the ambiguityo f the word, except where “ soul o f the soul”, “immortal soul”
or “spirit” are expressly contrasted with “soul”. In any
context, you must be clear which “soul” is used or meant.
All translations should be read with caution. I do not
recommend Yeats or Carus—“would you know the truths of
Jacob Behmen, you must stand where he stood” (William
Law)—applies, mutatis mutandis, to the understanding o f any
unfam iliar truths. By the way, there is a good edition o f mucho f Law by H ob ho use (London . . . 1940). The best readily
available o f Dionysius is the volum e by Rolt (Soc for the
Promotion o f Christian Knowledge) which costs only 4sh. 6.Law says: “ You are under the pow er o f no othe r enemy, are
held in no other captivity and want no other deliverance but
from the pow er o f you r earthly self.” That “ se lf ’ is the “ soul”
that Christ asks us to “hate”, and that Rumi consistently calls
the “dragon”, and Philo the “serpent”. This snake must shed
its skin, from which “it” (ie, what was real in “it”) emerges a
“new m an” , in a body o f light—which is the true
“ resurrection”— bu t never if it insists upon remaining “i ts e lf’.
All the wordings are more or less paradoxical; but it seems tome not hard to grasp their meaning.
I liked your review well, and hope they will publish it.
Yours sincerely,
David White was a PhD candidate at Friends University, Wichita, Kansas.
T he translations referred to are W. B. Yeats and Sri Pu roh it Swam i, The Ten
Principal Upanishads; and Paul Carus’ translations from the Buddhistscriptures.
William Law, eighteenth century Anglican divine, nonjuror, and spiritual
writer; influenced by Jacob Boehm e. See letter to Stephen Hobhou se, p 61.
Dionysius the Areopagite: The Div ine Names and the Mystical Theology,
translated by C. E. Rolt and published in 1920, 1940 and later dates by
SPCK, London.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 192/484
To MRS ROGER S. FOSTER
May 13, 1946
Dear Mrs Foster:
Many thanks for your response. Jung
expressly repudiates
metaphysics in W ilhelm and Jun g, The Secret of the Golden
Flower, pp 128135, and this book was accord ingly discussed
by Preau under the title o f Le Taoisme sans Tao. On the other
hand, there can be no q uestion but that Ju ng ’s ow n treatm ent o f
the Eg o and the S elf in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 1928, p 268 (Ego knowable, Self unknow able) is metaphysical(literally, since he uses the words “the step beyond science”)
and also m ore like the language o f traditional p sychology than
that o f “ psychoanalysis” . I did at one time correspond w ith D rJung, who used to welcome my papers on the sense of
traditional sym bols, bu t I really gave him up after an article he
wrote about India after a three weeks visit, and which might
have been written by a Baptist missionary. However, I do of
course admire m uch o f his w riting, eg, in The Integration of thePersonality, 1939, p 272—(on the inflated consciousness); and in
The Secret. . ., som e rem arks on scholarship on p 77.
I take it Eliot (whom I know only slightly) used thetraditional symbolism consciously; the very title “The WasteL'and” is a traditional symbol. A few Roman Catholic artists
use the traditional sym bols quite consciously. I forget i f I
m entioned to you m y articles in Speculum(“Sir Gawain . . .’’ in
XIX, and “Loathly Bride” in XX; these and the two Psychiatry articles and “ D iirer’s K no ts” are the kind o f thing I mean by the
study o f the forms o f the com m on universe o f discourse o f
which the psychologist is nowadays discovering the buriedtraces in the backg round o f consciousness. I send you M arcoPallis’ Way and the Mountain as another example (please return
it); also a recent lecture o f m y ow n, rather a different them e(which please keep i f you care to). I have m yse lf done a great
deal o f w ork on the Sphinx (Greek, n ot Egyptian); and thoug hI have no t go t round to com pleting it for publication, I did find,after I had done m ost o f it, that I had reached the sameconclusion that had long ago been reached, on the same
groun ds, by C lem ent o f Alexandria. Th is subject, o f course,cannot be discussed w itho ut going into the significance o f the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 193/484
Cherubim and their representation by Sphinxes in Assyrian art
o f the time o f Solomon. I have had a very interesting corres-
pondence with John Layard; to a great extent he combinesthe psycholigist’s methods with my own.
Very sincerely,
Mrs Roger S. Foster, instructor in psychology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn
Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA.
“Sir Gawaim and the Green Kinght: Indra and Namuci”, Speculum, XIX,
1944.
“On the Loathly Bride”, Speculum, XX, 1945.
“Spiritual Paternity and the Puppet Complex”, Psychiatry, VIII, 1945.
“ Th e Iconog raphy o f D iirer’s ‘K noten ’ and L eonardo’s Conc atenation” , Art
Quarterly, VII, 1944.
T o REV PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, SJ
January 7 (year uncertain)
My dear Furfey:
Many thanks for your letter and pains. I feel ashamed to have put you to so m uch trouble.
I liked your article very much. I am all on the “ex trem e” side
and feel that as a whole, the Church has yielded too much to
mo dernism. O f course, there are individuals to w hom this
would not apply. What is necessary above all is no intellectualcom prom ise whatever. Th at I admire in Guenon, that he makes
absolutely no concessions. I w ould rather see the truth reduced
to the possession o f one single individual on ea rth than have the
w hole w orld in a ha lf light, even thoug h that might be betterthan none at all. I saw Carey the other day, and we spoke ofyou.
Very sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, SJ depa rtmen t of sociology, Catholic U niversity ofAm erica, W ashington, D. C ., USA.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.Graham Carey, Catholic author, Fairhaven, Vermont, USA.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 194/484
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
June 25, 1945
Dear Mother Ducey:
I recognize your very kind intention, though we are notlikely to agree on the total issue. However, I must say that
w hateve r lim itations w e ascribe to some other religion than ou r
ow n arc generally due to ou r ignorance o f it. For example, in
Hinduism, God is not “infinite good and infinite evil”, but
transcends these (and all other) distinctions. These distinctions
are valid for us, but His “Goodness” (or to avoid confusion
with our own, I would rather say Worth) is not, like our’s, as if
he might not have been “ good ” . He is the autho r o f good andevil only in the sense, that in any created world there must be
such contraries, or it would not be a “world”. In that He both
makes alive and slays, gives and takes away, he does things tha tare from our hum an point o f view both good and evil; bu t His
Worth is neither increased by the one nor decreased by the
other effect. “The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken
away, blessed be the Nam e o f the Lo rd .” It will be, in fact, very
difficult, if no t impossible, to m ake any valid criticism o f
ano ther religion i f one has not studied its sacred texts and practised its Way as thoroughly as it may be assumed that one
has studied those o f one’s ow n, and followed its Way. A position like your ow n rests only upon an a priori conviction
that what you know must be the superior and only complete
body o f truth; w hether or not it is so, you have notinvestigated, because the conviction suffices for you. All your
positive acts arc good; you are right to believe “furiously” in
your truth; but it is otherwise when you come to negative convictions; your a priori conviction o f oth er’s errors proves
nothing, and you arc not qualified to work from any butsccond hand sources— which in the case o f the oriental religions
arc very unsafe, since these religions were investigated at first by those w ho had in mind to refute them, and later alm ost
wholly by rationalists, to whom they seemed a folly for thesame reasons that Christianity seems a folly to the world. Thelast thing I would wish to deny (just as I would for Hinduism),is that yours is a com plete body o f truth; but I do deny (just as Iw ould for Hinduism) that it is so in any exclusive sense. If you
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 195/484
arc not with us, at least we are with you.
Please do not pray that I may become a Christian; pray onlythat I may know God better every day. That will be greater
charity on your part, and at the same time will leave you freeto think that that means becom ing a Christian, bu t leaving it to
God whether or not that be the case.
Very sincerely,
M other Agnes C . Ducey was an Ursaline nun o f the C onv ent o f the Sacred
He art, St Josep h, M issouri, U SA , wh o was pray ing earnestly that
Dr Co om araswam y m ight bccome a Roman Catholic.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
July 9, 1945
Dear Mother Ducey:
If you have not sufficient hum ility, no r sufficient trust in
God, to pray to Him on my behalf, merely that I may know
Him better, leaving it to Him to decide whether or not thatnecessarily means a Christian confession, correspondence is
useless, and had better be terminated.
Very sincerely,
Mother Agnes C. Ducey, as above.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
June 27, 1947
Dear Mother Ducey:
M any thanks for yours o f Jun e 24. Incidentally, it containsthe first news I have ever received o f anyone “ condoning castem urd ers” in India. As for the “ destruction o f hum an personal-
ity”, this would seem to be the annihilationist heresy” againstwhich the Buddha so often fulminated. Moreover, as you
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 196/484
know, the Christian as well as the Platonic and Indian doctrineis that duo sunt in homine\ o f which tw o, one is the outer man or
“Ego” or “personality” the other the Inner Man, or very Self.
The problem , from the Indian point o f view, as elsewhere, is
one o f rein tegra tion; for as St Paul and others are so well
aware, there is a conflict between these two until thereconciliation o f wills is effected, that is, until “ I w an t” and “ I
ough t” have come to mean the same. In India, the nature o f this
reconciliation is expressed as follows:
The self lends itself to that Self, they coalesce (or combine, or
are wedded); with the one form the man is united with
yonder world, and with the other to this world.
Aitareya Aranyaka II.3.7There is no question o f “ des truction ” ; indeed, as you doubtless
know , the destruction o f any thing real, anything that IS, is a
metaphysical impossibility. True, it is a question o f self-sacrifice,
and in Islam and Hinduism, as much as in Christian writings,
one speaks o f selfnaughting, bu t that implies a transform ation,
no t a des truction. O f course, it is almost impossible to discuss
o f any o ther form o f religion than one’s ow n unless one is
equally familiar with both in their sources. For the Upanishads,I w ould recom m end to you the Rev W. R. Teape’s Secret Lore of
India.
O f course, I fully agree abou t “again as little children” and
refer you to the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad III.4.2: “Thereforelet a Brahman becom e disgusted w ith learning and desire to live
like a child.” With regard to “What shall it profit a man?”, cf
ibid 1.4.8. On true “Selflove”—as in St Thomas Aquinas Sum
Theol IIII.26.4; and the same Upanishad 1.5.15 (distinction ofthe Self or very Man from his temporal pow ers and attributes,
possessions, or “ w ealth ” ; all may be lost, if only the Very Manis saved).
There would be no difficulty in “interesting” me in SaintJohn o f the Cross; so far, I do not actually kn ow him well,though I have som e books o f Allison Peers.
Lets us say that in all problems o f “comparative religion” ,scholarship is a necessary qualification; but no amount of
scholarship will avail without charity. The learning is needed toenable us to find out what has really been taught; charity to
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 197/484
protect us from a natura l hum an tendency to m is in terpret theunfamiliar propositions unjustly.
Very sincerely,
Mother Agnes C. Ducey, as above.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
May 6, 1947
Dear Mother Ducey:
Many thanks for your kind letter. To answer fully wouldrequire a very long letter; and I do not really want to engage inany further controversy.
M y point w ould be that if Ch rist be the only Son o f God, the
question still remains “ What think ye o f Christ?” A H indu
w ould be quite ready to recognize in Him a manifestation o f the“Eternal Avatara”. This position would be similar to that of
Clement of Alexandria, viz , that the Spirit o f Christ has
appeared again and again in the world (in the succession of pro phets ). This is also essentially the Islamic position. The
Hindu would point out also that even your own St Thomas
Aquinas allows that the “heathen” may be inspired (for thereference, see marked passage in one o f the printed papers I
send separately). N othing can be know n except in accordance with the mode
o f the know er. Ch ristianity as a system o f theology is a
“ m od e” and in this respect no t to be thoug ht o f as “universal” .It is the Truth that appears in all religions that alone can be
thou gh t of as “universal” , ie, as essence distinguished from
human accidents. Moreover, one must not forget that allspecific dogm as (even that o f the Trinity) arc transcended in the
Negative Theology.The “other religions” do not feel themselves under any
necessity to assert the universality o f their forms, bu t only o ftheir essence. This is a very happy position, and enables them
to recognize the essential truth o f what are for them “o therreligions” . Followers o f othe r religions are not opposed toChristianity as such at all, but only to certain activities of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 198/484
Christians, notably “missions”. These are admittedly and
deliberately destructive o f their cultures, such as the H indu; for
the other cultures are not profane cultures, but inseparably
bound up w ith the corre spondin g faiths. It is only on this level
o f reference, then, that opposition rises.
Very sincerely,
M othe r Agnes C. D ucey, as above.
To MOTHER AGNES C. DUCEY
June 20, 1947
Dear Mother Ducey:
M any thanks for yours o f June 16. A bou t the Upanishads,
and [their] value for a Ca tholic, you could hardly jud ge w ithout
kno w ing them as thoro ugh ly, in their original language, as you
know the Christian scriptures. However, consider the well
known prayer from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28: “ From
the unreal lead us to the Real (or from untruth to Truth): fromdarkness, lead us unto Light: from death, lead us unto
Immortali ty.”
I have D ’A rcy ’s M ind and Heart o f Love, and can say—in this
case from the po int o f view o f strictly Christian scholarship—
that it seems to me to be a sloppy and careless piece o f w ork . I
say this with special reference to Chapter VII, which begins
with a ridiculous allegory quoted from Paul Claudel, who is
nothing but a “pseudomystic” himself. I am referring to
D ’Arcy’s misunderstanding and arbitrary misuse o f the termsanima and animus. You will find these terms correctly used inWilliam of Thierry, The Golden Epistle, 50, 51: anima vel
spiritus, and mens vel animus. Anima and animus are, from
classical times onwards, respectively the feminine soul and the
masculine Spirit in any one o f us, man or wom an. So animus isanima's true love; and i f Claudel’s anima is un true to her animus,
it can only be for the sake o f the w orld that she deceives him!
Such a book as this is o f no use to any nonC hristian w ho wantsto kno w w hat Ch ristianity is. A devout Rom an C atholic friendo f mine in Eng land holds similar views o f D ’Arcy, and so I dare
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 199/484
say do many o thers. I say all this w itho ut any reference to otherthan C hristian points o f view; although, o f course, the Thom ist
duo sunt in homine and the doctrine o f true “ Selflove” are
common to Christianity, Plato, Aristotle, and also to Hindu-
ism and Buddhism.
I think the attitude o f the U niversity o f Bom bay is, broadly
speaking, correct, but it is going rather too far to forbid lectures
on Dante! Things have changed in India as elsewhere. You can
only teach Christianity as what Hindus would call a darsana, a
“ poin t o f view ” , as one valid Way among st others, leading to
one goal.As for “conversion”: there are rare souls who can give
themselves to God m ore easily in one (new to them) Trad ition ,
than in another (in which they were reared). I know, forinstance, o f a Tibetan who is a real Christian, and o f Christians
who have become true Moslems; indeed, the Moslems say of
such that sometimes “they go farther (on the Way) than even
we d o” . But such changes o f mode are very exceptional needs.
I kn ow o f a Trappist m onk in Belgium whose brothe r is an
outstanding European Moslem; neither wishes to “convert”
the other, and bo th are highly respectful o f the N orth Am erican
Indian religion, no r do either o f them wish to change it. B othare “ men o f pray er” , and bo th o f the highest intelligence and
devotion.
W ith best wishes for you r journ ey ,
M other Agnes C. Ducey, as above.
T o MR R. HOPE
April 8, 1946
Dear Mr Hope:
O ur disagreement is largely about terms. I would not regard“ thinkin g” , if this means “con templation” , a “ moral act” ;
morality for Aquinas et al, pertains to the active life, not thecontemplative life. If “ thinkin g” is “ reasoning” , then it w ould
be an activity w ith “ m oral” im plications.T hat the re is infinity in everything , I^agree; but this does notmean that the thin g itse lf can be described as infinite. The sands
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 200/484
o f the sea are not infinite in number, only indefinite; their number can be estimated and such numbers arc dealt with by statistics. Thus the opposites, o f which the walls o f Paradise are built, are indefinitely numerous; but this wall is still a part o f finity through the limit o f space, and infinity lies beyond it. The same infinity is, o f course, immanent in all things as well as beyond them; but this immanence no more allows us to speak o f any thing as infinite than it allows us to equate “this man Soandso” with God; there is God in him, but he is not God, and if deified by ablatio omnis alteritatis, then he is no longer “this man Soandso”.
When 1seem definitely to disagree with you is in that I do not believe in a moral or spiritual progress o f mankind, but only for
individuals. It is still possible for individual consciousncss to “unfold” even in this intellectually decadent age. What you call Preparatory School Stage (historically) represents for me something nearer to the Golden Age, intellectually and spiritually. I have to use its language when I want to be precise.
It is only too true that we in the East are in danger o f following in your footsteps.
Sinccrely,
Mr R. Hope, Leeds, England.
To PROFESSOR (WILLIAM FOXWELL?) ALBRIGHT
July 1, 1942
Dear Professor Albright:
Many thanks for your book. Naturally, the introductory parts with their general considerations arc of most interest to me. It is in this connection that I would like to say that I think you take LevyBruhl too much for granted, and wonder if you have considered the other point o f view stated in Oliver Leroy’s
La Raison primitif, Paris . . . 1927; W. Schmidt’s High Gods of North America, Oxford, 1933, and my “Primitive Mentality” in
Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society. (The last I am sending you but must ask you to return it in due course as I have left only a few “lending copies”).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 201/484
I think that to LevyBruhl perhaps, and to Frazer quite
surely, Schmidt’s words apply: “such pleasure as proceeds
from the ironical railleries not seldom dealt out to primitive
man, which betray so much bitterness deeply concealed at the
bottom o f the heart.” I, too, know this “ bit te rness” but do not
hide it, and I see its basis as a mea culpa o f “m odern m an” .
In so far as I am — and that is pretty far— a “ primitiv e
mentality” my self, I do not have this bitterness.
One other point: the modern “savage” is often not a true
representative o f “ primitive m an” , but very often degenerate,
in that his notions are literally supcrstitions which he no longer
really or fully understands— for exam ple, w hen he calls stone
arrowheads “thunderbolts”.
Very sincerely,
Professor Albright is not identified beyond his family name, but it is
assumed that he was William Foxwell Albright, the prominent Orientalist
who specialized in Semitic languages and who wrote From the Stone Age to
Christianity, first published in 1940.
Lucien LevyBruhl, philosopher who gained a reputation as a social
anthropologist from w orking w ith the reports o f other anthropologists, butwho nevertheless felt qualified to write How Natives Think.
Sir Jam es G. Frazer, social anthropolog ist and renow ned as author o f The
Golden Bough.
‘Primitive Mentality’, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, XX, 1940.
To DR FRITZ MARTI
October 6, 1946
Dear Dr Marti:
I do wish I had a better opportunity to talk with you at
Kenyon College. I hope we meet again.In an old letter o f yours (1942) you ask if I wou ld say tha t the
“various religions are mere con tingent disguises o f a pure philosophical tru th .” N o t exactly that: I w ould say “ are
con tingen t adaptations o f a pure metaphysical truth ” (primarilyexperiential, ie, revealed). I think this follows almost inevitablyfrom the axiom “ the mode o f know ledge follows the mode o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 202/484
the nature o f the knowcr.” (I certainly would not use the word “mere”). For me una veritas in variis signis varie resplendet—ad majorem gloriam Dei.
I was pleased by the reception o f my discussion at Kenyon. However, I think most o f the audience was “liberal”. And my
interest is not in putting all religions on the same level by way of latitudinarianism, but in a demonstration o f real equiva-
lences; hence most o f my work deals with strictly orthodox forms o f Christianity, and hence the manner in which 1
discussed the present problem by the words alter Christus.
Very sincerely,
Dr Fritz Marti, Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA.AKC had given a talk at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio as part of aconference entitled ‘The Heritage of the English Speaking Peoples and theirResponsibility’ (Octobcr 4—6. 1946). This was later published in theconference proceedings (which bore the title of the conference) as ‘For WhatHeritage and to Whom Are the Englishspeaking Peoples Responsible?’
To DR VASUDEVA SAHARAN AGRAWALA
March 23, 1939
My dear Mr Agrawala:
I am very happy to receive your reprints announcing such
wonderful finds. It will be impossible for me to write you an
article in time for the Shah Volume, but I shall be very happy if
you render some one of the articles you mentioned, already
printed, in Hindi.I should say that it is futile to search for meanings in the
Samhitas which are no t the meanings o f the Upanishads. I
cannot believe that anything taught in the Upanishads was not
kn ow n to the mantras, and this makes it inconceivable that theycame into being w ithout an understand ing o f their meaning. Ido how ever believe that Indian scholars, in order to fortify their posit ion as against the profanity and pueril ity o f Europeanscholarship, m ust now adays make use o f the philosophia perennis
as a w hole and no t only o f its Indian forms. An interp retationo f the Vedas is not really an interpretation o f Indian metaphy-
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 203/484
sics, but of metaphysics. It is also possible to add very much tothe understand ing o f western scriptures if they arc read in the
light of the Indian atmavidya.
I expect you have seen my article in the Q .J . M ythic Society,
on the “Inverted Tree”. My interest is in doctrines that are true,
rather than because they arc Indian. The philosophia perennis —our sanatana dharma is no t a private pro perty o f any time, or
place, or people, but the b irthright o f hum anity.
Very sincerely,
Dr Vasudcva Saharan Agrawala was superintendent o f Indian M useums,
N ew Delhi.
Samhitas, are oldest of the Indian scriptures; w hile the Upan ishads are thelatest o f the sruti to take written form. “ Each branch of the Vedas consists of
three por tions : 1) the samhita or mantra po rtio n . . ., 2) the Brahmana
portio n whic h conta in s the elabora te exposit io ns o f the various karmas or
rituals for which mantras have been composed in the corresponding samhita
portion . . . 3) th e dranyaka o r speculative portion o f the Vedas. . . . Instead
of the word mantra. . . he ought to have said samhita which contains mantras
and othe r tex ts.’ (courtesy o f Sri Keshavram N. Iengar, Bangalore, India).
‘The Inverted Tree’, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, XXIX, 1938.
Atm ai'idya = Selfknowledge.
To RICHARD GREGG
January 29, 1940
My dear Richard:
I have been reading some m ore o f your book , which I do not
find easy. I am especially impressed by the citations from Peter
Stcrry—pure Vedanta! I shall get the book.I am in full agreement on many points, necessarily so because
I live in a world in which not only words, but all things are felt
to be alive with meaning. A word without inherent meaningwould be “mere noise”: a merely “decorative” and in-significant art, a dead superfluity. That people have begun tothink o f poe try as a matter o f sound only is sufficientlysym pto m atic (o f the cave dw eller’s purely animal satisfaction
with the shadows on his wall). In our view, the Divine Liturgyis explained as “like the fusion o f sound with m ean ing” (in aw ord , the Indian thinks o f w ords as sounds, w ritten signs
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 204/484
being, if used at all, sym bols o f the sounds rath er than o f the
m eanings). O u r present m entality is m ore and mo re contented
with what is a dead, inanimate, incloqucnt environment. (1
mean those “to whom such knowledge as is not empirical is
considered as meaningless.”) How it can be possible to go on
living in such an environment is strange; one must presumethat this is not living, bu t rather a mere ex istence orvegetation.*
I agree tha t the antithesis o f realism and nom inalism is
ultim ately resolved in the solipsism o f the “only seer” (in
whose vision we individually participate only); what this seer
sees is itself, “ the w orld picture painted by itself on the canvas
o f the S elf (Sankara, like Peter S tcrry). T he reality o f the picture
is that o f it’s ma ker, neithe r an independent reality (extremenominalism) nor an unreality (extreme realism).**
I do feel you should look into Indian Rhetoric, with its
discussion o f “ m eaning” (Skr artliaunites the senses “m eaning”
and “value” and could often be rendered by iitleittio) on various
levels o f reference, eg, obv ious , underlying, and ultima te
(anagogic); and its terms rasa (“ flavour”) and vyanjana (“sug-
gestion”, “overtone”, originally also “flavour”).
I think you arc in dan ger o f confusing the personal “h ow ” o f
style w ith the necessary “ h o w ” . In a perfectly educated and
unanimous society (tradition always envisages unanimity, as
docs also science on a low er level of rcfcrencc) everyone w ould
say the same thing in the same way, the only way possible for
perfect expressio n in the currcnt language, w hether Latin,
Sanskrit, Chinese or visually symbolic. The same thing cannot
be said perfectly in two different phrases, th ough both may refer
to the same thing and can be understood by whoever is capable
o f un derstan ding . O n e ’s ow n effort for clarity amo unts to thesearch for the o ne and o nly , once for all expression o f an idea.
In the same way when one feels that anything has been said
once for all, one prefers to quote, and not to paraphrase in
“one’s own words”—one must not confuse originality with
novelty, whatever idea one has made one’s own can come outfrom us as from an origo, regardless o f how many times it may
have come forth from others or to what extent the supposedly
corresponding words or formula have become a cliche.Very sincerely,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 205/484
* D r Coo m arasw am y frequently stated that modern man lives in a ‘wo rld of
imp ove rished rea lity’, citing a phrase of W ilbur Marshall Urba n.
** O n so lipsism, cf the ‘non sen se’ limerick b elow , w hich is really no t all
nonsense:
There once was a man who said, “God
Must find it exceedingly oddIf he finds that this tree continues to be
When there’s no one about in the Quad.”
Dear Sir, your astonishment’s odd:
I am always about in the quad.
And that’s why the tree
Will continue to be,
Since observed by yours faithfully, God.
Richard Gregg,
Peter Sterry, Platonisl and Puritan, 16131672, A Selection from his writingswith a biographical and critical study by Vivian De Sola Pinto, 1934.
To RUTH NANDA ANSHEN
N ovem ber 8, 1946
Dear Nanda:
“To know and to be arc the same thing”; this was not, as is
com m only supposed, the meaning o f Parm enides’ w ords (fr 5):
to gar auto noein estin te kai einai. This simply means that “that
which can be thought is the same as that which can be” (see
Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy 4th ed, 1930, p 173, n 2).Plotinus, Emieads 5.9.5, quotes Parm enides’ words, but
although by this time it was possible for an infinitive to be the
subjec t o f a sentence (and in fact Plotinus uses to einai as subject
in Enneads 3.7.6), his citation o f Parm enides’ words is to showthat “in the immaterial, knowledge and the known arc the
same”; and while this implies that there the know er, know ledgeand the known arc the same, what is actually predicated is
hardly more than the Scholastic adequatio rei et intellectus —Plato’s “making that in us which thinks like unto the objects ofits thought”, which i f they be eternal and divine, will restoreou r being to its “original nature” ( Timaeus 90). It seems to have
been St Augustine w ho first explicitly enunciated that in divinis to live, to be, and to know arc one and the same thing (De Triti
6.10.11; In Joan Evang 99.4; and C o n f 13.11; also synthesis,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 206/484
p 99). To be what one knows is not agiven status, but one to be achieved. What is presently true is that “as one’s thinking is, such one becomes” (yac cittas tanmayo bhavatv, and it is because o f this that thinking should be purified and transformed, for were it as centered upon God as it is now upon things sensibly
perceptible, “Who would not be liberated from his bondage?” (Maitri Upanishad VI.34.4.6).
In my opinion yac cittas tanmayo bhavati, Maitri UPVI.34.4 (or its English equivalent as above) would be the best motto for you. Second best would be to use Parmenides’ words without translation, leaving the reader to make what he can of them.
In any case, “to know = to be” is only true for us to the extent that w e are, not for so long as we arenot yet gewerden was
wirr sint.Cordially,
Ruth Nanda Anshcn was editor o f the Scicncc and Culture series published byHarper Brothers. She wished to use the sentence discussed here as a motto.Synthesis = A n Augustine Synthesis, Erich Przywara; see Bibliography.(fr 5) refers to the fragment in H. Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, seeBibliography.
To GEORGE SARTON
July 7, 1942
Dear Sarton:
You had originally asked for 5,000 words. If the enclosed is under present conditions too long, you must try to cut it down.
I cut out much on page 3.You may be interested to know that I’ve had considerable
correspondence with Jaeger lately. I find his belief in only one civilization properly to be so called— viz Greek (expressed in Paideia) rather disconcerting and nearly as dangerous as the doctrine of one superior race.
Very sincerely,
George Sarton, professor of the history of science, Harvard University,Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 207/484
W erner Jaeger, classicist and professor at Harvard Un iversity; au thor o f
Paideia, 1943.
To MR R. F. C. HULL
Date uncertain
Dear Mr Hull;
Re Vedanta Sutra II.2.28;
In general one must take into account the proposition that
knowledge depends upon adequatio rei et intellectus.
Also that both Buddhists and Vedantists recognize a double
truth: one o f opinion, conven tion, pragmatic, empirical; theoth er o f knowledge, ccrtainty, intellectual; ie, relative and
absolute. N ow first, as to the “elephant” . The whole allusion is
contained in the words bravisi nir-ankusatvatte tundasya. Ankusa
= elephant goad, or any hook; tunda = beak, snout, trunk. The
phrase is a technicality , and is represented by Thibaut’s word s,
“You can make what arbitrary statement you please”. More
literal, but less intelligible to a reader would be “You can saywhat you like, but it’s all like guiding an elephant by its trunk
when you have no goad”. Thus the difference between Thibaut
and Deusscn is more apparent than real, and I think you might
stick to the former.
O f course, to me, the w hole controversy is stupid, because
both arc agreed on the distinction o f relative from real truth .
N either is it the Buddhist position that vijnana is any more realthan any other of the five skandhas that constitute the life of the
empirical Ego that “is not my Self’. But vijnana may stand forthe four com ponents o f conscious existence, so that sa-vijnana
kaya = soul and body, “soul” being the same as “empiricalEgo ” . You ask if the Buddhist argum ent (4) is meant to be
fallacious; I think you might call it a “straw man”In (9), “ the son o f a barren m othe r” is a stock expression for
any thing w ithout potentiality o f existence.The argument in (11) is very interesting, because it is actually
the well known nil agit in seipsum, first enunciated in the West by Plato. From it, it necessarily follows that duo sunt in homine.
It is also very interesting to find in the whole passage a
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 208/484
dcfcncc o f the actuality o f appearances, against the current (erroneous) supposition that Vedanta denies the reality o f the world of appearances, as such. Even a mirage is a real “mirage”. But obviously nothing that is an appearance can be callcd “real” in the same sense as that which appears; no image
is as “real” as that o f which it is an image. The word “phenomenon” itself has always an implied “of something”; the verb “appear” must have an implied subject.
The Buddhist agrumcnt in (12) seems to me fallacious; but here, again, I think we arc dealing with a “straw man”. However, taking it as it stands, the Vedantist reply in (17) is very good.
The Vedantist “witness” is, o f course, the “only seer”, ie,
the Self (o f the self) o f the Upanishads. Sankara always assumes that the Buddhist denied this Self, which was not the case; it is the Self in which the Buddha himself “takes refuge” and commends others to do the same; it is callcd “Self, the Lord o f
se lf’ in Sn*In your very last commcnt marked (14), I don’t see how both
subject and object can both be regarded as “selfproved”.
“Selfproved” can only refer to a pcrcipicnt, because it cannot be known as an object to itself; the well known proposition that “the eye cannot see itself’, though it proves itself by the act of its perceiving—similarly in the case of the Self that one is, but cannot know. Whatever can be known objectively cannot be my Self.
Sinccrcly,
* Cf Dhammapada 160: ‘The Self is Lord o f self; w ho else could be the Lo rd?’
Mr R. F. C. Hull, Thaxted, Essex, England, was translating Georg Misch’s Dcr Weg in die Philosophie (1926), w hich consisted of ma ny qu otations from
the Hindu scriptures; M r Hull had w ritten to A KC for help in clarifying
several points.
Sn, probably Sutta Nipata, an early Pali scripture.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 209/484
To MR PAUL GRIFFITH
July 11, 1944
Dear Sir:
Thank you for your inquiry. I appreciate the importance of public opinio n and wish 1 could cooperate w ith you in this
most timely undertaking because India is the most misrepre-
sented country in the world, and it is about time America’s
intelligence on the subject was no longer insulted.
A book like the Bhagavad Gita would be particularly difficult
to illustrate. A metaphysical treatise hard ly lends itself to
illustration. In Indian copies, almost the only illustration ever
found is that o f the tnise eti scene, Arjuna in converse with SriKrishna; such illustrations arc of the type reprodu ced by L. D.
Barnett’s translation, published by Dent, which you could
easily find.
A brave attempt to illustrate the Mahabharata as a whole has
been made in the Poona edition, now in the course o f
publication. A considerable part o f this has appeared, and
copies are in numerous American libraries. To illustrate the
Mahabharata, easy as it would be (in a certain sense and
extremely difficult in another) [would be] really extraneous to
the content of the Bhagavad Gita.
To illustrate the Bhagavad Gita and its w hole backgrou nd
would be possible, but an immense undertaking, and would
am ou nt to an illustration o f Indian culture generally, includingthe mythology. I am afraid my feeling is that it is an almost
impracticable scheme to propose one illustrated magazine articleon the subject. Nanda Lai Bose, whom you mention, is the
best, or one o f the best o f the modern Indian painters. If time permits w hy not communicate with him at Santiniketan,Bolpur, Bengal, British India, directly. I shall be very glad to
hear from you if I can be o f further use.
Yours very truly,
Paul Griffith, London.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 210/484
TO STEPHEN HOBHOUSE
Octobcr 21, 1944
Dear Mr Hobhousc:
With further rcfcrcncc to your last book on William Law, on the subjcct o f the divine “ love and wrath”, I write to express some surprise that you do not take into consideration the solutions o f the problem in other theologies, notably the Islamic and Hindu. Thus, in Islam, heaven and hell arc callcd the reflection o f the divine mercy and majesty respectively; and,
I may add also, an ultimate apokatastasis o f Iblis is foreseen. Your words in the middle o f p. 375 (“It means . . . evil or cowardly will”) are almost exactly a statement o f the theology o f the mixta personao f Mitra-Varunau in Hindu scripture, where Mitra (lit, “friend”) is the Sun (“not him whom all men see, but whom not all men know with the mind”), the “light of lights” , and Varuna is the stern judge o f the dark Sky; these arc also rcspcctivcly the sacerdotiumand the regnum, in divinis; and this world o f light and darkness is the concept and product o f the said conjoint principles which are themselves a unity, the
“Supreme Identity” o f God and Godhead. Thus, there is no
opposition of light and darkness ab intra (“lion and lamb lie down together”) but inevitably ab extra; for a world without contraries would not be a “world” (locus of compossibles), while (as Cusa says) God is to be found beyond them, so that the Hindu speaks o f “liberation from the pairs o f opposites”.
On page 291 you discuss the “soldier” and the Muhamma-
dan position, to which you might have added the Indian as stated in the Bhagavad Gita. There is a point that you ignore in
these positions, and that is the warrior’s vocation, as such, does not permit o f fighting with hatred, but only o f a fighting well in a given cause. The most notable illustration of the consequences o f this takes place in connection with Ali, who had nearly overcome his opponent when the latter spit in his face. Ali immediately drew back, and refused to take advantage o f his superior position. “Why?”, the opponent asked. Ali replied, “It was impossible for me to kill you in anger.” This naturally led to an ultimate reconciliation. I feel that one should not allude to a doctrine like the Islamic doctrine o f the jihad without a full grasp o f all its implications.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 211/484
With rcfercncc to the “ fire” o f life, etc, on page 279, and to
the “ w ra th” as the wheel o f life, these ideas are expressed in
India in almost identical terms, in the notion o f the withholdingo f the fuel from ou r fire, and perhaps most notab ly in theBuddha’s ‘First Sermon” in which he describes all things in the
w orld as being “on fire” .My general point is that the fundamental doctrines of
religion arc to be found in every religion; and that, especially
when expoun ding the mystics it is of the greatest possible
advantage to bring together and point out these equivalents,
which throw so much light on one another as very often to
dispose o f difficulties that seem to inhere in any one form ula-
tion taken by itself.
Yours very sincerely,
Stephen Hobhouse, editor of Selected Mystical Writings of William Law,
London, 1940; identified on p.63.
Jihad, holy war; “a religious war with those who arc unbelievers in the
mission o f M uham m ad . . . an incumb ent religious duty . . . there are two
jihads: al-jihadu ‘l-Akhar . . the grea ter holy war w hich is against oneself,
and the jihadu ‘l-Asghar, against unbelievers, w hich is the “lesser ho ly w ar” .
T o F. S. C. NOR THROP
N ovem ber 6, 1944
Dear Professor Northrop:
I read with the deepest interest your brilliant paper in the
Hawaii Symposium. I entirely agree with you in this main
premise th at O rienta l philosophies start from an im media teapprehension o f reality, and in their extension arc not proce-
dures by abstraction, but statements about the reality in termso f analogy, for the sake of understanding and com munication. Iam not at all sure, however, whether it is safe to use the word
“aesthetic” univocally for what is directly apprehended by thesense organs, and what is immediately apprehended when thedirection o f vision is (as for Plato and the Upanishads)
“ inverted ” , so that it regards not the “seen” , bu t the “ seer” . O fcourse, wc do use a corresponding term, saks'at (“eye to eye”) inthe Upanishads, but there is a clearly understood hierachy of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 212/484
saksat, paroksa and saksat (visible, occult, visible), but it wouldnot be supposed by anyone that the two visions arc both a
matter of sensible perception . If there is one thing certain, it is
that the Brahman-A tm an is not a knowablc object in the sensethat we know a blue area when wc see it.
M y position is that o f the Oriental before the Westerninfluences (see your p. 21); in this connection, incidentally,
yo ur w ords “ no t a M oslem” w ould only apply here if you
intend a strictly exoteric Islam; there can be no question but
that, as Jahan gir rem arked, “Y ou r Vedanta is the same as our
T asaw w uf” . In Jaisi o r in Kabir, w hat is “H indu” and what is
“Moslem”? in Rumi, too, who can distinguish the “Neo
Platon ic” from the H indu and B uddhist factors? C f also
Guenon who knows both Arabic and Sanskrit; his personalaffiliations are Islamic, but he prefers as a rule to expound the
philosophia perennis from Indian sources. 1 hold w ith Jcrcmias
that “the various cultures are the dialects of one and the same
universal language o f the spirit” , expounded semper, et ubique et
ab omnibus.
I fully agree w ith yo ur depreciation o f the translations by
“mere linguists”; I virtually never use a text without having
consulted and considered its original Latin, Greek or Sanskrit,
and th o ugh I am m ore d epen den t in the case o f Persian, even
there I do what I can; the versions I use in print are usually my
own. What I have observed is that it is precisely the merelinguists w ho m ost o f all emphasize the oppositions or
differences o f Ea st and West; as Schopenhauer puts it, they
exh aust them selves in trying to show that even w hen the same
things are said, the w ord s mean som ething different. O f
course, that is largely because the mere linguists, though
nowadays they are mostly rationalists (and at the same time theveriest amateurs in philosophy, as some even confess), inherit
(m ostly qu ite unconsciously) all so rt o f Ch ristian prejudices,
moralistic and other. What has most impressed me is that East
and West (and for that matter, other “dialects”, too, eg,
American Indian) have been forever saying the same thing; and
tha t no t on ly often in the same idiom, bu t so far as Greek and
Sanskrit are concerned, using cognate words, so that Sanskrit
could be rendered into Greek more directly and truly than intoany other language, though Latin also lends itself.
To take a specific case or two: I would say that the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 213/484
fundam ental agreem ent o f Plato with Vedanta is most conspi-
cuous in their com m on doctrine o f the “tw o selves” , mortaland im m ortal, that dwell toge ther in us; the doctrine o f the
inner and outer man which survives in the Scholastic duo sunt in
homitie, and in countless phrases o f ou r daily speech such as
“ m y better s e l f ’. If, as you say, the Western “othe r se lf ’ is“ postu lated” , then it is no m ore than the empirical self or ego,
and hence the doubt about immortality. If the East has no such
doubts, it is because there, the “ other se lf ’ (identified with
Brahma, the ineffable) is apprehended immediately. But surely,
it is only for a “ m od ern ” that the “o ther se lf ’ is a mere
postu la te ; Socra tes’ daimoti was no postulate for him, but an
often very inconvenient “Duke” (hegemon, Skr Netr) “who
always holds me back from w hat T want to do” ; cf his words,“ Socrates you may dou bt, bu t not the tru th ” . Actually, our
own “conscience” (= Socratic daimoti) as Apulcius first, I believe, said; and = to the Scholastic synteresis, inwyt) is not a
postula te for us, but something im mediately known.It appears to me that the real postulates (and notably “I” as a
den otation o f ou r inconstant personality, which never stops to
be, as was equally explicitly remarked by Plato, Plutarch and
the Hindus and Buddhists) cannot be regarded as having anymore validity than attaches to the transient phenomena from
which they arc “ abstracted” ; like the “ laws o f science” , they
have only a convenient value, permitting men to make
predictions w ith a high, but never absolute, probability value.
To speak o f testing the truth o f postulates by experim ent is
only to argue in a circle; I do not sec how any theoria could be
proved or disproved experimenta lly, and, in fact, the Orienta l
position w ould be that w hatever is really true can never be
demonstrated, but only realized. What experiment provesregarding a postulate is not its truth, but its utility, for the
particula r end in view. That the postulates partic ipate in the
transcience of the phenom ena from which they are abstracted,moreover, appears in the fact that the postulates are alwayschanging, being discarded and replaced by others.
The unity o f eastern and w estern doctrines could be equallywell demonstrated from a monograph on the traditional
psycholo gy, from equivalent iconographies, and in many oth erways. As I sec it, your basic “op position” o f East and West isrecognizable only i f we set over against each oth er [the] modern
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 214/484
West and the surviving tradition of the East; for example,
Descartes’ cogito ergo sum is sheer pathos from an Oriental pointo f view, which w ould argue cogito ergo est, and in doing so
would be in word for word agreement with, for example,
Philo. I w ond er, too, if in making the opposition, you are no t
overlooking the whole Western via negativa: Dionysius, Eck-hart, The Cloud of Unknowing, Cusa, and all that aspect of
European culture w hich is a closed book to the modern man, so
much so that ou r M iddle Ages arc every bit as “ m ysterious” to
him as the East itself—is it really two very different things that
both appear so strange?
To be sure, as you say, the postulations arc necessary formodern technology. But is modern technology necessary for
man, I mean for the “good life” and “felicity”? The notion ofan everlasting raising o f the standard o f living, the perpetual
creation o f new wants (by advertisem ent, etc) is really in ord er
that someone m ay m ake mon ey ou t of supplying them after
which they becom e “ necessities”— has that any real connection
with the q uality o f life? Is it not as much as to w ill and decree
that men shall never be content ? The argument is still in a circle;
it is only after it has been assumed that modern technology is
necessary that it follows tha t we must “ postulate” . From w hat Iregard as the C hristian and O riental poin t o f view, all this
production fo r its ow n sake, and w ith it the postu la tes it
demands, are luxuries, rather than means to the good life.
Co uld one, in fact, think o f anything m ore “ luxurious” than
the egopostulate?I think we arc dealing with fundamental problems, the
importance o f which cannot be exaggerated. I hope w e shallhave the opp ortu nity to talk them o ver again some day. I could
almost wish that there were an opportunity, too, to presentsomewhere in print a rejoinder to your article on the above
lines.
With very kind regards,
Filmer Stuart Cuck ow N orthro p, professor o f philosophy, Yale University, N ew Haven, Connecticut, USA.
The Hawaii SymposiumDr Coomaraswamy enlarges the famous ‘Vincentian Canon’ expounded by
St Vincent o f Lerins as the test for true Catho licity and orth od ox y in belief:
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 215/484
that which has been believed semper, el ubique et ab omnibus — that which has
been be lieved ‘alw ays, every where and by every one’.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
Date uncertain
Dear Professor Northrop:
Many thanks for your kind letter. My criticism rests upon
the fact that you speak o f “ the most profound and m atureinsig hts” o f East and West and seem to ignore the break in
Western thought that takes place with the shift (ca 1200) from
realism to nominalism; one cannot “compare” East and Westunless one makes it clear what West one is thinking of—what I
assert is the identity o f the “ most profound and m ature
insights” , w hich w ere an essential part of Christianity once, butarc ignored or even denied by the exoteric Christianity of
today, which virtually overlooks the Godhead altogether andconsiders only God*. The “Supreme Identity” is one essence
with two natures, human and inhuman, light and darkness,
mercy and majesty, God and Godhead, ie, humanly speaking,good and evil. In oth er w ord s also, finite and infinite; assuredly,as for the Greeks, the infinite is from the poin t o f view o f finite beings, “evil” .
As I see it, neither civilization has anything to learn from the
other. H ow often I respond to Western inquirers by saying“Why seek wisdom in India? You have it all in the tradition of
you r ow n which you have only forgotten. T he value o f the
Eastern tradition for you is no t that o f a difference, but that itcan remind you o f what you have forgo tten.”
N ow the East can differ from the West in its poin t o f view, in
that the one can be Traditional and the other antitraditional,and here a mutual understanding is impossible. However, Im yse lf am so perpetually accustomed to thinking simul-taneously it terms o f Eastern and Western tradition as to be ableto say that my perception o f their identity is imm ediate.
“ Why consider the inferior philosophers?” , as Plato says; and
that is why I can say that “the most profound and matureinsights” o f East and West arc the same, while if wc arcthinking only o f the modern West, I fully agree as to their
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 216/484
difference. To agree to differ is no solution. If you will not take Plato, Plotinus, Cusa, Boehmc, Dante, etc, as representing the “most profound and mature insights” o f the West, agreement and cooperation will be ruled out, cxcept upon those lowest levels o f refcrcncc on which there is always room to quarrel.
The notion o f a common humanity is not enough for peace; for what is needed is our common divinity, and the recognition that nothing is really “dear” but for the sake o f the immortal principle that is one and the same in all men Platonic love as understood by Ficino!
Jesus never emphasized the “ individual ” value of every soul, but the universal value in every soul, a very different story. Eckhart was right in saying that all scripture cries aloud for
freedom from self; and it is only to the extent that we practice sclfnaughting, or at least acknowledge that “I” is a postulate valid only for practical (and ultimately always “selfish”) purposes and not a truth (as Plato, Plutarch, et al, very well know), that we can approach the grounds o f peace.
1shall look forward to seeing you when opportunity affords, and thanks for the invitation. I have much to talk over with
Goodcnough, too.
I’m just, as it happens, attending Dr Marquette’s lectures on “Mysticism”. He also secs there the only practical solution.
PS: I think the problem o f truth as something that can only be rccognizcd but cannot be “proved” has a good deal to do with the importance attached to fa ith (assent to a credible proposition) in India as in the West. O f course, I distinguish faith from “fidcism” which only amounts to credulity, as exercised in connection with postulates, slogans and all kinds of
wishful thinking. C f Tripura Rahasya, Hemacuda Section, IX, 88: “That which is selfevident without the necessity to be proved, is alone real; not so other things.” This is with reference to the difference between understanding the universe and understanding the “space” or continuum, identified with Brahma— akasa, kha (and loka in its absolute sense).
Sincerely,
* And which is seen currently to have less and less time for God, preoccupied as it is with all manner of social questions.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 217/484
F. S. C. Northrop, as above.
Erw in R. G ood enou gh, professor o f the history o f religion, Yale Universi-
ty, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
June 5, 1946
Dear Prof Northrop:
I am delighted to receive your boo k and offer my congratula-
tions; 1have read considerable parts o f it, and in many passages
admire your penetration. I am still fully convinced that the
metaphysics o f East and West are essentially the same until the
tim e o f the Western deviation from the com m on norm s, beginning in the 14th centu ry. I am a little surp rised you do not
make any reference to Guenon who has treated these problems
at length. As to the identities: I would cite, for example, the
axiom that duo sunt in homine, one that becomes and one that is,
the former unreal because inconstant, the latter constant and
therefore real. It is interesting that the modern psychologists
(Jung, Hadley, Sullivan, Peirce, etc) have rediscovered the
unreality o f the empirical Ego; to realise which is the beginningo f wisdom and the sine qua non for happiness.
N ow a few notes: p 13, on the testing o f theory by fact;
hypothesis by fact, no doubt, but surely not teoria by fact.
H ypothesis is the produc t o f thinking , reasoning; bu t theory is
ju st th at which is seen, and fo r Plato, Aris to tle and the East
alike, “nous is infallible”. So fact cannot prove or disprove a
theory, but only illustrate it. Even so for Spinoza still, Veritas
norma sui et fa ls i est\ To propose to test theory by fact is simply pragm atism .
Y our recognition o f the positive reality o f the “ experience”
o f N irvana is admirable. H ow ever, it wou ld not be correct toidentify Nirvana with the “aesthetic continuum”, ic, Ether; in
Buddhism, it is explicit that Nirvana lies beyond the experienceo f the sole reality o f the infinitely etherial realm, and beyondthe distinction o f experience from inexperience. Necessarilyso, because “in” Nirvana there is no process while the
experience o f the und ifferentiated aesthetic con tinuum is still,as such, something that “takes place”, and an “event”; thebhavagga, “ sum m it level o f becom ing” , is still in the field o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 218/484
becoming and even from these highest “heavens” there is still a“further escape”.
P 359: It cannot be said that Hinayana Buddhism survives in
India. P 361, the Upanishads are only partly in verse; for
example, much o f the B U is in prose. Passim: I would not call
N ehru “ cultivated” ; he is very ignorant o f Indian culture,
which he has only quite recently begun to study in English
translations! If one is discussing East and West it is never any
use to quote W esternized Orientals, whose point o f view will
necessarily be tha t o f con tem porary Europeans. Incidentally,
too, Jinnah is equally ignorant of things Islamic.
p 487: The Chris tian claim to “ perfection” presents no
difficulty to an Oriental, who can readily grant it. It is merely
that the C hristian denial o f perfection to O riental m etaphysicsis an obstacle to C hristian und erstand ing, p 343: the Sea, for the
East, is not a sym bol o f time, bu t o f undifferentiated eternity.
As for Eckhart, Silesius, etc, the Sea is that in which the
“ rivers” (streams o f consciousness, “ individualities” ) lose their
name and configuration, ie, their limitations— panta rei. To
Eckhart’s “plunge in” corresponds such Pali terms as nibban’o-
gadham, “the dive, or immergence, into Nirvana.”
There arc many things in which I am in fullest agreementw ith you r interpre tations; b ut I am still very sure that, as before
modern times, all your differentiations from the East will befound to break down!
PS: Suppose we grant that at least the modern “western”
position is w hat you call “ theoretical” , and the Eastern
[attitude] founded in an Erlebnis [experience]. This does not
mean that the “Eastern” position is “empirical” or “aesthetic”,althou gh it is o f a reality erlebt, not inferred. The great
“ expe rim ent” consists in the arrest o f all aesthetic experience,
which can be only in terms o f subject and object. Th e Self canno more know itself than the eye can sec itself.* It is only the
transient Ego that can be “known”, like other natural phenomena, external to Self. That the Self itself is unknowable ,otherw ise than by negation o f whatever and all it is not,coincides w ith Ju ng ’s position (cf Two Essays in Analytical
Psychology, 1928, p 268, where he contrasts the known Egowith the unknown Self); I mention him only because he is atypically “Western” mentality, whose “orientalism” is quite
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 219/484
spurious—he expressly “repudiates metaphysics”. All this makes me very uncomfortable when you speak of ultimate reality as “an aesthetically perceived continuum”; the very fact o f perceptibility rules anything out from ultimate reality, all perception involving relations. In Buddhism, the “realm of
naught whatever” is only 6th in a hierarchy of eight states, all regarded as “relative”; Nirvana is explicitly and emphatically an “escape” from all these states.
Kindest regards,
*On the face of it, this sentence might be taken to imply some deficiency in
the Self, per impossible. God cannot be known as object; ‘only God can knowGod”, as a Christian or other monotheist might say. Ontologically, God’sknowledge of Himself is pcrfect and coincides with His Being. On thesupraontological level, that of the Godhead or Self, all distinctions, all positive statements arc transcended by excess of meaning, and one can onlysay ‘not this, not this’; hence, the ultimate necessity of a negative theologyand a via negativa which, however, in no sense imply privation in theSupreme Principle.
F. S. C. Northrop, as above. In 1946, Prof Northrop published The Meeting of East and West, a pioneering effort in the comparative analysis of cultures
and a book widely acclaimed in its time.
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
July 12, 1946
Dear Northrop:
Re atomism, in your book, pp 262263: it is, o f course, sufficiently obvious that the notions o f “indivisibles with magnitude” involves an antinomy. But that does not seem to be what the old atomists postulated. Relying on data in Burnet,
Early Greek Philosophy, p 336, I note that the Greek atoms are “mathematically” (ie, logically) but not “physically” (ie, really) divisible. In other words, they have conceptual but not actual extension. N ow Aristotle himself has a doctrine of atomic time (atomos nun), Physics IV, 13, 222 . . . , and this is the exact
equivalent o f the Buddhist doctrine o f the ‘‘moment” (khana) which has no duration but “in” which all accidents supervene, and o f which the succession never ceases. Similarly in the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 220/484
Islamic doctrine of wagt, for which Macdonald inferred a
Buddhist origin; and the whole idea survives in the formula
“God is creating the whole world now, this instant.”
Very well. It seems to me that we cannot but consider at the
same time momentswithoutduration and pointswithout
extcnsion. Are not the latter what the old “atoms” imply?Remember that they arc “logically but not physically divisi-
ble” ; so, like the “ m om ents” , they have content but are not
measurable. T hus the antinomy “ indivisible m agnitud e” seems
to vanish; it docs not appear that a “reallyindivisiblemagnitude” was ever asserted. The fact that we have now
“split atoms” (theoretically into protons, etc, and also ex-
perim enta lly) has no bearing on the problem; it only means th at
what we called “a tom s” w ere not really the same thing as the old philosophical ato ms, ie, “ points” (Skr bindu — A V ) without
extension though not without content. The best illustration of
such a “ po int” is afforded by the centre o f the circle wh ich has
no extension and yet “in” which all radii coincide. This alsow ou ld lead us to a kind o f explanation o f exem plarism (as I
showed in H JA S , I) and to Bon aventura’s image o f God as a
circle of which the centre is everywhere and the circumference
nowhere.Moreover, just as all “moments” are in one sense the same
m om ent, so in one sense all atoms are the same atom (cf note 3
in Burnet i C); the atomic now being that which gives its
meaning to past and future (time flowing out o f eternity) and
the atomic point being that which gives its meaning to
extension (space deriving from the point as “size without size,
the principle of size”).
PS: a m inor point no t connected with the above: p 273, second
and third lines o f middle paragraph— the first “ form al” can be
taken strictu sensu, but surely the second “formal” should read:“actual”.
Very sincerely,
F. S. C. Northrop, as above. Early Greek Philosophy, J. B urnet, L ond on, 1930.
‘Vcdic Exemplarism’, AKC, in Harvard Journal o f Asiatic Studies, I, 1936.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 221/484
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
July 25, 1946
Dear Northrop:
Y our letter is o f great interest, and at the least I think that w emay overcome at least such disagreements as are based on the
particular terms emplo yed.
You cite again the Roman Catholic attitude. Does their“b e lie f’ (opinion) in the exclusive perfection o f Christianity
make it true? They could assimilate Aristotle; now Aristotle is
so “Buddhist” (phrase for phrase in many cases) that some have
assumed (as I do not) “influence”. In other words, much that
Aquinas did get from Aristotle (and that is plenty) he mighthave go t from India, i f the same kind o f contacts had then been
available. Some o f my R .C. friends in England (one o f w hom
calls Sri Ramakrishna an alter Christus) are most seriously
considering, in view o f the present contact, what ought to be
the future attitude o f R.C. Christianity to “ Oriental studies” .So that I don’t think my argument for real difference can be
based on the hitherto R .C . position.I w on der if the “ tasting o f the flower” is so very different
from “O, taste and see that the Lord is good”? Suppose I
modified one o f yo ur sentences thus: “ W hatever one has
m isunderstanding between peoples . . . (it is always assumed
that there is) an underlying difference in their philosophy andtheir religion”?
I read Jones’ review in the N . Y. Times L it Sup* with inter-
est. I think he hardly gets the meaning o f yo ur “ aesthetic
continuum”. But I must not go on now. Needless to say, there
is very m uch in y ou r book that I greatly adm ire and fully agreew ith, and ou r discussion o f points o f disagreement in no w aydiminishes that.
Very sincerely,
^Presumably the New York Times Book review, the Literary Supplement beinga weekly section o f the Times of London.
F. S. C. Northrop, as above.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 222/484
To F. S. C. NORTHROP
July 28, 1946
Dear Northrop:
I have no longer any strong objection to your phrase“indeterminate aesthetic continuum”, since although the East
like the West is always pointing out that “the eye cannot see
itself’, still finds it unavoidable to use such expressions as
“seeing”, “tasting”, “knowing”, etc, with reference to the
ultimate reality, as regards the actual phrase “disinterestedaesthetic con tem plation ” (taken, o f course, from current
Western usage) I have nearly always put it in quotes, and morethan once said that as it stands it represents an antinomy,
“disinterested” and “aesthetic” being really incompatibles.After all, as the prim ary application o f language is to tem poral
“things”, one is obliged, as all expositors have recognized, to
use empirical analogies.
Christian Logos and Father correspond to Mitravarunau or
parapara Brahman — the “ tw o natures” predicated by both West
and East. The Father is the “Godhead”. Eckhart’s “free as the
Godhead in its nonexistence” is Nirvana, “the unborn,
unm ade, unbeco me, incom posite, which if it were not, therew ould be no way o f escape from the born, made, composite. “ I
do not see in w hat sense you can say that the Father “ transcends N irvana” unless you mean sim ply that the Chris tian regards it
for some reason as a preferable concept. One must not
overlook the Father’s “impassibility”.
Again, “Logos” = sabda Brahman, Father = asabda Brah-man ( sabada = sound, utterance: asabda = silent, unuttered.
Very sincerely,
F. S. C. Northrop, as above.
To MR HUSZAR
August 8, 1947
Dear Mr Huszar:
I read your paper with pleasure and am very glad you are
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 223/484
pre senting it; and I like your choice o f a spruchwort from Andre
Gidc. I have often referred to the provincial limitation ofH utchin s’ position, eg, in my speech at Kenyon College last
year and in A m I M y Brother’s Keeper ? But these people arc
almost immovable, as I know from correspondence with and
pro tests made to the Dean o f St Jo hn ’s College and the Editoro f the “ Great B ook s” . In contrast, my ow n habitual method is
to treat the term s o f the com mon universe o f discourse in a
worldwide context; eg, my “Symplcgadcs” in Studies . . . of
fered in Homage to George Sarton . . . , 1947, and in Time and
Eternity, Ascona, Switzerland, 1947.
I know o f no b etter study o f the level at which internationalcontac ts should be made than Marco Pallis’ Peaks and Lamas.
Very sincerely,
Mr Huszar is not identified.
St Jo h n ’s Co llege, in its list o f ‘H un dre d Best Bo ok s’ prescribed fo r its
students did n ot include even one w ork from East of Suez and despite
pro te sts fro m both students and AKC, did not alter the list.
A m I M y Brother’s Keeper?, New York, 1947; see Bibliography.
Peaks and Lamas, see Bibliography.
To WALLACE BROCKWAY
July 29, 1946
Dear Mr Brockway:
In reply to yours o f Ju ly 15, received today; I feel com pelled
to say what I have often said before, that I am Tuly apallcd by
the provincialism which can [be seen] at St Jo hn ’s College andin you r series o f “ Great B ooks” ; it is an aspect of the extremely
isolationist tendencies o f Am erican education in practice at the
pre sent day , despite all the lipservice to the “ O ne W orld” idea.I consider that for the kind o f education we are considering,that to be cosm opolitan in the best sense o f the w ord it isindispensable for the European to be acquainted with not only
the great books in spoken Western languages, and Latin andGreek; but also w ith the great books o f the whole East; or if wespeak o f language (as distinct from the books to be know n in
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 224/484
translation), then I w ould say that a European is no t educated in
the full mean ing o f the w ord if he cannot read both Latin andGreek and at least one o f the classical languages o f the East,
Arabic, Sanskrit, or Chinese. Conversely, the time has comefor orientals to read Greek. That you ask me, supposedly an
O rientalist, to be o f any assistance in your imm ediate problemillustrates what I am saying; such assistance from me is only
possible because I am familiar w ith the Western as well as the
Eastern traditions, or putting this in terms o f languages,
because I do read Latin and Greek and the chie f spoken
European languages.
I will consider whether there is anything further that I can
do. In the meantime, in the Bibliographies for Art, and for
Beauty, I suggest that my own books, The Transformation of Nature in A rt (Harvard University Press, 1934), Why Exhibit
Works of Art? (Luzac, London, 1943) and Figures o f Speech or
Figures o f Thought ? (Luzac, London, 1946)—which latter
includes long translations from St Thomas and Ulrich. There
are prescribed reading in some University courses. In the
preface to the last mentioned I wrote : “W hoever makes use o f
these three books and o f the sources referred to in them will
have a fairly complete view o f the doctrine about art that the
greater part o f mankind has accepted from prehistoric times
until yesterday.”
I pu t forw ard no new theories o f my ow n; b ut I do say that
w ithout a know ledge o f the material I deal with, the pathetic
fallacy in the teaching o f art histo ry is inevitable, and as
inevitable as it is rampant. I add that under the heading of
N ature should certain ly be included R. C. C ollingw ood’s
Philosophy o f Nature. Re Art, see also the Bibliography in my
Why E xhibit Works o f A rt ? (Luzac, London, 1943, p 59). Othersuggestions will come to mind, no doubt, but in the meanwhile
perhaps you will be kind enough to send on those above to M rBcrnick.
Very sincerely,
Wallace Brockway was with Encyclopaedia Britlanica at the time.
Why Exhibit Works of A rt ? was later reissued under the title, Christian and Oriental Philosophy o f Art\ see Bibliography.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 225/484
To GRETCHEN WARREN
August 8, 1946
Dear Grctchcn:
I have been looking at Collingw ood’s Idea o f Nature, pp. 1927,and see nothing alarming. I think Whitehead is quite right in
saying “there is no nature ( scire licet, natura naturata), in an
instant” (ie, “mathematical instant containing no time lapse at
all”). Also, “according to modern physics nothing whatever
w ould be left” if all m ovem ent were to stop is obviously so
because “ m otion” and “existence” are only tw o nam es o f the
same “thing”. One trouble for men like Collingwood is that
they do not start by clearly defining the distinction between
existence (ex alio sistens) and essence (in seipso sistens); so that it is
not always clear what they mean by “existence”. Existence is
always in some way and in some time observable, essence
never. All existence is summed up in essence, which is
“n oth ing ” , ie, no one o f those “ things” that exist and all of
which are perishable composites.
“ M en feel that w hat cannot be put in term s o f time is
mean ingless . . . [but] the no tion o f a static imm utable being
ought to be understood rather as signifying a process (or an“energy”, which is a better word), so intensely vivacious, in
terms o f time as extrem ely swift, so as to comprise beginning
and end at one stroke” (W. H. Sheldon in Modern Schoolman, XXI, 133). Plus la vie du moi s’identifie avec la vie du noti-moi (leSoi), plus on t>it intensement (Abdul Hadi).
“Past and future are to thee a veil from God . . . cast fire on
both (R umi, Mathnawi, I, 22012). God: ubi futurum et
praeteritum coincidunt cum praesenti (Nicholas o f Cusa, De vis Dei, C .x), as also in Buddh ism, o f the Arahan t, Freedman,
Im m ortal, “ for him there is neither past no r fu ture” (S. 1.141).W hoever finds the “ N ow o f E ternity” (con taining. x»o
timelapse at all) finds “nothing and all things”—all at once,not in a succession. Present vision of all that ever has been orshall be in the endless succession o f past and future aeons canhardly be tho ug ht o f as an “em pty” life, though it be “vo id” o f“things” in the sense that we experience them in succession,
where they never stop to be, and we lose them as soon as we
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 226/484
have them, ie, instantly, which is the very “tragedy” of“existence”.
AKC
Gretchen Warren, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
To ALDOUS HUXLEY
August 10, 1944
Dear Mr Huxley:
Yours o f Augus t 4 reached me ju st after I had sent o ff to youmy little tract on “Recollection”, etc.
I do not understand what could be meant by becoming a
good Catholic “ for the sake o f Christian bhakti”. Surely, one
only accepts a body o f doctrine (such as that o f the philosophia
perennis) because o f its se lf authentica ting intelligibility and
because it explains m ore th ings than are expla ined elsewhere. I
quite agree that as a rule (to which there are individual
exceptions) it is undesirable to exchange one religion foranother. Bhakti is a general proposition, not to be connected
exclusively with Christ or Krishna. The point is sine desiderio
mens non intelligit. Th is applies to an understanding o f “ reality”
by w hatever name we call “ It” . Granted that jn ana, karma and
bhakti (the latter being love or loyalty, but literally participation)
arc in a hierarchy; this does not mean that they are mutually
exclusive; even Sankaracarya “ w orship ped ” . W hich of the
three m ust p redom inate is a question o f individual talent. Allarc legitimate, and all can be misused. Your own feeling about
Kali is, as I see it, a purely sentimental reaction, quite as
dangerous as any kind o f devotion, h ow ever “ blind” ; one who“ loves G od ” really, loves H im “ in His darkness and His lig h t.”
I can’t agree that “art” is mysterious; it is no morem ysterious than anyth ing else. A rt is a kind o f know ledgeabout how things, which it has been decided are desiderate, can be made. It is mainly modern aesthetics that has th row n a veil
o f “ m yste ry” ov er “ art” , ju st as mo dern sentimentality hasmade a fool o f prudence (so to speak), by treating it not as a
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 227/484
means to an end. The differentiation o f styles is no thing bu t an
example o f the w orking o f the principle that “ nothing can be
know n but in the m ode of the kno w cr.”Y our “ C om m on Father” book, if it really deals with
dogmatic equivalents, and not merely with the general agree-
ment that one must “be good, sweet child”, should bevaluable. I have m yse lf collected an enorm ous am ount o f
“parallels”, and cited very many in my articles; in fact,
generally speaking, I dislike to expound any doctrine (such as
that o f the single essence and the two natures, or that o f lila or
any sym bolism (such as that o f “ light” , or the “ chariot” , or the
“Symplcgades”) from single sources only. There is, however,
the difficulty, that one cannot, generally speaking, trust
existing translations; and one docs not know enough languagesto be able to check on everything.
With kind regards,
Postscript to above letter:
You did not let me know whether Marco Palli’s book reached
you. My wife adds: your distrustful words about bhakti would be
und erstandab le if you were a Rom an Catho lic, faced with the pale and ovcrswect Catholicism o f these times. Indeed, the
R C C hurc h is imitating the Protestant churches o f the modern
world, and is not i tself* Even Thomism is only halfway back,
so to speak, to Meister Eckhart, and The Cloud of Unknowing.
Perhaps the Greek Church is still poor enough to be as clean as
one can be in this environment. For you, it ought to be no
long er a question o f C hrist or Krishna, but o f a Principle that
assumes every name by which His worshippers address Him.We so much admire Grey Eminence that we cannot bu t regret
the times w hen you r “ feelings” (taste) intervene . If I have learntanything, it is never to “think” (will) for myself. In all these
things my only will is to understand.
* I f this w as tru e in 1944, it is a fortiori true today, after the more than sixty
year debacle that has followed.
Aldous Hux ley, popular novelist who se fashionableness peaked between thetw o W orld W ars. Later in his career he turned to no nfiction and w rote Grey
Eminence, The Perennial Philosophy, etc.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 228/484
‘Recollection, Indian and Platonic’, published as a Supplement to the Journal
o f the American Oriental Society, LXIV, no. 2, 1944.
To ALDOUS HUXLEY
September 28, 1944
Dear Mr Huxley:
I should like to begin by making it very clear that I fully
agree with you that Charity (maitri, not karuna, however) isindispensable for Enlightenment; nor am I any exception to the
rule that no one has ever hinted that because the end is beyond
good and evil, the means may be so. I further agree with the“ transcendent and imm anen t” point of view, and with the
distinction o f God from Godhead, in nature but n ot in essence.
What I do not agree with is your apparent assumption that practitioners o f hum an sacrifice arc necessarily “uncharitable” .
I am aw are that that w ould be a Buddhist point o f view. That itw ould also be a Christian point o f view is metaphysically
explicable by the fact that in the particular Christian formula-
tion, the sacrifice has been made once for all; that is why, while
it is necessary for M oslems to make all killing o f animals for
food a sacrificial rite (the same for the Jew s), this is not
necessary for Christians. In the same way, I would not at allagree that the warrior’s dharma is necessarily “uncharitable” or,
for that m atter, the hu nte r’s; these ways would be uncharitable
if followed by a Brahman, but not i f followed by a Ksatriya. It isall a ma tter o f “convenience” (in the technical sense o f the
word). At the same time I need hardly say that the fact that we
are too compassionate to practice human sacrifice, or some-times even to hunt, makes all the more contemptible ourreckless disregard o f the value o f hum an life (I am referring tothe industrial system in which things arc more highly valued
than the men who produce them) and our willingness tovivisect animals to save our ow n skins, as we imagine. I shouldsay that the Aztec was truer to his Way than we are to ours.
I do not approach the great tradition, as you seem to do, to
pick and choose in them what seems to me to be “ righ t” ; allcoercion repels me, but w ho am I to pass jud gem en t upon thosew ho must use force, and are only at fault if they do so
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 229/484
incorrcctly? No Way can be jud ge d in isolation w itho ut regard
to the enviro nm ent it presupposes. O n this poin t there is a verygood Indian story o f a Brahm an w ho maintained the service o f
a Siva Lingam, to w hich he m ade offerings only o f flowers,
water and chant. It was in the deep woods. One day a hunter,
who filled with devotion likewise, had in his own way placedon the Lingam pieces o f raw flesh o f his prey. The B rahm an
was infuriated, abused the hunter, and threw away his
offerings. Suddenly Siva appeared, and graciously accepting
the hu n ter’s, offering, pointed out to the Brahm an that the
hunter’s devotion had been no less than his own, and that he,
the Brahman, had given way to anger. We cannot jud ge o f
w hat is “ righ t” for others, but only o f w hat is right for us.
I am going to quote again from the friend from whom I havequoted before regarding your position:
O ne part o f him wishes to be free, but the other part insists
on m aking a nu m ber o f reservations. . . . One hoped that
Grey Eminence marked a more serious step in the direction of
seeking a guru. It is apparent that w ha t he needs m ost o f all is
an element o f bhakti for the simple reason that tho ugh he does
genuinely hanker after the truth and a unified existence, he
fears to trus t h im self boldly into the hands o f his aspiration; itis indeed ‘ab an do nm en t’ that is still m ost lacking in his
attempt, due to regret at having to give up so much that is
taken for granted in the modern w orld . . . hence the
electicism w hich seeks to express itself in anthologies— one
can be almost sure that though the quotations he will select
will be fine in themselves, the choice will be influencedunduly by private preferences and dislikes. For instance,
texts enjoining an attitude of ahimsa are more likely to besnapped up voraciously while the complementary textsconnected with, say, jihad are as likely to be rejected as being
uninspired; so also the traditions in which nonviolence plays
a great part such as the Gospels or Buddhism, will appeal tohim, but he will find it difficult to sympathize impartiallyw ith w arrior or hunting cultures. . . . He also continues totrust far too mu ch to his po wers o f extracting the meaning o f
doctrines th rou gh a mere reading o f texts. It is quite true, asGu enon said somew here, that he w ho kn ow s can often detectthe real sense of a text even under the disguise of modern
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 230/484
distortions; but this is quite impossible for one who trusts to
his academic training alone.
I shall send you shortly a paper o f Schu on’s on the Three
M argas and am only sorry I have no copy of his imp ortant
article on Sacrifice that I can send. I hope you duly received
“On the One and Only Transmigrant” (which is mainly
apropos of immanence).
Very sincerely,
Aldous Huxley, as above.
Marco Pallis, personal correspondence.
‘On the One and Only Transmigrant’ , Supplement to the Journal o f the
American Oriental Society, LXIV, no 2.Frithjof Schuon, see Appendix.
To ALDOUS HUXLEY
August 29, 1944
Dear Mr Huxley:
My adherence to the Traditional Philosophy is because itexplains m ore in every field o f thou ght than do any o f our
systemic philosophies; it can, indeed, explain everything, or
account for everything, to the extent that explanations are
logically possible. In the various religions this philosophy istranslated into the modes o f the knowers.
Let us take it for granted that “good”—or rather, “correct”
conduct is essential to Wayfaring; and also that evil is a
“nonentity”—as our word naught-y, German untat, andSanskrit a-sat (as evil) imply, the suppositio being that ens et
bonum convertuntur. I still maintain that your attitude, in
wanting to have a “good” God, and therefore finding the
problem o f evil so difficult, is sentimenta l. But Wayfaring isone thing, and the Goal another. The Buddha and Meister
Eck hart (amo ng others) are in absolute agreement that the Goalis beyond good and evil; cf Dhammapada 412 (he is a monk,indeed, w ho has abandoned g ood and evil); and cf Dante, Purg
18.6769, “those who in their reasoning went to the founda-tions beheld this interior freedom, therefore they left moralita to
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 231/484
the world”; and Rumi (Nicholson’s translation, Ode VIII, “to
the man o f God, right and w rong are alike”). The problem o fgood and evil, in other words, pertains to the “active life”
alone. In our correspondence I have ventured to assume wewere discussing ra ther the truth itself than its application.
Th e sup reme example o f bringing good out o f evil is that o fcreatio ex nihilo. Here the nihil is potentiality, possibility (always
evil when contrasted with being in act) but also that without
which no “act” could be, since the impossible never happens.
One must bear in mind that all these technical terms have a
double application; thus nonbeing as priva tion o f being is evil,
but a nonbein g that im plied only freedom from the lim itation
o f being in any mode is no t an evil, and we find Meister
Eckhart using the words “free as the Godhead in itsnon existence” . The God o f the traditional doctrines is the
“ Supreme Iden tity” o f God and Godhead, Essence and Nature,
Being and Nonbeing, Light and Darkness, Sacerdotium and Regnum. In creation and under the Sun these potentially
distinguishable contraries interact, and a w orld com posite from
them is brought into being ex principio conjuncto. So (as explicit
in Islam), Heaven and Hell arc the reflections o f the divine
Mercy and Majesty, Love and Wrath, Spirit and Law. Both are
the same “fire”; but as Boehme so often says, whether of
Heaven or Hell depending upon ourselves, whether we are or
are not “salamanders”. We have not, then, known or loved
G od “ as He is in H im se lf’, but only an aspect o f God, unless
both in his light and darkness.O n the doctrine o f sacrifice, I recom mend Frithjof Schuon ’s
discussion in Etudes Traditionnelles.
I am a “humanitarian” (an antivivisectionist, for example),
but I do not feel a horror o f animal or even hum an sacrifice; Irecognize, o f course, that it may not be “ convenien t” (becom -ing, right, proper) for us to practice either. At the same time, Ivery strong ly suspect that this is not a matter o f our superiorvirtue, and that all we have done is to secularize sacrifice (ofanimals in the laboratory; and o f men in the financialcommercial state, in the factory, or on the battle field).
Regarding art, I do n ot m yse lf see that Mayan art is devoid o f
sensuality. As for stylistic permanence o r change: one must, o fcourse, distinguish style from iconography; the latter can persis t indefinitely , and even long after .its reasons are no longer
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 232/484
understood, the former always changes, so that even in what seem to be the most static cultures, works of art can be closely dated on stylistic grounds, if we know enough. There is no inherent necessity for iconographic change, because the forms may be correct; accordingly in a living tradition one expects
Plato’s “new songs, but not new kinds of music”. It is our sensitive rather than our intellectual nature that demands novelties; for the intellect, originality is all that is required.
You still did not let me know whether you received from
Marco Pallis his book, which he had sent you; I would like to be able to inform him, as he wanted to send you another copy if the first had gone astray.
Very sincerely,
PS: A few addenda o f remarks that might have been included
above: the Buddha’s emphatic enunciation of a goal beyond good and evil docs not, o f course, prevent him from asserting with equal emphasis that there is an “ought to be done” and
“an ought not to be done”. We are responsible for what we do so long as we hold that we are the doers.
In gnosis, the fall o f man is his knowledge o f good and evil; his regeneration therefore, obviously, to a “primordial state” beyond good and evil, or “state o f innocence”, ie, o f “harmlessness”. What we call evil is as ncccssary as is what we call good to the perfection o f the universe, which can only exist in terms of contrasts. The shadow as well as the highlight is
necessary to the picture—so St Augustine (Con/ VII. 13; Erigena, M. Bett, p 71; Rumi, Legacy of Islam, p 234).
Aldous Huxley, as above.Frithjof Schuon, see Appendix.Marco Pallis, as above, p 26
To GERALD VANN, OP
February 26, 1947
Dear Gerald Vann, OP:
I agree with you (in current Blackfriars) that Huxley’s
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 233/484
philosophia perennis is “ trans itiona l” . I m yself have collected
much more, and I think much more impressive material, forthe most part directly from Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Pali and
other sources.But you say Christian “selfnaughting” is in order to be
reborn; but that the Eastern is not so. Who told you this aboutthe East? Do you kn ow the texts at first hand? If no t, have you
any right at all to make such statements?
As to Tat Tvam Asi, there is an extensive Indian literature by
authoritative exegetes discussing at length the meaning o f each
o f these wo rds. Arc you familiar with it?
A R om an Catholic friend o f mine is devoting at least ten
years to se lf preparation for w riting on w hat is to be the attitude
o f Rom an Catholics to Eastern religions as no w better
understood than formerly. For this purpose, in addition to the
Latin and Greek he already knows, he has learned Sanskrit.
I consider it morally irresponsible to make statements
(especially negative ones) about any “ oth er” religion o f which
one docs not have at least some firsthand knowledge. For
example, to know anything seriously about Hinduism or
Buddhism, you must have “searched their scriptures” as
Christians do their Bible, not to mention the great com m entar-
ies in both cases.
Very sincerely,
Gerald Vann, OP, Blackfriars School, Laxton, England
Blackfriars, a monthly review published by the Dominican Order (Order of
Preachers) in England
Aldous Huxley, as above
Bernard Kelly, identified on p 20.
To MISS ELIZABETH HEIMAN
December 30, 1938
Dear Miss Heimann:
It occurs to me to add that one must distinguish betweencontraries and mutually exclusive opposites without reciprocity.It is the fo rm er that are coincident on a level o f reference above
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 234/484
them both (and which is represented on our level by the
“mean”). It is only possible that can thus coincide; eg, being
and nonbeing. Whereas the opposite of possible, v iz , theimpossible, has no existence anywhere (even in divinis), as is
expressed in Christian doctrine by saying that “God cannot act
against his ow n natu re” (which is one o f possibility). StTh om as h im self observes in this connection that being and
nonbeing arc contradictory in themselves, b ut if we refer them
to the act o f the m ind there is som ething positive in both cases
(cf here Udana 80: “there is a notbccomc”, atthi . . . abhutam)-,
and the things are no longer mutually exclusive in intellect,
because one is the reason fo r knowing the other (Sum Theo l III,
64.3; c f 54,2 ad 1 and 35, 5 ad 2). It is precisely for this reason
that “primative” languages (which proceed from a level ofreference above dialectic) have roots and words that subsume
con trary meanings: o f w hich w e have a survival in such w ords
as “reward” which may imply a good or an evil, though our
m entality tends m ore and m ore to restrict the meaning o f such
words—reward, for example, generally meaning a good. We
call this kind o f limitation “ clear thinkin g” , and refer the
original ambivalence to a “ prelogical me ntality” . “ P rior” to
logic, perhaps, as principles arc “prior” to their consequences(and as the Middle Ages understood in principio)-, but let us not
forget that for India at least, logic (nyaya) is only one “point of
view” (darsana), and by no means the most profound.
Very sincerely,
Miss Elizabeth Heimann, London, England
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
August 27, 1942
Sir,
I cannot agree w ith C aptain Ludovici about everything . But Ishould like to say that he is absolutely right in saying that
“ values and truth are in different departments o f kn ow ledge .”This holds g ood even in the field o f empirical know ledge,where what we know factually about any phenomenon, social
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 235/484
or o therw ise, is independent o f the values, moral or aesthetic
that we may associate with it.Far more significant, however, is the principle that values,
which always arrive in pairs (good and evil, long and short, etc)
are always relative to the evaluator, and truth, considered
absolutely, ie, in divinis, belong to two different worlds. Inother words, God as He is in Himself, definable only by
negations, and not as we conceive Him in our own likeness,
does not value. At this point the line is drawn between religion
(which takes account o f values) and metaphysics (which, like
Socrates daimon, “that vulgar fellow, cares for nothing but the
tru th ”). B ut even the religions—all o f them — recognize that
there is a reality or truth transcending values; however
temporally (but no t eternally) im portan t these values may be asdispositive to, or even prerequisite to, grasp o f the reality o f
that final truth.
It is o f course, “dangerous” to pub lish such a doctrine,
how eve r true; it has happened m ore than once, both in Eu rope
and in Asia, that men have argued (always, o f course,
heretically) that it does not matter what I do, right and wrong
being only m atters o f preference. The catch lies, o f course, in
the words “I” and “preference”; since for so long as we hold
that “I am the doer” and for as long as we entertain any
preferences w hatever, we cannot shake off the burden o f
responsibility. God has no preferences; and can have none, for
if H e had, tha t w ould mean that He had something to gain by
action, which is excluded by hypothesis. It is only those who
are no lon ger anyone and have no preferences, w ho have a right
to look upon good and evil without approbation or disapproval.I have said above that all scripture is agreed that there is “a
beyond good and evil” . This could be show n at great length bycitation o f chapter and verse from the scriptures o f three
millenia and m any lands. To be brief, Meister Eckhart says o f the summum bonum that “there neither good nor evil ever entered
in”. For St Thomas Aquinas, morality is, indeed essential to theactive life, b ut only dispositive to the contemplative and higherlife. In the same way, Buddhism is not an ethical doctrineessentially but only accidentally. The Buddha affirms very
vigorously that there is an “ O ug ht to be done” and an “ O ug htno t to be don e” , but in the Parable o f the Raft, points out that aman w ho has reached land at the end o f his voyage does no t
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 236/484
carry the ship about on his back but leaves it on the shore; and in the Dhammapada he defines a true Brahman, not the Brahman by birth, but one who has abandoned all attachment to good and evil. St Augustine says “God forbid that we should still use the Law as a means of arrival when we have arrived.”
And Meister Eckhart, in almost verbal agreement with the Buddha, says that “having gotten to the other side, I no longer need a ship.” It is rather a pity that a doctrine o f “beyond good and evil” should be so closely and exclusively connected with Ncitzschc in our minds! Captain Ludovici’s opponent hardly seems to realize that he is, in effect, defending a doctrine o f salvation by works and merit, forgetting that we must be
judged, at last, not by what we have done, but by what we are.
AKC
The Dhammapada is perhaps the most popular element of the Pali canon. Itconsists of 423 verses, forms part of the Sutta-pitaka, and dates from well before the beginning o f the Christian era. Many translations are available.
ToHELEN CHAPIN
January 16, 1946
Dear Helen:
No time to answer at length at present as I have to prepare lectures for fixed dates. But about the unreality o f evil: this follows from the accepted axiom ens at bonum convertuntur. That is also why our English word naught-y means bad, just as
Sanskrit a-sat, “notbeing”, also is equivalent to “evil”. It implies that all sins are sins of ommission, not acts, but things not-done (Skr atertam), a point of view exactly preserved in German untat, crime. Or as in the case of darkness and light—darkness is not a positive principle, but only the absenceof light: or as" a lie is not a "false fact” but simply a not-fact or an un-truth. You’ll soon get used to seeing this!
As to your possessions, o f course, the best is [to] get them where they can be used and appreciated.
Congratulations on the prospect of going to the East!
Very sincerely,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 237/484
Helen Chapin, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
T o THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
October 1942
Sir,
. . . I think M r M assingham (in your issue Sept. 24, p. 187)
does no t qu ite sec that this is a w orld o f contrasts, and tha t there
could not be any other kind o f w orld. Hence a duality and
opp osition o f “ good and evil” in the w orld (“ under the sun”) is
inevitable. To realize this does not make one a “dualist”. A
“ radical correction o f corru pt prima ry and secondary instincts by in te llect” is, if I understand it rightly , just w hat Plato means
w hen he speaks o f “ rectifying the modes o f thoug ht in our
heads, which were distorted at our birth, by an understanding
o f the cosmic harmonies and motions, so that by an assimila-
tion o f the kno w er to the tobe know n in its primordial nature,
and having come to be in this likeness, we may attain at last to
tha t ‘life’s best’ that has been appointed by the Gods to m an for
this time being and hereafter” (Timmaeus 90 D, cf 47 C), and inm any other contexts in which he speaks o f “ selfrule” as the
go vernm ent o f the w orse part in us (the impulses and instincts)
by the best part (reason).We must bear in mind, however, that “intellect” like
“ reason” is one o f the m any terms o f which the meaning has
been lessened and degraded for us. In the tradit ional theology,
“Intellect” is equated with “spirit” and is not at all what we
may for convenience call “mentality” or what we mean by
“reason”, something a long way under Plato’s Logos! Alltradition assumes a duality o f “ m ind” , which is both hum an
and divine; c orrec tion is o f the form er by the latter, and it is tothis rectification that the word metanoia, which we render by
“ rcpcn tence” , bu t which is really “ change o f m ind” , refers. Iassert that this is the “true traditional line”.
AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 238/484
To PROFESSOR MEYER SCHAPIRO
Octobcr 19, 1932
Dear Professor Schapiro:
Many thanks for your letter. My understanding would bethat as adequatio is in epistcmology, so consonnantia is in
aesthetic; these terms corresponding to sariipya (conformity)
and sadrsya (“convisibility”). It seems to me that Scholastic
and Oriental theory are in complete agreement that complete
knowledge and being arc one and the same: this “being”
(csscncc) representing the condition of reconciliation between the
objective as it is in itse lf and the subjective as it is in us, neither
of these possessing a reality of the same order as that of theircommon principle. This applies equally to knowledge (truth)and art (beauty): ratio pulchri est quadam consonantia diuersorum.
W hether or n ot this is the doc trine actually taught is, o f course,
a matter for investigation: apart from that, I feel it to be true.
N ow as to “ constata tio n” : I cannot understand the idea o f a
“ goo d” w orld picture, or any world picture that is not made upo f contrasts. Pu t otherwise, ho w can the primal pulse o f being
be thought o f oth erw ise than as sim ultaneous spiration and
dcspiration, extroversion and introversion, etc? (Expressed in
religious terms, “He makes his sun to shine alike upon the ju st
and the unju st” : or Indian, “Th e Lord accepts neither the good
nor the evil w orks o f any m an .”) This is from the point o f view
o f the absolute Self (not empirical Ego); good and evil, w isdom
and folly, are equally acceptable, there being no distinction betw een necessity and to lerability. O n the oth er hand, from the
standpo int o f the empirical Ego situated at a given here and
now , there will be an inevitable bias in favour o f good or evil,introversion or controversion, etc. What is most important isnot so much what the position is as whether the individual is
conscious o f his position. Any jud gem en t o f good or evil is to be sure a m atter o f taste, ie, the healthy indiv idual will alw aysapprove o f w hat corresponds to his ow n nature. W hether or
not “ natu ralistic” is a correc t characterisation o f a style inquestion is another matter: by “naturalistic” I do not so much
mean “photographic” in a bad sense (incidentally, I havem yse lf practised ph otog raphy as an “ art]’), as “e xtro ve rt” and“superficial” (in the etymological rather than the derogatory
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 239/484
sense o f the w ord). And i f in the said period aesthetic has been“idealistic” this seems to me to represent a sentimentality,
parallel to that o f the “ Pollyanna re ligious” which dispose o f
m atter and evil by asserting the only reality o f the soul and [the]
good.
I may add that in Indian logic, sadrsya is defined as identity in
difference —see Das Gupta , H ist o f Indian Philosophy. I, 318— and
sarupya in epistemology as sameness (ibid, 154). It seems to me
that these two terms, as also consonantia and adequatio exclude
both “objectivity” and “subjectivity”.
I have not yet read through Culture and Crisis, but o f course
agree w ith much that is there said. Still, the only w ay in which I
have complete faith is that of the regeneration or perfecting of
the individual.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Meyer Schapiro, Columbia University, New York, New York,
USA.
To MISS JENKS
N ovem ber 18, 1945
Dear Miss Jenks:
About negation: in the first place, as Sankaracarya says,“Whenever we deny something unreal, it is with reference to
something real” (examples: independence; immortality; a
pathetic, ie, not pathetic; im passible; ineffable— all o f whichare positive concepts, and unlike the denials of value implied by
such other expressions as unstable, unworthy, unclean,
where it is a m atter o f real “ priva tion” : one must not bedeceived by the merely gram matical likeness of the terms). O nthe general subject o f “ significant nega tion” see W ilbur U rban,The Intelligible World (N Y, 1929, pp 45253). If God isineffable, infinite, these denials that anything ultimately true
can be said o f Him, and o f spatial /imitation, are no t derogatory!Hence there has always been recognized in Christian exegesis,as well as elsewhere, the necessity for the two viae, of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 240/484
“affirmation” and of “denial”, to be followed in sequential order.
From the point of view of the active life, our existence is important; but from that of the contemplative life (which I need hardly say is, from the Christian and whole traditional point of
view the ultimately superior life, though both are necessary and right, here and now), in the words o f Christ, “Let him denyhim self’ (Mark VIII 13, 14; cf The Cloud of Unknowing, chap 44: “All men have matter o f sorrow: but most specially he fecleth matter o f sorrow that wotteth and feeleth that he is. . . .
This sorrow, when it is had, cleancth the soul, not only o f sin, but also of pain. . .and . . . able to receive that joy, the which rceveth from a man all witting and feeling o f his being”)—that
he may affirm Me, for whosoever shall deny Me. . . . ” (Matthew X, 3439). St Paul had denied himself, and affirmed
Christ, when he said “I live, not I, but Christ in me.” That is what a Hindu means by “liberation” (moksa). In this connec-
tion, by the way, you asked me about catharsis (purgation); I
would say that the Hindu concept, which is expressed in terms of cleansing or washing (cf, “Lord, i f Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean”) corresponds much more to Plato’s than to
Aristotle’s katharsis; Plato’s definition being “separation o f the soul from the body as far as that is possible”; and Aristotle’s, I confess, a little dubious to me for it seems to imply not much more than “having a good cry, and feeling better”.
Regarding Buddhism (Hinayana), negative propositions predominate because the doctrine is essentially monastic, whereas Hinduism embraces both the “ordinary” and the
“extraordinary” norms of existence, and is both affirmative and negative accordingly. Thus (early) Buddhism is not strictly
comparable in all respects cither to the Hinduism from which it developed, or with Christianity; that is, not strictly comparable in total scope. Since it considers only man’s last end.
For negation in Western religious tradition (disregarding the similar formulae in Islam and Hinduism just now) cf: “My kingdom is not o f this world”; “and if any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (I Cor VIII, 2); “Thou of whpm no words can tell,
whom only silence can declare” (Hermetica I, 17); “Knowest thou of Him anything? He is no such thing” (Eckhart); God himself does not know what He is, because He is not any what”
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 241/484
(Erigena); “ If anyone in seeing G od conceivcs som ething in his
mind, this is no t God, bu t one of G od ’s effects” (Aquinas, Sum
Theol III. 92, 1 ad 4); “To kno w God as He is, we mus t be
absolutely free from k no w ing ” (Eckhart, o f Cu sa’s Docta
ignorantia, a good illustration o f the am biguity o f symbols,
“ignorance” bearing here its “goo d” sense). M uch more o f thelike could be cited from Dante. I do not understand how
anyone can claim to be a Christian w ho resents the idea of a
kingdom not o f this world; and it seems to me “heretical” (ie,“not knowing what is true, but thinking what one likes to
thin k” , ic, w ishfully) to reject the Christian trad ition o f the via
negativa, and at the same time for a Christian disingeniously to
cavil at the use o f the same m ethod (metodos, procedure) in
Islam and o the r religions. Finally, the grea ter part o f thecriticisms that C hristians com m only make o f other religions
are based on imperfect, ie, second hand knowledge, and to a
certain extent there fore are intellectually dishonest. In fact, they
know Christianity positively, and the others only “negative-
ly”. Under these circumstances, silence would be “golden”.
H ow many E uropean scholars arc reasonably equipped— I refer
to a knowledge of, at least, either Arabic, Sanskrit, or
Chinese—or failing that, then at least long and intimate personal association w ith the fo llowers o f oth er religions.
C f . . . Sir George B irdw ood in Sva (Oxford, 1919, pp 17
23), ending: “Henceforth I knew that there were not many
gods o f hum an w orship, but one God only, w ho was
polyonym ous and polym orphous, being figured and nam edaccording to the v ariety o f the outw ard conditions o f things,
ever changing and everywhere different, and unceasingly
m odifying o ur inward conceptions o f them ”— reminding one
of Philo’s w ords: “ But, if He exists wh om with one accord allGreeks and Barbarians acknowledge together. . . . ” (Spec II,
165) thus ascribing monotheism to all pagans as Goodenough
com ments. I m ight add, com pare the history o f religious persecution in Euro pe w ith the alm ost to ta l abscnse . . .
[thereof] in India w here there was, o f course, plenty o freligious controversy.
In an orthodox Indian family, it can quite easily happen that
different m embers o f the family m ay choose “ different Go ds” ,ic, different aspects o f God, differently nam ed, and no onethinks this strange. I . . . think it a state o f spiritua l infancy to
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 242/484
claim exclusive truth for one’s own religion (which one has usually inherited willynilly, being “born” a little Catholic, a little Protestant, a little Jew, or a little Muslim); one has only
the right to feel that “my religion is true”, not that yours is untrue. All this does n o t . . . exclude the possibility of heresy,
which may arise in any religious context; the reasonable thing is for those who are interested in the truth . . . to discuss the truth of particular doctrines, about which agreement can . . . generally be reached. I . . . hardly ever set out to explain a particular doctrine from the point o f view o f one tradition only, but cite authorities from many ages and sources; by “particular doctrines” , I mean, o f course, such as that of the “one essence and two natures, and many others about which
there is, in fact, universal agreement.
Very sincerely,
Miss Jenks is not further identified.
To ERIC GILL
March 6, 1934
Dear Eric:
I was glad to have yours o f February 16. I hear from Carey that there is still a possibility o f your coming over; i f so, I hope you will manage to spend a week with us.
Yes, I think the ideas o f “personality” and “void” can be reconciled—somewhat as the affirmative and negative theology can be. One might begin with “no one can be my disciple who does not hate animam suam”, and St Paul’s “I live, yet not I, but Christ in m e”, and “the word o f God . . . extends to the sundering o f soul and spirit”, going on to the Thomist “memory belongs to the sensitive faculty” and “only the intellectual virtues (ie, “spiritual”) survive”, and to The Cloud of Unknowing: “the greatest sorrow that a man can feel is to realise that he is”, and Eckhart’s “the soul must put herself to
death” as “the kingdom o f God is for none but the thoroughly dead”, and other such passages showing that the Christian should not be unduly alarmed at the use of the negative
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 243/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 244/484
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTSb o s t o n . Ma s s a c h u s e t t s
. Vi _____
iJ - t X j~
I WuvJCi Vv»JUv>*4aJ%-v •v*! feuftit.
W>- IV/ ■Ir . ( jlTUL JU j VJP'O 1 «. |wyA/»-lA_ t»
— ^ c L u L r u cu ^to i a j t >^. ^ i \ M U ^ t - l
I'VLwrtAfcMM I 'Vv'* ^ - I ^ v lU v s -~A- >1
io * v*rv~ c_ UV. y^Jl *. &MJL- 4*/»
It /t '•^vxrVjus. *| t~i
f|i^tJ | yII IT ft ifl £ fc-|hJL4. lv»-
. N. |^ —I £
1a*. UM^fcUl^p^ (Ia»aAWH
Va j a . ». WQ Sa. <v J , , U j I ^ » X ^ OA . r~ v o ^ t i i .
Lun. U*_ ltul«L H U*»^
urt^, »- jl ^ a _ _ • *a «x- |~wJ 'rt*Ali
(w \ . t A . ■ a -w w v *| l m g y / « i c l a J ^ ^ M t » -
-<-0 .*n I *V* IwJ
«n. U»» - >~W tv UjL tu _ ^ « . y ^ v U . < **r£b n ^ t o _
•y^A^U- >-'W~U *m /vL-~w*. U». Ci-^J~UL
VSAJUm-. j . W- ®bA I «-***
W-J I -* tf4
Id (LfnjO
»- L»—«V~*wi>—G U ,
SCLw >
An example of Coomaraswamy’s manuscripts—letter to Eric G ill
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 245/484
into being, bu t superior to being itself when it means thatwhich is not limited by any affirmative definition. All valuesare thus reversible, and from this point o f view the celestial powers o f darkness are superio r to the cosmic powers o f light.
The Janitors of the empyrean arcanum are “demons” to us,
because they keep us out; but good from the standpoint o f thedeity ab intra, to whom none may enter unless qualified.
Y our m ention o f Scorpio (who was originally a celestialJanitor) is curious, because I am just now working at the
icono graphy o f Sagittarius (another Janitor) in which that o f the
Scorpionman is also involved. These types were originally the
guardians of the door (Jama Coeli) o f the abode o f Anu (=Varuna) and o f T a m m u z (= Soma) that grew in A n u ’s “garden”.
The Tree was robbed by the Firebird ( Aquila)
in order that“ w e” m igh t have life, and ultimately eternal life. Scorpio is one
o f the equivalents o f the Che rubim w ho “keep the way o f the
Tree o f Life” in Genesis, where the “ flaming sword that turns
every w ay ” is an example o f the widely diffused type o f the“active d oo r” . The guardians are evil from ou r present point of
view, who are shut out, but not more absolutely so that St
Peter who keeps out those who have no right to enter. It is in
the same sense that pearls are to be witheld from swine. (This
reminds me o f a definition I have heard o f universal com pul-sory education: “ false pearls cast before real sw ine” !) Hence I
think you are right in saying that tamas can be associated withananda as its locus (loka)\ indeed, the analogy serves to explain
w hy it is that human intercourse (which reflects the “act offecundation latent in eternity”) “ought” to take place only in
the dark (cf S B VI. 1, 5, 19), and to explain the covering up o f
the Queen and the Stallion in the Asvamedha. O f these sufficient
metaphysical reasons our modern “decency” is only a weakrepresentative; “ prop riety” w ould be a better word, if under-
stood in its etymological sense, and in the original sense of“decorous”.
I am glad to have news o f M. Guenon. I have sent himvarious publications during the last tw o years, bu t do not kno w
if they reached him. I hear o f him indirectly throug h MarcoPallis. I shall be most gratefu l if you can, as you suggest, send
me a typescript o f his new boo k on the quantitative andqualitative; too often people forget tha t these are incompatibles!I have ju st been reading Dcm etra V aka’s Haremlik (Hought
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 246/484
on M ifflin, N ew York, 1909); you should get hold o f it if
possible (it may be in print, and anyhow should be easily
obtainable), for it is excellent and po ignant, and indeed throw s
a grim light on what we call our “civilisation”.
With kindest regards,
Very sincerely,
F. A. C utta t was a Swiss diplom at and at the tim e o f this exchange was
poste d to th e Swiss Legation at Buenos Aires, Arg entina.
Th e three gunas: sattvas, rajas and tamas, in Hindu cosmology, are qualities or
tendencies which exist in perfect equilibrium in the primordial substance,
prakriti (materia prima, to adapt a Scholastic term) but arc variously
combined in every manifested object; sattvas = the ascending tendency,
rajas = the expansive tendency, and tamas = the dow nw ard and compressivetendency. See Rene Guenon, Man and His becoming According to the Vedanta,
chap iv.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt; communications between Dr Coomaraswamy
and Guenon were interrupted during the II World War. His The Reign of
Quantity and the Times was circulated in typescript form before formal
publication. See Bibliography.
Demetra Vaka, Haremlik, Some Pages from the Life o f Tu rkish W om en,
Boston, 1906.
A N O N Y M O U S
Date uncertain
Dear M:
All religions arc agreed that the goal lies beyond logicalthought, beyond good and evil, beyond consciousness, and all
pairs o f contraries. The Way is anoth er matter; on the Way one
m ust use means; no tably means o f thou gh t and discrimination,valuation, etc. In other words, use the ordinary instruments of
thought, ie, symbols, verbal or visual. The alternative would
be not to speak o f God at all, but only o f w hat wc call facts orsensations. T he nam es o f God vary according to the aspect or
activity considered, eg, Creator, Father, Light.All religions assume one essence and tw o natures, o f which
there is the Supreme Identity, without composition. The
natures are personal and impersonal, immortal and mortal,infinite and finite, justice and love, royal and sacerdotal,transcendent and immanent, etc.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 247/484
Such arc our images; by their means one advances on the
Way. Iconoclasm presupposes iconography; it is mere vanityfor those who have not used their images until they have no
more use for them. That involves total sclf-naughting; and few
have seen God without image. We have, therefore, the via
affirmativa, o r taugh t way; and the via negativa, or untau ght wayin which he is grasped w itho ut a ttributes; and these distinctions
are common to all theologies. The last step, no doubt, is one of
docta ignorantia; that does no t mean tha t there is any m erit in the
indocta ignorantia o f those w ho refuse to step at all.
In your paragraph 2, what you refer to is not “the” mystical
experience, bu t the stages o f it. The highest level of reference
we can grasp fro m below seems to us like the goal; bu t it is only
a temporary goal; the ladder is very long and has many rungs(stepping stones o f ou r dead selves). Y et the Way is no t
infinitely long; it is only incalculably long; and at the same time
so sh ort that it can be crossed in a second, if all is ripe fo r that.
Yes, any “mystical” experience remains for ever afterward a
“pointer” .
It is absurd to ask simultaneously for knowledge and for the
m ethod o f ob taining it (Aristotle, M et II.2.3). Try never
questioning the truth o f scripture and m yth, etc—regard it asyo ur business simply to un derstand it. In that way y ou will find
that you are getting somewhere, and before you know it,
actually you will have some degree o f know ledge. You w ill not
reject the means until you know all that there is to be known.
That is the sine qua non for “unknowing” .The best European teacher is Meister Eckhart; supremely
exact.
Buddhism and Hinduism (essentially the same) are not easy
to understand from published accounts by rationalist scholars
untrained in theology. Bo th require use o f the texts. How ever,there are no doctrines peculiar to any one body o f doctrine; any
real “m atter o f faith” can be supported from m any differentsources.
An “evolution” in metaphysics is impossible; but one canlearn no t to think fo r oneself (ie, as one likes). In mathem aticsone does not have private opinions about the sum o f tw o and
two; and so in this other universal science.Further, on why worship must be symbolic — figura tive— see
St Thomas Aquinas, Sum Theol I—II. 101.2. The use o f symbols
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 248/484
pertains to the via affirmativa, and includes all names given to
God. They can only be dispensed with gradually in the via
negativa leading to direct vision without means. Those who try to
dispense with symbols before they have attained to the beatific
vision are premature iconoclasts.
Symbols are, strictly speaking, supports o f contemplation. This
is why St C lem ent says, “ the parabolic style o f scripture is o f
the greatest antiquity”, and why Dante says “and therefore
doth the scripture condescend to your capacity, assigning foot
and hand to God, with other meaning” (Paradiso IV, 43. f.). In
the animal life (empirical life guided by estimative knowledge)
we value things as they are in themselves; otherwise, for what
they are in intellect, “ taken ou t o f their sense” as Eckh art puts
it. Life is empirical to the extent that we are unable to refer ouractions to their principles. When we do so, however, then the
things are the “ sym bo ls” o f the principles. A life with
communication based entirely on signs, and entirely lacking in
symbolism, is a purely animal life. A “Comprehensor” may to
all appearances do the same thing as othe r men, bu t for him sub
specie aetemitatis. Sym bolism bridges the schism o f sacred and
profane and th at is w hy meaningless art is fe tish im s or idola try.
On a somewhat lower plane, we cannot talk higher mathematics w ithou t using symbols. O ne cannot reduce everything to a
vocabulary o f 500 words. To kno w w ithou t images is to be in
the state where contemplatio supercedes consideratio, for as
Aristotle says “the soul never thinks without a mental pic
ture . . . even when one thinks speculatively, one must have
some men tal picture of which to th ink” (De anima III, 7.8).
This state o f kno w ing w ithou t images is the last stage o f yoga,
samadhi, which etymologically = synthesis.
Sincerely,
To E . R . G O O D E N O U G H
Date uncertain
Dear Professor Goodenough:
. . . I think that we have to be very careful no t to forget thatthe sym bol o f any immaterial thing is necessarily in itself
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 249/484
concrete, and not to fall into such blunders as Maine’s in his
introduction to Marcus Aurelius. We have all the same
problem s in India, where th e th eolo gy has been so hopelessly
confused by scholars w ho take terms such as vayu (“w ind” , but
really “ Gale o f the S pirit”) literally and n ot as a referent. Philo
him self is often w arn ing us against such errors (eg, C o n f 133),against wh ich all the “ laws o f allegory” militate, while in India
we have equal ridicule for those who “mistake the finger
for that at which it points.”
I have o f course, been able to make only a partial
concordance o f Philo’s ideas for myself, b ut it is fairly tho rou gh
for my purposes; I am using him largely in a study and
com parison o f Greek w ith Sanskrit Akasa in the respective
texts. One would be hard put to it really to distinguish Philo’s
forms o f thoug ht from Indian.
Sincerely,
E. R. G oodenough, professor o f the history o f religion at Yale University, N ew
Haven, Connecticut, USA.
To GRAHAM CAREY
N ovem ber 25, 1943
Dear Graham:
What the secular mind does is to assert that wc (symbolists)
are reading meaning into things that originally had none: our
assertion is that they arc reading out the meanings. The proof
o f ou r co ntention lies in the perfection, consistency and universality o f the pa ttern in wh ich these meanings arc united.
Always most cordially,
Graham Carey, identified on p 43.
This was a handwritten postcard.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 250/484
To ROBERT ULICH
July 10, 1942
Dear Professor Ulich:
I am delighted to have your book—it is curious that I have
ju st been reading Jaeger’s Paideia which states the aristocratic
cultural ideal. I suppose I am nearest to what you would call a
Symbolist (p 311) and certainly agree that this position is in no
way incompatible with radical scientific thinking, though it
surprises me that you call this attitude “widespread in our
times” since I should have supposed that to think in symbols
had gradually become the rarest accomplishment. I do not
think 1 have ever felt the conflict o f reason and belief, and in a
way I cannot un derstand what such a conflict could mean, sinceit seems to m e that all facts are projec tions o f timeless form s on
a time-space surface. So too . . . miracles . . . arc things that
can be done even today by those w ho know how , and therefore
present no in tr insic problem ; on the other hand, the question
whether such and such a miracle was actually performed on a
given occasion seems to me unimportant compared with the
transparent meanings of miracles (this takes us back to symbol
ism).If ever you make a second edition, I hope you will take
account o f the O rien t and the primacy o f pure m etaphysics as
emphasized by Guenon.
One further remark about symbolism. I was delighted
recently to find out that Aristotle points out that mimesis
naturally involves methexis.
I should have seen this for myself. It is so obvious when
poin ted out. A pity Lcvy-Bruhl w ith his exaggerated notionsabo ut the illogical character o f “ mystic participa tion” had notrealized it; he might have written less.
Symbolism presupposes real analogies on different levels ofreference. Hence also symbols and their references arc
inseparable— the symbols arc the langugc o f revelation, no t a
language to be constructed at will in the sense o f “ let this beunderstood to refer to this” (that may be signification, but notsymbolism). The symbol is not so much o f X , as it is X in a
likeness—ie, in another nature. I would say that symbols aretechnical language of the philosophia perennis. Symbols (eg,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 251/484
light) are used in essentially the same way at all times and all
over the world: hence this is a language o f common understanding.
Le symbolisme qui cherche is always individual and therefore of
little use for purposes o f com munication: le symbolisme qui sait is
another m atter, and m oreover o f enorm ous w eight because it is
only in term s o f this symb olism that the forms o f traditional artacquire meaning for us. Shape and conten t o f a sym bol are
inseparable (cf p 95).
I am afraid my booklet is hard reading. I was very much
pleased by your apprecia tion therefore. I have recently com
pleted articles on “ Recollection, Indian and Pla tonic” and “ The
Only Transmigrant” (inseparable themes; for it is only a
timeless om niprcscncc that can make the idea o f omniscience
intelligible).With very kind regards,
Yours sinccrely,
PS: p 283— H ow often I have also said that “ freedom to starve
is no t freedom ” ! I find Kicrkcgaad almost repulsive—always
whining. So also Paul Claudel and Rainer M. Rilke mean
nothing to me!PS: Your book suggests many things. Obviously and above
all, education for what, tow ard w hat: I canno t think o f any final
goal or summum bonum that does not include absolute freedom
and power to be as and when wc will, to know all that can be
known and also the unknowable. That is only conceivable byan identification o f ou r being no t w ith this ou ter m an so and so,
but w ith the im m anent deity, the inner man (daimon). No
psychology, then, seems so much to elucidate our inner
conflict, actual limitation and desired liberty, as the Platonicand Indian concc ption o f a U niversal S elf that is our real Self,
living side by side with the empirical Ego which is really a
process rath er than an identity. Education m ust be tw ofold, onthe one hand to enable the outer man to do the tasks for which
he is natura lly fitted, and second to enable us to recognize in theinner man our real Self, and in the outer man no more than avaluable tool adapted to contingent ends. In this sense I
understand gnothi seauton and its Oriental equivalents as the truedirection o f higher education. If wc also understand thetraditiona l sym bolism s, all the activities o f the ou ter m an can be
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 252/484
made the support o f this understanding.
PS: I do ubt if you are quite right in saying that Plato despised
manual labor; what he deprecates is mere manual labour,
anything that serves the needs of the body only, and not o f the body and the soul at the same time. Charmides 163B seems to
endorse Hesiod’s “work is no reproach”. Other refs: Euthydem us 301D, Republic 401C, 406C, Protagoras 355B and his
wh ole conception o f vocation, to eauton prattein being each
m an ’s Way to perfect himself. C f also original senses o f sophia
and episteme — skill, again a connection o f ideas well developed
in India where kausalya = skill, primarily technical, secondly
moral and intellectual.
Ulich, Heinrich G ottlob Robert, at the time o f this letter was professor and
chairman of the department o f education at Harvard U niversity, C am bridge,
Massachusetts, USA. As the book that occasioned this AKC letter is not
nam ed in the letter, w e can only conjecture that it ma y have been D r U lich ’s
Fundamentals o f Democratic Education, which was published in 1940.
Rene Guenon, Cairo, Egypt.
Levy-Bruhl, Lucien (d 1939), early social anthropologist and philosopher,
w rote w idely on the behavior and thinking of primitive man, thou gh
without ever having lived or worked among such people.
‘Recollection, Indian and Platonic’ and ‘On the One and Only Transmigran t’, published as supp lem ent 3 to the Journal o f the American Oriental Society,
vol LXIV, no 2, 1944.
To GRAHAM CAREY
July 29, 1944
Dear Graham: ►
Intellige Deum et scite quod vis seems to me absolutely O. K.I have been reading W. M. Urban’s Language and Reality
(Allen and Unwin, 1939) with great pleasure and profit.Answers on the color symbolism are not quite so easy. On
the whole, I agree with your remarks: however, I suggest that
Essentia is only apparently modified by matter, in the same waythat space is only apparently modified by its enclosure in say a
glass jar. We see this when the ja r is broken: in the same waywith Essentia when the material conditions determining Esse aredissolved. So I would say “God created the Universe by
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 253/484
revealing w hateve r o f H im self is susceptible o f man ifestation.”
Over and above this remains all that is not susceptible of
manifestation. I do not like the expression “passing Esse
through Posse.”
Betw een these tw o lies the colored w orld o f action. T hese are
the three “ gun as” o f Indian cosmology; c f Paradiso 29, 31-36.
These are the “3 w orld s” o f tradition— all under the Sun and
other than the Otherworld.
Blue, black and green are more o r less the same traditionally;
the im plication o f emptiness is right, bu t this is also po tential
ity, since emptiness demands fulfilment; the four castes and
four quarters are white, red, yellow and black. The “higherligh ts” (as you imply) are representative o f highe r values.
Purple rightly associated with black; purple connected with
royalty (also mourning) as black is with death. Prism: so “life
stains the w hite radiance o f etern ity.”
I hardly think the light returns to G od by the rotation o f the
wheel, b ut rathe r w hen it is stopped, ie, when the circumference
is reduced to the centre; then the centrifugal ray by which the
circumference was so to say pushed out, returns on itself to itssource. As Heracleitus says, “ the way up and the way d ow n are
the same”, the wheel continues to turn until the circumference
is contracted to the mo tionless centre (“rolling u p” o f tim e and
space). I w on der if you are no t using Esse (existence) w here you
mean Essentia (being), perhaps. Essentia apparently mo dified by
matter = Esse.
Dear Graham Carey:
I’ve been expecting to hear from you about Newport, as I’dlike to com e if it’s not too arduous.
both invisib le
Best regards,
Graham Carey, Catholic author, Fairhaven, Vermont, USA.
T o G R A H A M C A R E Y
December 8, 1943
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 254/484
I ju st discovered w hy a man carries his bride across the
threshold o f the new hom e: briefly, the new hom e is
assimilated to Paradise, the husband acts as psychopomp, and there
is the prayer addressed to the join ts o f the doo r o f the “ divine”
house, “D o no t hurt he r” . O ne has to f ly through the Janua
Coeli and the nearest to that in formal symbolism is to be carried thro ug h— you can easily see w hy it is “u nluck y” if the husband
stumbles.
Kindest regards,
Graham Carey, as above.
T o G R A H A M C A R E Y
July 20, 1944
Dear Graham:
I can subscribe to Revelationes multas, incarnatio unica which
seems to correspond to ou r doctrine o f the Eternal Avatar.
The omne falsu m . . . seems a little questionable: falsity, likedarkness, arises wherever the truth, spirit, light is absent. At
the same time, there could not be a world w ithout its contraries
(true and false, g oo d and evil, etc), and in the relative sense each
presupposes the oth er. G od is not ‘’good” in this rela tive sense,
bu t as transcending all values.
Very sincerely,
Graham Carey, as above.
T o GRAHAM CAREY
June 14, 1944
Dear Carey:
From the Indian po int o f view (dark) blue and black areequivalent. The three: blue, red and white correspond to thetamasic, rajasic and sattvic qualities. Indian images can be
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 255/484
classified in these terms as ferocious, royal, and mild or
spiritual in aspect. Now while knowledge and love are the
characteristic qualities o f Ch erubim and Seraphim, their prim
ary functions are defensive . . . and looked at purely from an
Indian p oint o f view one w ould think o f the colors blue and red
as corresponding to this m ilitant function. God him self would be white— or w hat is essentially golden, gold being the regula r
sym bol o f light, life and im m ortality.
From within the Christian-Hebrew tradition one would
recall that Seraphs are “fiery serpents” and connect the red with
this as well as with their characteristic ardor.
I am ju st n ow w riting the part of “ Early Iconography o f
Sagittarius” which deals with Cherubs and Seraphs. They are
both m ilitant and fierce types that “ keep the way o f the Tree o fLife”—the nearest to God (under the Thrones) in knowledge
and love because they are his “b od yg ua rd” , a sort o f “ K ing ’s
ow n” regim ent, an elite o f the angels. I am not quite able to
explain the blue for the Christian-H ebrew sources. Possibly the
blue, as for the Virgin , considered in her aspect as Sophia.
Very sincerely,
PS: From my outlook, blue or black is appropriate to theVirgin in view o f her identity w ith the Earth (goddess), the
M other*— o f which I was reminded the other day when seeing
the film The Song o f Bernadette (which is very fine and you must
see). Th is is the accepted explanation o f the Vierges noires (cf
Durand Lefevbre, Etude sur I’origine des Vierges noires, Paris,
1937), and Benjamin Rowland’s article on the “Nativity in the
Grotto”, Bulletin o f the Fogg Museum o f Art, VII, 1939, esp p 63.
* Given the n om inalist and reduc tionist attitudes o f m ind that m ode m
education instills, almost willy-nilly, in those whom it forms, it may be
w orth pointing ou t that this identification o f which A KC writes in no way
excludes other sy m bolic identifications involving the Virgin— no m ore than
an actress is inhibited from appearing simultaneously in m ore than one film.
Preeminelty Theotokos, Go d-Bea rer and M other o f God , she is also,
according to perspective and context: a young Jew ish girl in w ho m virtue
was perfect, Co-Redemptrix, the divine Sophia, the shakti of Christ, imago
Dei and the prim ordial p urity and beauty o f the hum an soul antelapsus, janua coeli. Spouse o f the H oly Spirit, materia prima (c f Genesis i, 2), etc.
Grahm Carey, as above.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 256/484
O n B lack Virgins, see: L ’inigm e des Vierges noires, Jacques Huy nen, Editions
Robert Laffont, Paris, 1972; £tude sur I’origine des Vierges noires, Marie
Durand-Lefebvre, Librairic Renouard, Paris, 1937; and Vierges romanes, A
Gueme, Zodiaque, Paris, 1973.
U nfo rtuna tely, ‘Th e Early Iconog raphy o f Sagittarius’ was still incom plete
at the time o f D r Co om arasw am y’s death and has not been published. It may
be note d, how ever, th a t th e arrow gives th e sense o f the figure o f Sagitta rius,w hich is that o f fully unified man: animal, h um an and divine, the arro w
indicating the latter— Chosen Arrow was a name given to Christ in early
Christianity.
T o CARL SCHUSTER
December 9, 1931Dear Dr Schuster:
Both your papers interest me greatly. You are doing
invaluable and necessary work in recognizing the universal
symbolic motifs scattered so abundantly through Chinese
peasant art. O n chess in its “ cosmic” aspect, cf references given
by O tto Rank in A rt and Artist. But is not your game rather
“ race gam e” than chess proper? For similar games in Ceylon, cf
Parker, Ancient Ceylon. Shoulder flames are, I am sure, to be
distinguished from polycephalic representations, inasmuch as
the flames do no t imply othe r “ persons” o f the person
represented. On tejas, see Vogel, “Het Sanskrit Woord tejas” ,
M ed Kon A kad Wetenschapen, Afd Lettarkund, 1930; cf m y
“Early Indian Iconography, I: Indra” in Eastern Art. Shoulder
flames are represented in various divine and royal effigies onKusan coins, see Boston Museum Catalog o f Indian Coins, Greek
and Indo-Scythian, eg, pi xxviii, 26. T he shoulder flames o f aBuddha occur typically in connection with the “doublemiracle” (a solar manifestation) in which there are manifested
streams o f w ater from the feet and flames from the shoulders,cf Weldschm'idt in O z N F, VI, p 4, etc, and Foucher, L ’A rt
greco-bouddhique. For further data on shoulder flames I amsending you our Museum Bulletin for August 1927, see pp 53,
54. But I really don’t think the problem is closely related toyo ur present enqu iry; and it is ju st as im portant to exclude whatis irrelevant to a specific problem as to include w ha t is relevant.
On the Sunbird in Indian symbolism, it would be easy to
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 257/484
write a book. Hentze has made sound remarks on the Sunbird
in Chinese art; see my “Note on the Asvamedha”, Archiv
Oriental ni, VII, o f which I send you a reprint, see p 316, note 1.
The eagle, phoenix, garuda, hamsa, or by whatever name we
use, is two headed in the same sense as any othe r Janus type. I
presum e the Sunbird may also be represented as the bearer-across (the “ sea” ) o f other beings, ie, like Pegasus, as the
vehicle o f salvation, and in this case perhaps any additional
heads in general (and this includes the special case of the Janus
types) represen t the persons o f the Deity (we have representa
tions o f the Christian T rinity o f this type). O n sunbirds and
other solar m otifs, cf also Roes, Greek Geometric Art, its
Symbolism and Origin (Oxford).
I am sorry I cannot do more in a letter. I hope you will behere again some day.
With very kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
PS: Sunbirds hov ering above the T ree o f Life are o f course
abundant in Assyrian art.
Carl Schuster, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Otto Rank. A rt and Artist.
‘Early Indian Iconography, I; Indra’, Eastern Art, I, Philadelphia, 1928.
L 'A rt greco-bouddhique, Foucher.
‘A Note on the Asvam edha ' , Archiv Orientalni, VII, Prague, 1936.
Ancient Ceylon, H. Parker, London, 1909.
To JOSEPH SHIPLEY
July 12, 1945
Dear Shipley:
Very many thanks for your fascinating volume; as youknow, I am deeply interested in word-meanings; and itfrequently happens that the meaning I need to use is “obsolete”
or “rare” rather than the current sense.I feel mo st o f the pieces are too short. A good piece migh thave been done, s v, wit, on the distinction between gnoscere
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 258/484
from vitere, knowledge from wisdom, with other parallels. S v
element: from far back, both in Greece and India, the elements
are five, the quinta essentia being ether (this is a subject I have
done considerable research on); the four are only the'material
elements, the latter corresponds to “soul”. S v fairy, fata, is surely
plu ral, fates. S v angel, it would have been useful to point outthat Satan is still an “angel” , and our use of “ angelic” to m ean
“ sweet and good” is rather insufficiently based. Some o f the
unfallen angels are pretty fierce. Also I would have mentioned
that “ angels” correspond to the gods (other than God) o f paganmythologies. (Philo equates “angel” with Greek here and
daimon.) S v idiot, virtually “one who thinks for h im se lf’. S v
nest, the Skr is nida; there is no nidd —probably the second d is a
misprint for a.Also fa k ir (lit, “ p oo r” , designation o f Islamic ascetics), no
connection with “faker” (as you say). You have fa kvir ; it is,
however, wrong to add v after the g. . . .
Very sincerely,
Joseph Shipley, Dictionary o f Word Origins, New York, 1945. A copy was
inscribed to AK C, ‘w ho know s the ways o f w ord s.’
T o PROFESSOR ALFRED O. MENDEL
Date uncertain
Dear Dr Mendel:
Right and left, o f course, play an im po rtan t part in all
traditional philosophies. For right and left as male and female
perhaps the m ost convenient references are Satapatha Brahmana
X .5.2 .8-1 2 (see in S B E XLIII, p 371) and Maitri Upanishad
VII. 11 (see Hume, Thirteen Principle Upanishads, Oxford, 1934,
p 457). These tw o, o f course , correspond to Sun and M oon,and also to Manas and Vac.
You might also, for the past as maternal and the future as paternal, lo ok at Sankhayana Aranyaka VII. 15 (and other triads
listed in same context) in the version o f A. B. K eith, London,1908, p 47.
W ith slight modification o f you r ow n w ords, I w ould
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 259/484
agree— m other: past, self (ego, psyche); father: future , Self,
spirit, and “Common Man” (not “fellow man”, but the
“ M an” in all men and wom en, which was the original meaning
o f this expression, n ow perverted to refer to the “ man in the
street”.
It is hermeneutically (not etymologically) interesting that
“ left” has the am bigious sense o f (1) opposite to right and (2)
meaning “left behind ”; similarly, “right”, (1) not left in position
and (2) upright. Hence I would not agree to equating
“ tradition ” ' w ith the past; properly speaking, “ tradition”
represents what is timeless, stable, correct (con + right), while
the feminine is the changeable factor; as, indeed, we see in the
use of right and left in their political senses.* Tradition is no
more past than future; it represents the philosophia perennis, notto be confused w ith fashions and habits which w ere new in their
day, but arc now passe.
Sincerely,
*Here actually you get the above and below rather than right and left
relation.— A K C ’s note.
Alfred O . M endel, identified on p 45.
T o PROFESSOR ALFRED O. MENDEL
August 5, 1947
Dear Dr Mendel:
Circle, vertical, and horizontal: to answer at length wouldcome near to writing a book. You will observe that the
essential parts o f a circle are centre, radius, and circumference;
and that if the radius is large, radius = vertical, circum fcrcnce
= horizontal. In terms o f light, the ccntre = lux, radius (ray) =lumen, circumference = color, and what is outside the cir
cumference = ou ter darkness. In terms o f textile sym bolism,
radii = warp, circumfcrcncc = woof. If there are manyconcentric circlcs, each circumfcrencc represents a level o f
reference or w orld , ie, locus o f compossibles. A lso, in anyworld, centrc corresponds to sun, area to atmosphere, circumference to earth. Further, vertical (radius, ray) will be
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 260/484
“ male” to ho rizontal (circumference) “ female” . The position o f
the individual existing in time and space will always be at
which a radius meets the circumference; motion along the
circumference will be temporal, while centrifugal or centripetal
(down or up) motion will be atemporal; hence spiritual
progress from the point o f view o f the individual cx-istcnt in
time, being the “ resultent” of both motions, horizontal and
vertical, will be spiral; the symbol o f the double spiral
represen ting the w hole process o f descent and ascent from the
centre. A pure ly materialistic concept o f progress, how ever,
will be represented only by motion along the circumference;
while on the othe r hand, centripetal m otion considered by itself
will be “sudden”, having precisely the well-known “instan-
taneity” o f “ illum ination” . This last you will see more easilywhen you get my Time and Eternity (to be published, probably
by September, by Artibus Asiae, Villa Maria, Ascona, Switzer
land).For some references: my “ Kha . . . ” in Harvard Journal o f
Asiatic Studies, 1, p 45; my “ Rgveda 10.90.1” , note 37, in JA O S
66 (I send you this); my “Symplegades” note 37 (I send you this
also); Rene Guenon, Le Symbolisme de la croix and La grande
triade; E. Underhill, Ruysboreck, 1915, p 167 (quoting The Seven Cloisters, ch xix); St Augustine, De ordine 1.3; Rumi, Mathnawi
3, 3530; Parmenides in Aristotle On Xenophanes 977B and 978B;
St Bonaventura, Itin mentis 5; Dante, Paradiso (many references
to “circle” and “centre”, punto)-, Dionysius, De D iv nom 5.6;
Meister Eckhart in Pfeiffer, p 503; Plotinus, Enneads 3.8.8.
I might find more, but this is all I have time for now.
I send w ith the tw o othe r papers also the “ Janua Coeli”, but Im ust ask you to re turn this, as I have only a few lending copies.
Very sincerely,
PS: Boethius, D e consol 4.6: A d id quod est quod gignitur, ad
aeternitatem tempus, ad punctum medium circulus, ita est fa ti series
mobilis ad providentiae stabilem simplicitatem.
Alfred O. Mendel, as above.‘Kha and Other Words Denoting “Zero” in Connection with the Metaphy
sics o f Space’ was actually published in the Bulletin o f the School o f Oriental Studies VII, 1934, U nive rsity o f Lond on.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 261/484
'Rgveda X.90.1: atv atisthad dasangulam’, Journal o f the American Oriental
Society, LX VI, 1946, no 2.
‘Symplegades’, in Studies and Essays in the History o f Science and Learning
Offered in Homance to George Sarton on the Occasion o f His sixtieth Birthday,
edited by M. F. Ashley Montagu, New York, 1947.
‘Svayamatmna: Janua Coeli’, in Zalm oxis, II, no 1, Paris, 1939.
Rene Guenon, see Appendix.
Meister Eckhart, edited by Franz Pfeiffer.
This letter was in answer to an appeal from Professor Mendel, who wrote
the following: “ T oda y I examined the first five books and articles am ong the
hundreds that were written about symbolism, but could not yet find any
explana tion o f the vertical and the horizontal stroke, and the circle. N o d oub t
you kn ow w here I have to look— will you kindly give me a hint?” N ote that
AKC responded only a little over a month before his death.
To PROFESSOR ROBERT ULICH
August 14, 1946
Dear Professor Ulich:
I hope you will no t think it excessive if I add still ano ther
com m ent. In yo ur boo k, p 200, the importance that Froebelattached to the ball interests me. This could be “fantastic” in
him , if based only on personal fancies. O therw ise it could be
very significant. If I had to choose any one sym bol as the basis
on which to expound the traditional (“perennial”) philosophy,
it wou ld be the sphere or circle (hoop) w ith its centre and radii;
I think no more would be necessary to support the whole
develop m ent. For example, God as the circle o f which the
centre is everyw here and the circumference nowhere: revolving
m otion the best (freest) o f the “ seven” possible m otions
represented b y the arms o f the three dim ensional cross and their
intersection; rays as “extensions” (teino, tan), according to
which individuals (their termini on any circumference, where
A
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 262/484
“color” appears, according to the recepient oflight) participate
in the divine luminous nature; exemplarism, whatever is
contained at A being represented at B, C, etc, and conversely
whatever is at B or C being present eminently at A; significance
o f ball gam es (1) con test for the possession o f the Sun, (2) aim
to drive the ball (oneself, Sun as in R V 1.115.1) through the
goal posts, ou t o f the “field” , the “ posts” represen ting the
contraries or Sym plegadcs. C f Cusa, De vis Dei IX ad ftn . So
Froebcl might indeed have meant such by his emphasis on the
ball; w hether he did, I do not know. We who have forgotte n
the m etaphysical significance o f the traditional “ sports” (in
which, as in the traditional arts, there was always a “polar
balance” o f physical and metaphysica l) certain ly overlo ok
eno rm ous ranges o f educational possibility. I w onder alsowhether Froebel realised that there is a point at which the
distinction o f w ork from play elapses?
Very sincerely,
Ulich, Hcinrich Gottlob Robert, professor and chairman of the department o f
education at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
To J O H N L A Y A R D
N ovem ber 26, 1945
Dear John Layard:
The basic idea is similar to Meistcr Eckhart’s “he who sees
me sees my child” ie, the real “me” is not the visible man, buthis child, ie, Christ brought to birth in the soul. So to, Rumi,
“The body, like a mother, is big with the spirit-child”, M athnawi i .35.11. Th e idea is form ulated also as part o f the
sym bolism o f archery; the drawn b ow is pregnan t with thearrow -child; identify you rself w ith the arrow [and] let fly (muc ,
the root in moksa), stFaight to the mark, which is God.
John Layard, identified on p 42This was a postcard, without salutation and unsigned.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 263/484
T o J O H N L A Y A R D
N ovem ber 24, 1945
D ear Joh n Layard:
Very m any thanks for you r letter and the reprints, o f which“the Incest Taboo” and the “Poltergeist” articles particularly
interested me. Your letter raises so many points that I wish,
indeed, we could meet; but it is some thirty years since I was in
England and I hardly expect ever to be there again; our plan is
to retire to the Himalayas some four years hence. You ask
about people o f m y kind in England: I would suggest Marco
Pallis (13 Fulwood Park, Liverpool), author of Peaks and Lamas,
which you m ay have read. Rene Guenon is in Cairo; but I think
his last book, La Regne de la quantite, would interest you.
Regarding m y ow n w ritings, I would like to troub le you to let
me know what I have sent you already and especially whether
you received “Spiritual Paternity” (Psychiatry, 1945). What of
mine is available in print can best be found at Luzac in London;
they publish m y Why Exhibit Works of A rt ? and will be issuing a
companion volume almost immediately, Figures of Speech or
Figures of Thought ?, and I think you m ight find both o f these
useful, especially the latter. You probably do know N. K.,Chawick’s Poetry and Prophecy, and also Paul Radin, Primitive
Man as Philosopher; the m ention o f these two books reminds m e
to say that w here I am a little inclined to differ from you is that I
very much doubt that the raison d ’etre o f taboos, etc, w as
“ un kn ow n to the conscious minds o f the earliest cultures” ; it
much rather seems to me that these meanings have been
forgotten since, by degrees; this will apply also to archetypal
symbols generally. In other words, I do not believe in thevalidity o f the application o f the no tion o f evolution to the ideas
of metaphysics.
I fully agree to your comments re Se l f (the Socratic daimon,
Logos; H eracleitus’ Common Reason, etc). However, the dis
tinction o f Self from self, le soi from le moi, is not mine; it has
long been necessitated by the exact equivalence o f suchexpression as atamano’tma (“ the Atman o f the A tm an” ), to such
as Philo’s “a spirit guide, munificent, to lead us through life’smysteries” (Menander, fr 549K— F. G. Allison’s translation).The realisation that duo sunt in homine is almost universal and
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 264/484
ou r evcrday language bears innum erable traces o f it, forinstance w hen we speak o f “ forgetting o nes elf’ in explanation
o f some error com m itted. So we have throu gh out literature the
contrasted notions o f “ self-love” (wrong) and “ Self-love”
(good). I have lots o f references to Self-love from Upanishads,
St Thomas, Ficino, but not under my hand at the moment.However, see Brhadarnyaka Up 1.4.8, and II.4; Ficino in
Kristeller pp 279, 287; St Thomas, Sum Theol II—II.26.4; Scott,
Hermetica 11.145 on the true Aristotelian.O n caste, I have ju st finished a lecture, and will send you a
copy when available. The best book is Hocart’s Les Castes. For
“ externalisation o f psychological functions in terms o f the
structure o f society” , see Plato, Republic 441; “the same castes
(=jati) are to be found in the city and in the soul o f each o f us.”A bo ut circles and straight lines: A Jeremias, Der Antichrist in
Geschichte und Gegenwart, 1930, p 4: Der Abendlander denkt
linienhaft in die Fem e, darum mechanish, areligeos,faustish . . . das
Morgenland und die Bibel denken nicht linienhaft, sondern seitraum-
lich, spiralish, kreislaufig. Das Welgeschen geht in Spiralen, die sich
bis in die Vollendung for tsetzen.
Very sincerely,
John Layard, identified on p 42.
‘T he Incest Tab oo and the V irgin A rchtyp e’, Eranos-Jahtbuch, vol XII, 1945.
The ‘Poltergeist’ articles arc not further identified.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, see Bibliography.
Rene Gueon, The Reign o f Quantity and the Signs o f the Times, translated by
Lord Northborne, see Bibliography.
‘Spiritual Paternity and the Puppet Complex’, AKC, Paychiatry, VIII, 1945.
Why E xhibit Works o f A rt ?, London, 1943.
Figures o f Speech or Figures of Thought ?, London, 1946. N o ra K. Chadw ic k, Poetry and Prophecy
Paul Radin, Primitive Man as Philosopher, New York, 1927.
Walter Scott, Hermetica, O xford , 1924. The four volumes o f this notable
work have been reissued by Shambala, Boston, 1986.
A. M. Hocart, Les Castes, Paris, 1938; English version, Caste, London, 1950.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 265/484
To J O H N L A Y A R D
N ovem ber 26, 1945
Dear Dr Layard:
I have taken the greatest pleasure in your Eranos paper.Understanding, candor, and couragc arc all in it.
The basic idea is similar to Meister Eckhart’s “He who sees
me sees my child”, ie, the real “me” is not the visible man, but
his child, ie, Christ brought to birth in the soul. So too, Rumi,
“The body, like the mother, is big with the spirit-child”
(Mathnawi 13.511). The idea is formulated also as a pa rt o f the
symbolism o f archery; the drawn bow is pregnant w ith the
arrow -child; identify yo urse lf w ith the arrow, let fly, straight
to the mark, which is God.You doubtless know the Yama-Yami hy m n o f the Rg-Veda,
but possibly not the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana 1.53ff (see in J A O S XVI, 1894, 131ff) where the wooing is brought to a
happy ending, the sun-child is born.
O ur word concept is also noteworthy; the thing conceived isquite literally the offspring of a coition of (Skr) manas and vac.
Apart from this fathering, “Vac only babbles”.
P 273: “ Moieties . . . Male and Female” : invo lves thedistinction o f gender from sex, which scholars so little
understand; the moieties are o f different genders, bu t notsexually differentiated. Gender has to do with function, sex
with characterisation, with specific physical organs. Moreover,
every man and woman is bisexual; and when it is said that in
heaven there are only “masculine virgins”, it means that
salvation is only for the virile, not for the effeminate; not that
women as such are excluded.Your Ishtar corresponds to Vcdic Usas (“Dawn”); Sri
(Fortune, Regnum ); Vac (for whom the Gods and Titans arc
ever fighting), all o f w hom arc notably “ free w om en” w ho willfollow whatever hero really “wins” them.
Do you know the poem “Mary and the Blind Clerk” (forwhich sec Coulton, Five Centuries of Religion, I, 509). How
painfully Coulton, from the moralistic poin t o f view, misunderstands it; as if one m igh t no t gladly su rrender on e’s
physical vision for that sight (cf R um i’s “ His [God’s] eye fo rmine, what an exchange!”).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 266/484
A wife is Jaya bccausc one is bo rn again (jayate) o f her, so that
she becomes his second mother; this, primarily in the esoteric
sense o f reincarnation (incidentally, this “ progenitive rein
carnation” is the only orthodox doctrine o f reincarnation taugh t
in the older books). I have little doub t the esoteric m eaning was
well known; of Ja im inaya Brahmana I. 17 (in J A O S XIX E,1898, p 116) on the two wombs, human and divine, from
which one is born o f the flesh, or o f the spirit. C f also the
doctrine that a man is still unborn, so long as he has notsacrificed. For the wife as jaya, see Aitareya Brahmana VII, 13
(Harvard O rien tal Series, 25, p 300)— “T herefo re a son, his
m oth er and his sister mounteth; this is the broad and auspicious
path”— you can im agine w hat C oulton and the missionaries
w ould make o f that!Finally, it is repeatedly emphasized that what is “yes” for the
Gods is “no” for man; things are done and said in the ritual
which it would not be proper to do in everyday life, and
vice-versa. In the sacrifice, m an ’s way o f do ing things wou ld be
inauspicious.
Very sincerely yours,
G. G. Coulton, Five Centuries of Religion, Cambridge, 1923.
T o J O H N L A Y A R D
August 11, 1947
My dear Dr Layard:
I must say that your letter both surprised and saddened me,
in fact it brought tears to my eyes. Yours is a personal instanceo f the state o f the whole m odern wo rld o f impoverished reality.
I find my own way slowly, but always surely; surely,
because it has been charted, and all one has to do is follow upthe tracks o f those w ho have reached the end o f the road. By
“ the W ay” , I mean o f course that o f self-denial and o fSelf-realisation—denial primarily in the ontological sense rather
than in the m oral sense, w hich last can only be safely supportedwhen it has been realised that it cannot be said o f the Ego that itis, bu t only that “ it” become; w hich is the teaching no t only o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 267/484
all traditional philosophers, East and West, but also that of
modern psychologists, eg, Hadley and Sullivan.
The way o f healing is one o f integration; resolution o f the
psychomachy; making peace w ith one’s Self; su werden as du
bist. All this can be found in all the great religious contexts. In a
forthcoming article (containing references on “being at warwith one’s Self’) I have argued that Satan is the Ego, Christ (or
how eve r the im m anent deity be called) the Hero, and the battle
“within you”, to be finished only when it has been decidcd (in
Plato’s words) “which shall rule, the better or the worse”; a
battle that St Paul had won when he could say “ I live, yet not I,
but C hrist in m e” . The nature o f the resultant peace is
wonderfully stated in Aitareya Aranyaka II.3.7, “This self (Ego)
lends itself to that Self, and tha t Self to this self; they coalescc(or, are wedded). With the one aspect (rupa, “form”) he is
united with yonder world, and with the other aspcct he is
united with this world.”
I do not agree that there has been any mistake in your work ; it
has healed others, and delayed at the same time the coming on
o f yo ur ow n crisis. Neither were you w rong to publish it.
M uch in the Stone Men, “Hare” and “Incest” has positive value
for others; and you should realise that misunderstandings andmis-interpretation are inevitable, and ignore them. It is only
your present condition that makes you turn against the most
solid ground you have been standing on.
But you caught the very sickness you were treating. You did
no t have the art o f self-insulation, or detachment; you did not,so to speak, shake the effluvium from your fingers after laying
on y ou r hands. If you do n’t do that, you m ay still cure thevictim , bu t at the price o f taking on his burden, which is neither
necessary nor is it right, since it is for you to remain intact inord er that you may cure others. O nly the well can cure the sick,
and it is utterly true that “charity begins at home”; you cannotlove others- w itho ut first loving your Self, which is no t only
yours, bu t tha t o f all beings. N ow cut your losses. Repentence and remorse are tw o
different things. “Repentence” (metanoia), is literally and properly a “ change o f m ind” , as if from sickness to health. The
past is no m ore relevant. You have been a m artyr to psychology. But there is no reward for such a m artyrdom ;forget it. Learn the traditional psychology and Der Weg sum Selbst
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 268/484
(this last is an allusion not merely to the Vedanta, but to
Zimmer’s work, published by the Rascher-Verlag in Zurich,
and that I think you ought to read). There is nothing better
than V edanta, bu t I know o f no Sri Ramana M aharsi living in
Europe. I do not trust your young English Vedantist, nor any
o f the m issionary Swamis; thoug h there may be exceptions,m ost o f them are far from solid. I w ou ld no t hastily let any one
o f them have a chance to become for you another “ false guide” .
N o t even Vivckananda, were he still alive. Were Ramakrishna
him self available, that w ould be another matter.
But there are other ways, in some respects for a European
easier. It was emphasized in India by Jaha ngir and by Dara
Shikuh that the Muslim Tasawwuf (Sufism) and the H indu
Vedanta “ are the same” . You say “ the written w ord ” is o f little
use to you and that you need some personal contact. And it is
true tha t eve ryone needs to find their Guru. At the same time it
is certainly vain to search for one; the right answers will come
when we are ready and competent to ask the right questions,
and not before; and so with the Guru. There is a necessary
“intellectual preparation” . Th at is why , in spite of your
rejection o f the written w ord , I feel you may perhaps no t have
found the w ritten words you need, and why I suggest that you
lay aside the sources you arc m ost familiar w ith and p lunge intoa study o f the traditional sources— Greek, Islamic, and Indian
and Chinese. Try to build up your physical strength, and at the
same time to undertake to spend at least two years in makingyourself familiar w ith Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, Hermes,
Dionysius, Eckhart, Boehme, the Brahmanas, Upanishads and
the Gita, and the Sufis, especially Shams-i-Tabriz, Jalal ud’Din
Rumi, Ibn al-Arabi, Attar (for the latter begin with Fitzgerald’s
version of the Bird Parliament, a work of infinitely moreimportance and greater beauty than his Omar Khayyam).
Overcome the idea that you, John Layard, are the “doer” and
lay the burd en on the O ne w ho bears it easily. For in the wordso f Apollonious o f Tyana (whose Vita by Philostratus you
should read by all means) in his Ep 58 to Valerius (striken bythe loss of his son, a loss by death, bu t quite analagous to you row n loss that I asked you to “ cu t” ), w ho m he exhorts in part asfollows:
Why, then, has error passed unrefuted on such a scale? Thereason is that some opine that what they suffer they
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 269/484
themselves have brought about, not understanding that one
who is ‘bom o f parents’ was no more generated by his
parents than is what grows on earth a growth o f earth, or that
the passion o f phenomenal beings is not that o f each, but that
o f One in everyeach. And this One cannot be rightly spoken
o f except w e name it the First Essence. For this alone is both the agent and the patient making Itself all things unto all and
throughout all— God Eternal, the idiosyncrasy of whose
Essence is wronged when it is detracted from by names and
masks. But that is the lesser evil; the greater is that anyone
should wail when God is born out o f the man [this refers to
the son’s death when he gave up the (holy) Ghost, and the
Spirit returned to God who gave it] by what is only a change
o f place and not o f nature. The truth is that you ought not to lament a death as it affects yourself, but honor and revere it.
And the best and fitting honor is to remit to God that which
was born here, yourself continuing to rule as before over the
human beings entrusted to your care.
Thus Apollonius offers to Valerius “the consolation ofPh ilosop hy ” (o f Bo ethius), or rather, metaphysics. W hatever
can be lost was nev er really yours. O ne m ust consider on wh at
basis “ th ings” (people, ideas, causes, all th at one can be“attached” to or wish to “serve”) arc really dear to us; of
Brhadaranyaka Up 1.4.8. (“ O f one w ho speaks o f anything but
the Self as ‘dear’, one should say ‘He will lose what he holds
dear. ’ ”); and ibid 2.4 and 4.5 (“no t for the sake o f others are
others ‘dear’, bu t for the sake o f the S e lf’.); and Plato, Lysis
21 9-2 29 (“ the one First ‘dea r’, for the sake o f which all other
thin gs can be said to be ‘dear’ ” .); viz, their and our Self. I think
you have been too m uch attached to the idea o f servicc to berendered to others, ove r-looking that the very notion o f “ self
and oth er s” is a par t o f the great delusion. N oth ing is more
dangerous than “altruism”, for it is only the correlative of“eg oism ” . Yo u can only “ love thy neighbo ur as th ys elf ’ when
you have realised that what he is, you are, not what he calls“ h im se lf’, no t “ w hat thou callcst ‘I’ or ‘m yse lf ” , but “That
art tho u ” wh ich underlies the names and masks of “ne ighbo ur”
and “self’ .
Yo u m ay have outgro w n the temporary form o f Europeancivilization that has wounded you, and in which you recognizeyo ur o w n destruc tion; and o f wh ich Picasso’s Guernica is a
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 270/484
realistic picture. Moreover, it has done with you. I think you
are no longer o f it; n ot a U top ist, w ho can believe in salvation
by plans alone, w ithout a change o f heart. I said above that
there were more ways than those you have already followed,
and you have also emphasized that you need personal help. I
send you the following names in Europe. . . .All this in order that you may in the end be able to return to
your own work — to heautou prattein kata phusin — but “ other
wise minded than now”, ie, may “return to the cave” to play
your part in the world without letting it involve you.
Please let me hear from you again soon. 1 do not think you
should try to come to the USA. I have not reached the end of
the road myself, and am only your fellow-traveller, though
possib ly better equipped w ith road-maps. I hope that what Ihave said may be o f som e assistance; do no t hesitate to w rite
further if there is anyth ing you think I can do m ore.
With kindest regards and sympathy,
Joh n Layard, cultural anthropolog ist and Jungian analyst, as above; author o f
The Stone Men o f Malakula, London, 1942; ‘The Incest Tabbo and the Virgin
Archetype’, Eranos Jahrhuch, X II, 1945; ‘The Lady o f the Hare: a Stu dy in the
Healing P ow er o f D ream s’, Psychiatry, VIII, 1945; etc.C f A K C ’s study, ‘O n the Indian and Traditional Psychology, o r Rather
Pneumatology’, in Coomaraswamy: Selected Papers, vol II, Metaphysics; edited
by Roger Lipse y, Boll in gen Scries LX X X IX , Prin ceto n, 1977.
Heinrich Zimmer, Der Wcg sum Selbst, Zurich, (date?).
Salaman and Absal and The Bird Parliament, as translated by Edward
Fitzgerald, various editions.
Philostratus, The Life o f Apollonius of Tyana, translated by F. C. Conybeare,
Loeb Classical Library, Combridge, Massachusetts, USA, and London,
England.
The names o f those to whom D r Coom araswamy referred D r Layard have been w ithheld at th eir request .
T o FATHER H. C. E . ZACHARIAS
August 12, 1935
Dear Father Zacharias:
Very many thanks for your kind letter and reminiscence. Iam entitled to assume that you depreciate the constant use of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 271/484
“ em anation” in the Dom inican Fathers’ version o f Thom as
Aquinas’ Summa Theologica.
I must also premise that wc have, as it were by hypothesis,
two d ifferent preoccu pations (1 do no t, o f course, m ean whole
preoccupation): you to establish no t only the truth, but at the
same time the exclusive tru th o f the Christian trad ition, and I
(who if required to profess, am a Hindu rather than a Christian,
although I can in fact accept and defend every C atholic doctrine
except this one of exclusive truth) to demonstrate the truth of
both traditions, to expound w hat is for me th e faith, not a faith.
Is this “exclusive tru th ” , I w onder , really a m atter o f faith? As
to that, I am not informed. In any case, I think the Catholicstudent o f Hindu doctrine should ask him self wh ether, if it
could be proved (such things cannot, o f course, be “ pro ve d” inthe ordinary sense o f the w ord) that H indu tradition is also a
divine revelation, and therefore also infallible, he would feel that
his own faith was shaken or destroyed; an affirmative answer
would surely by shocking.
I am aware that the problem involved is that o f pantheism. It
would take too long to w rite fully on this subject, w hich I hope
to do elsewhere; I will only say that we repudiate what from
our point o f view is strictly no thing bu t the accusation o f pantheism levelled at H in du doctr ine, and as an accusation
comparable to the Islamic denu nciation o f Christian ity as
polytheistic, a posit io n which m ight seem to be supported by
such words as those of Sum Theol I q 31, a 2: “ We do no t say the
only G od, for deity is com m on to several.” C f also note 42 in
my N ew Approach to the Vedas, and Pulby, “Note sur le
pantheism c” in Le Voile d ’lsis, no. 186
With these premises, I will say that it is true that srj implies a“ pou ring o u t” or perhaps “osm osis” . After creatures have been
thus poured out (srj) the deity in numerous Br passages is spoken
o f as “em ptied out like a leathern w ater ba g.” Yet he survives.
Alternatively, he is “cut to pieces” or “thought into many
parts” (R V) one becoming many in this way, which may berepresented either as a voluntary or as an imposed passion, just
as the Crucifixion is bo th o f these at the same time. In any case,the deity has to be put together again, which is done
symbolically in the ritual; which in ultimate significance Ishould be understood to mean . . . a reduction o f the arms of the
cross to their po int o f intersection. Th e notion o f a “ rcintegra-
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 272/484
tion” (samskr) to be accomplished ritually could be said to have
a pantheistic look.But: you m ust be fully aware how dangerous it is to take into
consideration one part o f a doctrine, excluding the whole
context. It is repeatedly affirmed (RV and AV) that “only a
fourth part of him bccomes (abhavat) here”, “three fourths
remain within” (nihita guha = ab intra). Distinctions are
repeatedly draw n between wha t o f him is finite and explicit,
and what infinie and untold (parimita, nirukta, and their
opposites); eg, rites with spoken words having to do with the
finite, ritual without words and orationes secretae (when manasa
stuvante) with the infinite. There are also the explicit statements
(AV and Ups) that when plenum is taken from plenum,
plenum remains. N ow , as to material cause in Chris tian formulation. St
Thom as speaks o f “ nature” as remote from God bu t yet
“retaining” a certain likeness. Likeness to what? Surely to natura
naturans, Creatrix, Deus, the “wisdom” that in Proverbs was
w ith G od in all his work. If nature w ere absolutely remote from
God, that would limit his infinity. To put the matter in another
way, take the doctrine o f the two births o f Christ, tem poral and
eternal (Vedic and Indian parallels are plenty). T here m ust be insome sense a mother in both cases, since the birth is always a
vital operation. In the case o f the eternal birth (that o f w ho m
we should employ the expression “Eternal Avatar” as distinct
from other avatarana), is not the “mother” the divine nature,
not distinguished from that divine essence, these being one in
Him? In this sense, it seems to me that Christian doctrine
assumed in God a material cause in principe, which only
becomes a material cause rem ote from Him in fact; in oth erwords, secundum rationem intelligendi sive dicendi, when the
creation takes place and the divine m anner o f know ing is
replaced for all beings in multiplicity by the subject and objector dual m anner o f know ing, which determines inevitably the
kind o f language in wh ich eternal truths are worded. Is no t thislatter m anner o f know ing on ou r part really the ocassion o f thecrucifixion in its eternal aspect? Truely, we kno w not w hat w edo, and need to be forgiven! It does no t alter the ma tter if we
say ex nihilo fi t, for what is nihil but potentiality as distinguishedfrom act? If then he is “em ptied ou t” , or as Eckhart puts it,“ gives the whole o f what he can afford” , what does this mean
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 273/484
except the same as to say that he is wholly in act? By infallible
necessity he gives wh at o f him self can be given, viz, the Son,
the Light; w hat he canno t give being the God-head, the divine
darkness, his inifinity.Hence if srj be str ic tly “ em anate ” (and it seem s to me
“ ex-p ress” is on ly a more active w ord fo r wha t is in any case asit were a fontality), it represents at the worst an imperfect choice
o f w ords, as in the D om inican Fathers’ Summa Theologica. But
taking into consideration the explicit character of Vcdic
Exem plarism (“ thou art the om niform light” , joytir visvarupam;
“integral multiplicity”, visvam ekam; “o m niform likeness o f a
thousand”, sahasrasya pratimam visvarupam, etc) 1 should say that
srsti is the same as “ fontal rayin g” (Dionysius), the act o f being,
com plete in itself, although to o ur temp oral spatial unde rstanding appearing to go ou tw ard from itself. C f “H e proccedeth
foremost while yet remaining in his ground” (anu agram carati
kseti budlunah, RV III, 55.6).Tam sending you a couple o f recent papers, one on Scholastic
Aesthetic which I am sure you will be interested in. I wouldsend some others on Vcdic Exemplarism, Vcdic monotheism,
etc, later as they appear, if you wou ld care to receive them .
Meanwhile, with cordial greetings,
Very sincerely,
PS: It seems to me that there is som e dang er o f ou r fo rgetting
that the current m eaning o f “ express” , hardly m ore than o f to
“ say” om its a good part o f the original force, to “ press ou r”
Re srj, cf also Bhagavad Gita: nakartvam ne karmani srjati.
H. C. E. Zacharias, PhD, Fribourg, Switzerland, was a layman, which was
unclear at the time AKC wrote this letter.
Summa Theologica o f St Thom as Aquinas, translated literally by the Fathers
o f the English Dom inican Province, Burnes, Oates and W ashbourne, Ltd;
see Bibliography.
Pierre Pulby, ‘Note sur le pantheisme', Le Voile d’lsis, Paris, 1935; this jo u rn al
later carried the name Etudes Traditionnelles.
A New Approach to the Veda, an Essay in Translation and Exegesis, London,
1933.
‘Vedic Exemplarism’, Harvard Journal o f Asiatic Studies, I, 1936.‘Vedic Monotheis’, Dr S. Krishnaswamy Aiyangar Commemoration Volume,
Madras, 1936.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 274/484
Bo th o f the last two references are reproduce d in Coomaraswamy: Selected
Papers, Vol II, Metaphysics-, see Bibliography.
T o H. C . E . ZACHARIAS
August 18, 1935
Dear Father Zacharias:
The following continues my previous letter. It would not, you
see, occu r to us to have to defend the Hindu doctrine against an
assump tion o f pantheism, any m ore than it wo uld naturally
occur to a Christian to have to defend Christianity against a
charge o f poly theism . Nevertheless, the defence can be made incither case. In addition to the previously cited passages I come
across the following, which throw light on what was under
stood to be meant by srj. In Bhagavad Gita, V. 14, nakartatvam
tie karmani srjati. M ore cogent, Mundaka Up, 1.7, yatha urnanabhi
srjate ghrnate. . .tatha aksarat sambhavati iha visvam, where
aksarat, “from him that does not flow”, “from the non
proceedin g” leaves no meaning possible for srjate ghrnate but
that of “seems to withdraw”, (ghrnate is o f coursc literally
“dessicates”, one might say that as fontal, the deity is here
envisaged as Parjanya, as inflowing or indrawing, as Susna).
The re is again Bhaskara’s exposition o f mathem atical infinity as
comparable to that o f deity in that it is neither increased no r
diminished by whatever is added to or taken from it,
impassissima verba: “just as in the Unmoved Infinite (anante
‘cyute) there is no modification (vikarah) wh en hosts o f beings
are emanated or withdrawn” (syal laya-srsti-kale ‘nante’ cyute
bhutaganesu yadvat). After all, what we want to get at is whatHindus understand by srj, and here it is as always in such cases
largely a matter of crede ut intelligas followed by intellige ut
credas. Philology is not enough, the word must live in you. As
an outsider, you naturally claim a right o f “ free exam ination” ,
as do P rotestants w ith regard to the teachings o f the Ch urch ,
yet however learned they may be, they may have missed the
essential. Y ou have a righ t to “ free exa m ination ” , or at any rate
assume the right; so I do n o t ask you to agree w ith me. But I doask you to ask youse lf faithfully the prelim inary question,w hether you w ould be disappointed if you became convinced
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 275/484
that pantheism is not to be found in H induism. If the answer
were “ yes” , could you still claim to be able to make a perfectly
unbiased judgement?
I m igh t add that a very usual Christian criticism o f H induism
is based on the “ pure illusion” inte rpretation o f the Maya
doctrine. In this case, if there is no real wo rld, it cannot at thesame time be argued that an origin o f this non -existant w orld
from its source implies a materiality in that source. I should
not, how ever, m yself resort to this coun ter-argum ent, as I
understand the true and original meaning of maya to be natura
naturans, as the “means whereby” the essence is manifested.
Very sincerely,
H. C. E. Zacharias, as above.
Ed itors’ note: the following fo otnote, taken from A K C ’s published writings,
explains the difference between natura naturata and natura naturans.
“Although St Thomas is speaking here with special reference to the art of
medicine, in which means are employed, it is not these natural things that
effect the cure, bu t rather N ature herself, ‘opera ting’ throu gh them; ju st as it
is not the tools, but their opera tor that makes the wo rk o f art. ‘N atural things
depend on the divine intellect, as do things made by art upon a human
inte llect’ (Sum Theol I, q 17, 1 C) . T he ‘N atu re ’, then, tha t all art ‘im ita tes’ in
operation is not the objective world itself, our environment, natura naturata,
b u t natura naturans, Creatrix Universalis, Deus, ‘that nature, to wit, which
created all others’” (St Augustine, De Trinitate XIV. 9).
To H. C . E . ZACHARIAS
October 1, 1935
Dear Dr Zacharias:
Very many thanks for your letter. I am very glad to sec that
we have grounds for agreement on many matters. The
tradition o f a prim ordial revelation received by “ A dam ” (our
M anu ) especially constitutes a po int o f departure from wh ich
can be d iscussed the relative positions o f the now separatelymaintained traditions. I do not agree that the Vcdic tradition
embodies a large amount o f irrelevant matter, but rather that it
preserves m ore o f the prim ordia l doctr in e than is to be foundelsewhere, thoug h I w ou ld agree that the whole o f the prim ordia l doctrine underlies and is im plicit in every branch.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 276/484
So far from finding any inconsistencies in the Vedic tradition, it
is precisely its extraordinary consistency tha t is the source o f its
convincing charm (I use this expression bearing in mind that
Scholastic and Indian aesthetic consider beauty as related rather
to cognition than feeling).
N ow , as to material cause: there cannot have such aconfusion o f the “ subtle” (suksma) with the immaterial as you
suggest. For the expression suksma and sthula refer only to sarira;
while the deity is outw ardly sariravat (incarnate), he is inw ard ly
asarira, discarnate. A confusion of suksma w ith asarlra w ould be
inconccivablc. As to the deity being “ all act”, yes if by deity we
mean strictly speaking “ G od ” . But if we consider the m ore
penetrating theology in which a dis tinction is draw n between
“God” and “Godhead”, notwithstanding that both conjointlyform a Supreme Identity (Skr, tad ekam, satasat, etc), then it is to
be rem em bered that He is both eternal w ork and eternal rest.
That He does not proceed from potentiality to act (as we do) is
true, because His act o f being is not in time; nevertheless as
Godhead He is all potentiality and as God all act. It is in this
sense that I spoke o f the “ M aterial” because being represented
in Him in principe, the Godhead representing in fact that nihil
ou t o f wh ich the w orld w as made, that divine darkness that is
interpenetrated by the creative light o f the Supernal Sun. Vedic
tradition does not, I think, employ any category exactly
corresponding to the expression “ spirit and m atter” , bu t rather
those o f “ body , soul and spirit” (rupa, nama, atman). “Mat
ter”, in other words, is a phenom enon, rather than a thing.
N othing is m ore constant in Vedic tradition than the insistence
on this, that in so far as He reveals him self phenom ena lly (in
phenom enal sym bols , in the th eophany, by the traces o f his
foo tprints, etc), all o f these forms are imposed by theworshipper, and are not intrinsic or specific to himself, who
lends H im self nevertheless to every im agery in w hich H e is
imagined. In other words, the “material” cause is not in thesame sense as the other causes, a real cause, but simply the
possib ility o f m anifesting form. Thus I have never said, nor has
Indian tradition taught that there exists in Him a material cause
in any concrete sense, but merely that there lies in Him all
possib ility; we say that in H im all is act ju s t because apart fromtime He realises all this possibility, whereas we develop onlysome o f these potentialities at any one time and in the course o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 277/484
a process in which effect seems to succeed cause. The above
remarks apply also to what you say about passivity in Him;
insofar as He is “self-intent” , that self which He regards m ust
be called in rela tion to th at self which regards. The Godhead is passive in rela tion to God, though both are a Supreme Identity ,
viz, the identity o f w hat Thom as calls a “ conjoint principle” . If
there were not both an active and a passive relation conceivable
within this identity o f con joint principles, it wou ld be
impossible to speak as Th om as does, o f the act o f fecundation
latent in eternity as being a “vital operation”. In other words,
the divine nature is the eternal M other o f the manifested Son,
just as M ary is the temporal mother. Being Father-M oth er
(essence-nature), either designation is that o f the First Principle.
It is very interesting that the doc trine o f the tw o Theotokoi which is thus present in Christianity (and symbolized in the
C oronation o f the Virgin) should be so definitely and clearly
developed in the Vedic tradition, and even exactly preserved in
the heterodox systems o f Buddhism and Jainism. There could
hardly be a better illustration o f the strict orthodox y o f both
traditions.*As regards Thomas**, I may add that already among the
Scholastics, he is evidently o f a rationalistic tendency. M y ownChristianity would tend rather to be Augustinian (Christian
Platonism), [that of] Erigena [and] Eckhart. It seems to me thatit is significant that the full endorsem ent o f Thom as took place
only in the latter part o f the 19th century. When the Ch urch at
that time realised the need o f a return to the M iddle Ages, wasit not perhaps the case that Thomas, represented, so to speak,
all that could be endured? I by no means intend to say that I
have not m yse lf a tremendous admiration for and appreciationo f Thom as, bu t that while I find in him rather a com m entary to
be used, a rational exposition, I find in Eckhart a far m ore bit ing truth, irresistible in quite a different way. N o t that they
teach different things, but that their emphasis is different, and
Eckhart comes nearer to the Indian and m y ow n way o f seeingGod.
With most kind regards,
Very sincerely,
H. C. E. Zacharias, as above.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 278/484
♦The contradiction in these last two sentences may well have been
inadvertent. In any event, in his later years AKC definitely held that
Bud dhism was an orthodox tradition and believed in the orthodoxy even o f
Jainism. He and Marco Pallis were instrumental in getting Rene Guenon to
accept the orthod oxy o f the former, which was bom from Hinduism in ways
analogous to the birth o f Christianity from Judaism. Jainism w ould seem
more problematic at first glance. But one must consider the great antiquity
o f Jainism: Jain legends, eg, make o f their tw enty-second (of twenty-four)
Tirthankara (one wh o overcomes) a contem porary o f Krishna w hich implies
that Jainism was an already venerable tradition at the time o f the w ar w hich
figures in the Mahabharata. By the canons o f m ode m history, Jainism can be
traced back at least as far as the third century BC. This great antiquity, the
fact that Jains still form a viable community in India, and the broad
concordance o f Jain doctrine w ith that o f Hinduism and Bud dhism all point
to the ortho do xy o f Jainism.
** Th e T hom as in question is o f course, St Thom as Aquinas (circa1225-1275) major intellectual figure in western Christianity and the ‘Angelic
D oc tor’ o f Rom an C atholicism.
T o MRS GRETCHEN FISKE WARREN
N ovem ber 6, 1942
Dear Mrs Warren:We m ust first o f all be quite clear that the highest M ind,
wh ich the U panishads sometim es call “ M ind o f the m ind” o r
“ Lord o f the m ind ” , while it is the principle o f thou gh t, does
not “ thin k” . Th us A ristotle in M et XII. 9.5 says . . . th inking
canno t be the supreme goo d. Therefore, if we m ean the highest
Mind thinks itself (only), its ‘think ing’ is the Th ink ing o f
thin kin g” , ie, principle o f thinking. W hat w e mean by thinking
is o f contingent things, in term s o f subject and object. Hence
ne ither the aesthetic (sensitive) n or the poetic (creative)mind are
the highest. We get a hierarchy in M et 1.1.17, where in
ascending order we have sensation, experience (emperiria), art
(techne) o f the skilled w orkm an, and architectonics, “ and the
speculative sciences (theoretikea) are superior to the productive
(p .e ie t i cha i )That is to say, feeling is inferior to productive
action, and action inferior to contemplation. Similarly, De
Anim a III.5.4: Mind in creative act is superior to mind as
passive recip ient o f experience; the la tter (sensitive) m ind is perishable and only “ thinks” when it is acted upon fromwithout; only when “separated” (cf Maitri Upanishad VI.34,6:
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 279/484
kama-vivarjitam, “from desire divided off”), and as it is in itself
and impassible, is it immortal and eternal: ibid, 430 . . . , mind
twofold, (a) when it becomes everything and (b) wh en it makes
everything; o f these two, (a) refers to the mind “in ac t”
separated, impassible and unmixed; what is meant by “in act”
is the identity o f the mind with its object; ie, M et XII.7.8, 1072
B 20ff, when it is “thinking itself’. Thus, once more, the
activity of making is inferior to the act of being, and both, o f
course, [are superior] to the passivity o f the sensitive mind; and
that itself becomes e very thing is perfectly illustrated by
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10: “The Brahman knew itself
alone, thereby it becomes the All”.*
Further, M et XII.7.1072 B f, goes on to say that the aforesaid
impassible Mind in act (not meaning in “activity”) is acontemplation (theoria), that it is life, life eternal, God Himself.
And this is the backg round o fjo h n I, 3-4 , “ and that wh ich was
made was (had been) life in Him” (this is not RV, but the
regular older understanding o f the wo rds, rendered by Eckhart,
for example, in his Com m entary on John , by Quod factum est in
ipso vita erat). (The ed itor says “ such is the reading in almost all
the older manuscripts.” It is a far better rendering than that of
the Revised Version, ie, more intelligible.) Thus we haveclearly before us the two acts involved in any “creation”, viz
primus, the contemplative, and secundus, the productive.I am not perfectly clear what you want to get at, but the
hierarchy starts from the aesthetic (sensitive) at the bottom,
through productive activity in the middle, to contemplative
possession o f the form (w ith out dis tinction o f subject andobject) at the top. C f the series, cogitatio, meditatio, contemplatio.
Always cordially,
PS: St Thomas Aquinas, “When the mind attains to truth, it
docs not think, but perfectly contemplates the truth” (Sum
Theol 1.34.1 ad 2).
*This citation m ay, at first glance, seem ou t o f context; but the “ its el f’ in the
second clause refers to the Divine Mind. Notwithstanding possible
difficulties in this letter, we think A K C ’s ma in line of arg um en t is
sufficiently clear, and the letter is included because o f the great im porta nce o fthe topic discussed.
Mrs Grctchcn Fiske Warren, Boston, Massachusetts
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 280/484
T o RICHARD GREGG
October 12, 1946
Dear Richard:
Your questions need a book for the answers! However; the
universe em braces an indefinite series o f “ states o f being” (cfGuenon’s Etats de I’etre; the expert yogi can “visit” and return
from any o f these at will. How ever, they are all strictly
speaking states o f “ beco m ing” , ie, o f experience and o f
mutability in time; liberation is from time and all that time
implies. The Brahmaloka itself is a series of states. Early
Buddhism emphasizes that liberation is from both worlds, ie,
the world in which one is and the future world, whatever it
may be for anyone. Hence the Buddha is called “teacher ofGods and m en ” ; he is the teacher of Brahmas and shows them
the way to “ final escape” . A Buddha is no t a Brahma; he has
already occupied that high position in time past; now he is
brahma-bhuta, “become Brahma”, a very different matter. The
Ego, w hether ours or that o f any God, is a postulate, n ot an
essence; a pragm atic postulate, for no one can say of anything
m utable that it is. Body and soul alike are for the Buddhist (and
for St Augustine) equally mutable; St Augustine is thoroughly
Buddhist and Vedantic when he says “Reason (ratio = logos) is
im m ortal, and ‘I’ am defined as something b oth rational and
m ortal at the same time. . . . If I am Reason (tat tvam asi), then
that by which I am called mortal is not mine” (De Ordine
11.50) , — vir tually the com m on Buddhis t form ula , “T hat is not
I, that is no t myself, that is no t m ine .” Liberation follows w hen
we can detach ou r consciousness o f being from identification
with the no tion o f being this man or this God. It is only relati
vely better to be a God than a man; both are limited conditions.Vedanta and B uddhism both allow o f a karma-mukti\ libera
tion may take place here and now, or at death, or after death
from the position in some other state o f being that corresponds
to the stage in the process o f becom ing w hat we are, that has
actually been reached. This life is determinative only in thissense, that w ha t we are when we are at the point o f death, that
we still are immediately afterwards; as Boehme says, the soul
goes nowhere after death where it is not already. But in thatnew condition further growth can be made.*
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 281/484
“Twenty-one” is a simple matter; the (Supernal) Sun is often
called the “twenty-first from here” and “what is beyond him
the tw enty -seco nd” ju st because seven worlds, each w ith three
levels (earth, air, sky, or ground, space, and roof) make
twenty-one. I point this out in “RV X.90.1”, note 37, and
elsewhere. Cosmologies vary in detail, but have many fundamentals in com m on; eg, the seven rays o f the sun, w ith
correspo nding seven directions o f motion; the notion o f the
(sun)-door throu gh which one breaks out o f the cosmos = also
the passage o f the Sym plegades which are the “ pairs o f
opp osites” o f which, as Cusa says, the “ wall of the celestial
paradise is built” : the narrow way and the straight gate passing
betw een th em (as poin ted out in m y review o f The Lady o f the
Hare in Psychiatry, VIII, 1945, and elsewhere).As to karma: causality operates in any world, in any order of
time; bu t does no t imply succession in the timeless, w here there
is no sequence o f cause and effect, beginning and end, essence
and existence, being and,knowledge.
Arhat is virtually synonymous with “Buddha”; both can be
used in place o f each other. O f such liberated beings, the life is
“hidden”; only to others does it seem to be in time. I don’t
think there are any fundamental differences between the
Mahayana and the Hinayana. In any case, “reincarnation” is
only a fagon deparler bound up w ith and inseparable from that o f
the postulated Ego; it is a process, not the same “individual”
that reincarnates; and in fact, in this sense the “reincarnation”
or “becoming” from which liberation is desired is that which
goes on all the time, from moment to moment; becoming in a
future life is only a con tinuation o f this present becoming; no
one who still is anyone can have escaped it.
The phrase “psychic residues” does not properly apply tothese continuations o f persons elsewhere, b ut only to pseudo
personalities or “w andering influences” in process o f disin
tegration, and which the spiritualistic medium temporarily
enlivens and communicates with—a procedure abhorrent to all
orthodox traditions. Communication with the dead and theGods is possible, but only by our going to them, not theircoming to us (in general; some modification might be needed
here); in early Buddhism, competent contemplatives areconstantly represented as “v isiting” some heaven, and even theBrahmaloka (Empyrean).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 282/484
I think this am oun ts to some kind o f answer to m ost o f the
questions. I daresay you saw som e report o f the Conference at
Kenyon College; I found it quite interesting; I expect my
speech (to which several papers, including the N Y Tim es gave
nearly a column) will get printed in due course; it was mainly a
destructive analysis o f the “ educa tional” and m issionary effortso f the Eng lish speaking peoples in o ther lands; it was rather
well received.I am rather near finishing the paper (circa 70 pages of
typewriting) on Time and Eternity; it traces the doctrine briefly
enunciated by Boethius in the words nunc Jluens facit tempus,
nunc stans faci t aeternitatem, in Indian, Greek, Islamic and
Christian contexts.
Wc arc both well and send our love. Greetings to all ourfriends.
Yours sincerely,
* Th e reader is referred to the rem arks o f Whitall Perry in His Forew ord to
this collection, pp v -v ii, and also to Frithjo f Schuo n’s Approaches du
phenomen religieux, pp 26, 27; and to the sam e auto r’s Sur les traces de la religion
perenne, pp 97fF.
Richard Gregg , Am erican friend o f Gandhi, w rote on non-violence.Rene Guenon, Les Etats multiples de I'etre, 1932 and numerous other editions;
see Bibliography. See also his L ’Erreur spirite for the traditional judg em ent
upon and explana tion o f spiritualistic phenomena.
Rigveda X.90.1: aty atisthad dasangulam’, Journal o f the American Oriental
Society, LXV1, 1946.
‘For What Heritage and to Whom Are the English-Speaking Peoples
Responsible?’, in The Heritage o f the English-Speaking Peoples and Their
Responsibility, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, USA 1947.
Time and Eternity appeared as a book, published by Artibus Asiae, Ascona,
Switzerland, 1947; see Bibliography.
T o PROFESSOR KURT VON FRITZ
October 29, 1945
Dear Professor von Fritz:
I read yo ur article on Greek prayer w ith interest. May I offera few suggestions? M ostly in the na ture o f parallels.
Page 8, the w hole passage from “Y et . . . go d” 7, w ith
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 283/484
note 7 corresponding almost exactly to what one has in India
where there is 1) no early authority for “rebirth” in the
com m only und erstood sense o f reincarnation on earth (cf m y
“Recollection, Indian and Platonic” and “The One and Only
T ran sm igra nt” ), and 2) the concept o f a “participation in the
eternity o f life by knowledge o f it” w hich is precisely w hat wefind in the Brahmanas and Upanishads. I would add that the
dual concept o f “ Hades” , the otherw orld, land o f the dead,
land o f no return, as either a “heaven” or “hell”, according to
the quality o f those w ho go there, is very w idespread; one
m igh t say tha t the concept o f a distinct place is exoteric, that o f
distinct conditions, the esoteric doctrine. On the question of
“mystic deification”, is not this rather implied by the equation
o f Zeus w ith E ther (Aeschylus, Euripides) and such passages as Eur, fr 971; and Chrys, fr 836?
N ote 15: so in India. I th ink the notion o f a miracle as
something against nature is something comparatively modern.
Th e traditional n otion is o f the exercise of latent pow ers o f
which the control can be gained by anyone who follows the
necessary procedure. Hence a Hindu would naturally wonder
why a Christian is so much embarrassed by the Gospel
“miracles”.
Page 26: So the art or skill with which the Vedic hymns are
constructed (often with comparison to other crafts, esp of
joinery) is regarded as pleasing to the gods.
Regarding the last com plete sentence on this page: if I were
describing the Vedic conception o f sacrifice, I wo uld say that
exoterically it implies the giving up o f som ething to the deity,
which something in the ritual is really oneself represented by
the victim or special symbol; but esotcrically, not so much the
actual giving up o f ‘som eth ing ’ as a reference of all activitieswhatev er to God, the who le o f life being then ritualized and
made a symbolic sacrifice; with your words “joyful activity. . . most appropriate offering”, compare them to the follow
ing in Chandogya Upanishad III, 17.3: “When one laughs and
eats and practices sexual intercourse, tha t is a jo in ing in the
Chant and the Recitative”. It becomes unnecessary to oppose profane and sacred. It may be regarded as one o f the great
defects o f developed C hristianity to have em phasized theiropposition—acts are only profane in so far as they are treated asmeaningless, and not “referred” to their ideas. So for example,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 284/484
we distinguish “useful” from “fine arts” and so find ourselves
opposed to the preh istoric and Platonic concept o f arts that
provide for the needs o f the soul and body sim ultaneously .
Very sincerely,
Professor Kurt von Fritz, New Rochelle, New York, USA. His article is not
further identified.
Bo th ‘recollection, Indian and Platonic’ and ‘O n the O ne and O nly
T ran sm igra nt’ appeared as supplem ents to the Journal o f the American Oriental
Society, LXIV, 1944, and were published also in Coomaraswamy: Selected
Papers; see Bibliography.
T o PROFESSOR KURT VON FRITZ
N ovem ber 7, 1945
Many thanks for your response. Regarding its second
paragraph, the sense o f num erous presences is perhaps m ore
emphatic in Greece, but certainly not absent in India (eg,
thu nd er as the voice o f the Gods). I think it wo uld be true in
India to say that the notion o f union is w ith the impersonal, and
that o f association w ith the personal aspect o f diety— bu t these
tw o aspects me rge into one another, as being the two natures ofa single essence.
AKC
Postcard to the above.
T o D R J . N . F A R Q U H A R
February 1, 1928
Dear Dr Farquhar:
I am o f course in general agreemen t with your view
expressed on the origin o f image w orship in the last J R A S,
except as regards the statement that a monotheist cannot be an“ ido lator” . O n the purely sym bolic value o f images (ie,non-fetishistic), there is an interesting passage in Divyavadana,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 285/484
Chap LXXVII, where Mara impersonates Buddha and Up-
agupta worships the form thus produced, explaining that he isnot worshipping Mara but the teacher who has departed “just
as people venerating earthen images o f gods do no t revere the
clay, but the immortal ones represented by them.”
My views were actually based not on the tradition, but onthe art itself and the literature. You will find a great deal o f
material bearing on the subject in the two papers o f mine about
to appear: “ O rigin o f the Buddha Im age” , A rt Bulletin, vol IX,
pt iv, 1927; “Yaksas” , Smithsonian Miscellaneous Publications,
LX X X , no 6, W ashington, D. C ., 1928.
Also sec in Charpen tier, J, “ U ber den Be griff und die
Etym ologie von Puja”, in Festgabe Hermann Jacobi, Bonn, 1926;
and in Louis de La Vallee-Poussin, . . . Indo-Europeens et Indo-Iraniens: I’Inde jusque vers 300 av J - C , Paris, 1924,
pp 314ff.
Very sincerely,
PS: My two papers will be sent to the R. A. S. Library.
J. N . Farquhar, M anchester, England, was a well kno w n w riter on Indian artand culture.
R. A. S. = Royal Asiatic Society: J. R. A. S. = Journal o f this same Society.
For the two papers by AKC mentioned in the letter, see Bibliography.
T o PROFESSOR B. FARRIN GTON
October 8, 1945
Dear Professor Farrington:
Many thanks for writing in reply to my note. What I meant
was, that to explain physis in terms o f techniques has been theuniversal procedure. And in reply to the further objection, I
meant to suggest that what might have been described as“physical” [in] pre-Socratic thought is really “theological”thou gh t, since the “n ature” they w ere trying to explain was no t
our natura naturata but natura naturans, creatrix universalis, Deus, and tha t to do this is to im ply that nature herself operates per
artem et ex voluntate, ie, that she is a “Person”.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 286/484
For the rest, I find it very difficult to see uniqueness in any
local thou gh t; only local colour. 1 have often asserted that there
is noth ing peculiar to “ Indian tho ug ht” , and could sup port this
by innumerable parallels. In fact, I try never to expound any
doctrine from only a single source. I cannot, indeed, conceive
o f any valid p rivate axioms. If by any chance Psychiatry is
available there, you might care to look at my article in VIII, 3(the last part published, Sept 1945).
Very sincerely,
Professor B. Farrington, De partm ent o f Classics, U niversity College,
Swansea, Wales.
Th is letter was in response to one from Prof. Farrington, part of wh ich read
as follows: “ . . . Yo ur po int, i f I have un dersto od y ou, is that I am righ t in
m y description o f early Greek science, b ut w rong in thinking the attitude o f
the early Greeks unique. In fact, you say, it is Hebrew, Sanskrit and
Scholastic as well as Ionian Greek. Bu t is there no t a misun derstan ding here:
the early Greeks attempted to explain physis on the analogy o f techni
ques. . . . the early Greeks had begu n to distinguish a world o f natu re from
the w orld o f man, to conceive o f the wo rld o f nature as the realm o f objective
law. . . . ” “ Spir itua l Pe tcrnity and the Puppet-Com plex” , Psychiatry, VIII,
1945.
ANONYMOUS
Uncertain date
Sir;
It is stated that “naturalists maintain that ‘reliable
know ledg e is publically verifiable.’ ” This position M r Sheldon
very properly opposes; it is in fact, unintelligible. The proper
form o f such a statement would be: “ reliable know ledge isrepeatedly verifiable.” This is Aristotle’s proposition that
“know ledge (episteme) is o f tha t which is always or usually so,
never o f exceptions” (Met VI, 2.12 & 1, 813); and a particularly
interesting application can be made to the problem o f the
“h istoricity” o f an “ incarnation” o r “ descent” (avatarana)\ for
example, the historicity ofJesus will be automatically excluded
from the domain o f reliable know ledge and intelligibility i f it is
not also assumed that there have been other such descents.
Th e supernaturalist maintains no t only that the reality o f the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 287/484
Divine Being has been repeatedly verified, but that it can be
repeatedly verified, viz, by anyone who is willing to pursue the
“Ways” that have been charted by every great metaphysical
teacher; and that it is just as “unscientific” for one who has not
made the experim ent to deny the validity o f the experience as it
would be unscientific for anyone to deny that hydrogen andoxygen can be combined to p roduce water, i f he is unw illing to
make the experiment, employing the necessary method. The
layman w ho will not experiment, and will no t believe the wo rd
o f those wh o have experimented, may say that he is not
interested in the subject, but he has no right to deny that the
thing can be done; the scientist is in precisely the same position
with respect to the vision o f God.*
It is also stated that the naturalist’s horror supertiaturae is not acapricious rejection o f well-established beliefs “ like the be lief in
gh os ts” . This is naive indeed. For ghosts, if any thing , arc
phenomena, and as such a proper subjcct o f scientific investiga
tion; only because of their elusiveness, ghosts pertain to the
realm o f “occultism” . But it is precisely in occultism that the
supernaturalist is least of all interested (cf Rene Guenon,
L ’Erreur spirite, Paris, 1923 and 1930 [and 1952 and 1977]). The
metaphysician, indeed, is astounded that so many scientists
should have become “spiritualists” and should have attached somuch importance to the survival of those very personalities
which he—the metaphysician in this matter agreeing with the
materialist—regards as nothing but “becomings” or processes
(“behaviours”), and not as real beings or in any possible way
immortal.
Finally it should be overlooked that “supernatural” no more
implies “unnatural” than “supcrcsscntial” means “unessen
tial”. The whole question depends, in part, upon what wemean by “nature”; generally speaking, the materialist and thesupernaturalist mean tw o very different things, o f which one is
not a “th ing ” at all. T he modern naturalist limits him self to the
study of natura naturata, ie, phenom ena; the interest of the
theologian is in natura naturans, creatrix universalis, Deus, not so
much in appearances as in that which appears. As for
“miracles”: the metaphysician will agree with the scientist that“the impossible can never happen”. Orientals take it for
granted that the power to work “wonders” can be acquired ifthe proper means arc pursued; but he does not attach to such
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 288/484
performances any spiritual significance**. For him, the possi
bility o f w orking w onders (wonderfu l only because o f their
rarity, and in the same way that mathematical genius iswonderful) is inherent in the natural order o f things; but the
m ode rn scientist, if con fronted w ith an irrefutable “ miracle”
would have to abandon his faith in order!I have never been able to see any meaning in the “conflict of
science with religion”; those who take part in the quarrel are
always mistaking each others’ positions, and beating the air.
Sincerely,
* ‘E xp erim en t’ com m only denotes ‘ tr ia l and erro r’; how ever , i t also
implies experience, experienced and expert, and these three latter senses areimplied in this paragraph. To find one’s way to salvation or enlightenment
by ‘tr ia l and e r ro r ’ w ou ld be v irtua lly an im possib ility ; p ractically , one
m ust have the benefit of those w ho are experienced and expert.
** It w ould appear that D r Co om araswam y had in m ind here primarily
theurgy. In monotheism, miracles definitely have spiritual significance. In
Christianity, eg, consider the multiplication o f the loaves and fishes, o r the
raising o f Lazarus; in Jud aism , conside r the miracles o f Mo ses; and in Islam,
the N ight Jou rney o f the Prophe t and the descent o f the Q u’ran, to mention
only a few o f m any miracles that serve as channels o f grace, authentications
and doctrinal illustrations.
T o GEORGE SARTON
N ovem ber 3, 1944
My dear Sarton:
I am hoping that your tolerance may extend to an acceptanceo f the enclosed continua tion o f my earlier article. Personally, I
cannot but think that to kno w precisely w hat ideas of an
evolution were held prior to the formulation o f m odern ideas of
mutation, and are by some still held side by side with these
m ode rn ideas, pertains to the history o f know ledge: and that ifthe scientist and metaphysician could learn to think once more
in one another’s dialects, this would not only have a tremendous
hu m an value, b ut w ould avoid a great deal o f the wasted
motion that now goes on.
With kindest regards,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 289/484
G eorge Sarton, professor o f the history o f science, H arvard U niversity.
‘Gradation and Evolution, II’, Isis, XXXVIII, 1947.
T o GEORGE SARTON
June 21, 1943
My dear Sarton:
M any thanks for your “ answ ers” . I can agree w ith nearly
everything. The misfortune is that while “science” deals withfacts and not with values, there has been a tendency to think of
these measurable facts as the only realities—hcncc the necessity
expressed in your last sentence.W here 1 m os t radically agree is as to cogito ergo sum which 1
have long regarded as an expression o f the bottom level of
European intelligence. “Thought” is something that wc may
direct, not what wc are. I do not credit Dcscartcs with a
distinction between the two egos implied (1) in cogito and the
other in sum — if one did credit him with that, then one could
acccpt the statement in the sense that the phenomenon or
manifestation (thinking) must imply an underlying reality. In
any case, the most essential ego (in sum) is the one that “nolonger thinks, but perfectly contemplates the truth”. Thinking
is a dialctic—a valuable tool, but only a tool.
I agree both that scientia sine amore est— non sapientia, sed nihil,
and similarly ars sine amore is not sophia, but mere techne. These
propositions arc implied in the Scholastic operates per intellectum et
in volunate.
Kindest regards,
G eorge Sarton, professor of the history o f science, H arvard U niversity.
To GRORGE SARTON
March 11, 1942
Dear Dr Sarton:
I am sending you “ Atm ayaja” , parts o f which may interest
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 290/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 291/484
To HENRI FRANKFORT
April 16, 1947
Dear Frankfort:
From time to time I have been looking at your Intellectual Adventure . . . I do n’t much like the heading “Em ancipation of
T ho ug ht from M yth ” ; it seems to me to imply a sort of
prem ature iconoclasm which most o f us are not yet at all ready
for. An iconoclasm not yet extended to the very notion o f “se lf ’
as an entity is very incomplete. For the Sufis, to say “I” is
poly theism. Few are “emancip ated” even from histo ry.
P 367: arc you not overlooking that the Hebrew means “I
becomc what I becom e” , while “ I am that I am ” is a Greekinterpretation?
P 380: Hcraclcitus, fr 19: gnome, here = gnome in Euripides,
Helen 1015 (for which, as in all the material you are discussing,
there are remarkable Indian parallels).
P 382: Hcraclcitus never denied being. One must not over
look that in panta rei, panta is in the plural. Being is not one of
many, but inconnumerable. One must not confuse his “Fire”
with its “ measures” (cf my “ Measures o f Fire” in O Instituto,
100, Coimbra, 1942; and Ritter and Prellcr, H is t Phil G k, 40,note a: Zeus, Dike, to Phon, Logos: varia nomina, res non
diversa . . . pyraeizoon, unde manat omnis motus, omnis vita, omnis
intellectus). Hcraclcitus never said that “all being was but a
becom in g” (p 384); he would have said this only o f existence,
not of being.
P 385: “The thing that can be thought. . . .”; here Parme
nides is speaking of noein, not of gnome as used by Hcraclcitus
and Euripides (who expressly distinguishes nous as mortal fromgnome as immortal). Gnome need not be o f anything. With
Euripides, Helen 1014-6; cf B U IV.3.30 (in Hume, p 138 at t p).Finally, the Pythagorean doctrine, identical with Vedanta, is
best o f all, I th ink, enunciated in Apollonius Ep 58 (to
Valerius). As in. Buddh ism, the “ reincarnation” o f the individual “soul” is a doctrine only for laymen and beginners.
Very sinccrely,
Henri Frankfort, Dorset, England.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 292/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 293/484
collaborating in a book consisting o f a selection o f the B uddha’slogoi, new ly translated; and in any case translations o f all theBuddhist material are available in the publications of the Pali
Text Society itself, though it would be better to have them
revised, so that I would rely on Dr Horner, who is a most
competent scholar in this field. Thirdly, I trust you will not
repeat M isch ’s barbarous spellings o f Indian names bu t adhere
to the international rules (as to which, also, Dr Horner would
be able to aid you). Fourth ly , I am now 69 and have more than
enough w ork in hand to last me another 25 years, if that were
available, and I have to refuse all sorts o f invitations to
und ertake anything else. Yeats’ version o f the Upanishads is
negligible; he knew no Sanskrit and his assistant knew no
English o f the kind required; I regard such undertakings asimpertinent. Hume’s Thirteen Principle Upanishads is by no
means consistently reliable, all scholars are agreed. In my
opinion the versions in W. R. Teape’s Secret Lore o f India are the
truest; bu t they are hardly as literal as you m ay require. O f the
Bhagavad Gita, there must be over 20 versions in English; the
best are, in one kind, Edwin A rnold ’s, and in anoth er, th at by
Bhagavan D as and Annie Besant. In all matters o f procu ring
books, Luzac (46 Great Russell Street, London W. C. 1) would be your best source.
, I do think that 1 am perhaps as competent as anyone you
could find to p rovide you with versions o f texts from the
Upan ishads. For the texts from the SBE volumes XXX IV (and
XXXVIII), I think you might take Thibaut’s existing versions
as they stand, not tha t they arc incapable o f imp rovem ent
altogethe r, bu t he is a goo d scholar and the versions arc for the
most part excellent. This leaves me somewhat tempted to tryand do the pieces from B G and the Upanishads, I should not
want to do the Samkhya texts with which I am less familiar;
and the B G and the Upanishads arc daily reading for me. Ifyou are not in too great a hurry I might agree to “help” to thisextent.
Re the spellings: it would be desirable for your printer to beequipped with the diacritical marks and, as I said, to adhere tothe forms on which there is international agreement (these can
be seen, for example, in the Journal o f the Royal Asiatic Society, 74 Grosvnor St, London). Such spellings as Vinaja (side by sidewith N ik aya) are absurd; they should be Vinaya and N ikaya.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 294/484
Njaja should be Nyaya; Tschandooja should be Chadogya\
Brihadaranjaka should be Brhadaratiyaka\ and so on.*Even to do what I offer, I should be glad to have the original
book. 1 presume the publisher would be willing to make some
paym ent for the work, and that I should ultim ately receive a
copy o f the volume as translated.
Very sinccrcly,
* We have not strictly followed D r Coo m aras w am y’s well founded
preferences in this matter o f diacriticals in Sanskrit, Pali and Greek word s that
appear in the pages of this v olum e because of the constraints o f time, talent
and type faces.
Mr R. F. C. Hull, Thaxted, Essex, England, was translating Georg Misch’s
Der Weg in die Philosophic (B. G. T eu bn er, 1926), which consisted o f a great
many quotatios from the Hindu and Buddhists Scriptures, and had writtento obtain help in clarifying several passages.
The Liuitig Thoughts o f Gautama the Buddha, presented by Ananda K
Coomaraswamy and I. B. Horner, London, 1984; see bibliography.
To R. F. C. HULL
August 30, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
I have yours o f the 24th. 1 meant to say that I would do the
few picccs from the Bhagavad Gita also, so please send list of
these. It is still my intention to do the Upanishad picccs before
Christmas, but I have no free time before mid-October.
Teape. is obtainable from Blackwell, O xfo rd, and also, I
think, from Heffcr, Cambridge, but try Blackwell first (7/6
with the Supplement). Teape is unquestionably literary. I don’tagree that Yeats is so consistently.
As regards the two Rgveda hymns: I have a learned friend
here who is making the RV his life work, and is thoroughly
competent both from the linguistic and the literary point of
view. If you will write to him directly (Dr M urray Fowler, c/o
P ro f B. Row land, 154 Brattle St, Cambridge, M assachusetts,
USA) merely explaining that they are for a translation ofMisch’s book and that you are writing at my suggestion, I amsure he could do them for you within a month.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 295/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 296/484
Incidentally, o f course, Dcusscn ’s Sechszig Upanishads would
be available in any good library, and so would Teape be, eg, at
the Royal Asiatic Society (where you could mention my name
by way o f in troduction, though it is hardly needed). There,
also, you could use all the Pali T ex t Society volum es (their own
stock was destroyed by a bomb).The Nidanakathd passage Miss Horner could do, or you can
take it from Rhys D avids’ Buddhist Stories, London, Trubner,
1880.
In case you cannot use all the proper diacritics, the two
important points would be to spell correctly and to distinguishthe short and long vowels (a and a, etc). In this case it would be
permissib le to use sh for s, but it would still be desirable to
distinguish s, and I think most printers could do this.Very sincerely,
R. F. C. Hull, as above.
T o R. F. C. HULL
August 30, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
I was tempted to do a specimen for you from K U . In citing
from the Upanishads, I find I hardly ever make an identical
version; in any case, I work directly from the text, choosing
words very carefully and bearing in mind the many parallel
passages. I have tr ied to transla te for those w ho will not havethe background o f com parative knowledge. But it must be
realized that to get the full conte nt o f a text a C om m en tary is
often really needed. For example, in K U 15, the “Jaws of
dea th” are one form o f the Symplegades, Janua Coeli; in IV. 1,
the “inverted version” (for which Plato has numerous parallels)
corresponds to the “ instaring” o f W estern mystics; in III.9 ff, o fcourse, there is no thing unique in the use of the “ chariot”
symbolism, more familiar in Platonic contexts—and always aformula becomes the more comprehensible the more one becomes aware o f its universality. But I suppose that Misch
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 297/484
poin ts all this out, at least in the present contexts it is his affair
to have done so.I don’t expect to do more until, as I said, mid-October; the
difficulties arc not in the Sanskrit, but in finding the right
w ords w ith w hich to carry over as much as possible o f the
meaning w ithou t obscu rity. In III. 13, I used “oblate” , bccauscthe original verb throughout (sam) is literally to “ sacrifice” ,
“ give the quie tus” , and this is lost for all bu t philologists; if one
speaks of the “ peaceful S e lf’, where “ dedicated” or “ im m o
lated” w ou ld be nearer, the “ Self o f the se lf ’ or “ selfless S e lf ’ is
meant. Nevertheless, I think “oblate” is too recondite for
present purposes, so I would render K U IV. 13:
St i ll in g in th e m in d a ll sp ccch , th e k n o w led g e .
sho uld s ti ll the m ind i t se l f in the gn ost ic se l f ( the reason)
T he G no st ic is the G reat , and the G reat se l f is the
Se lf at peace.
Here are some o ther parts o f the Katha Upanishad:
(3 ) Kn o w th o u th a t th e Sp i r i t i s th e r id e r in th e “ch ar io t” ,
the “’ch ar io t” , the bod y:
K no w tha t Reason is i ts fe l low, M ind i t is that ho lds
the reins.(4) T he po w ers o f the sou l arc the s teeds , as they say ; the
o b jec t s o f p e rcep t io n , th e i r p as tu re .
T h e S p i r i t c o m b i n e d w i t h t h e m i n d a n d i t s p o w e r s ,
m e n o f d is c e rn m e n t te r m “ th e e x p e ri m e n t ” .
( N B : I t i s a p i t y t h a t w e h a v e n o w o r d c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o “ f r u i t i o n ”
a n d m e a n i n g “ o n e w h o h a s f ru i ti o n o f ’.)
Katha . . . I I I .9 -15 :
(9) H e , in d eed , w h o se d i sce rn m en t is th a t o f th e f e l lo w - r id e r ,
o n e w h o se m in d h as th e re in s in h an d —
H e reach ed th e en d o f th e t r ack , th e p lace o f V ish n u ’s
u l t imate s t r id e .
(10) A b o v e th e p o w ers o f th e so u l are th e i r a im s , ab o v e
these a ims is the mind ,
Ab o v e th e min d , th e r easo n , an d ab o v e th e r easo n
the G reat Sel f (o r Sp ir i t)
(1 1 ) Ab o v e th e Grea t i s th e Un rev ea led , an d th e reab o v e
th e Per so n ,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 298/484
B e y o n d w h o m t h e re is n a u g h t w h a t e v e r: t h a t is th e g o a l -p o s t ,
t h a t t h e e n d o f t h e t ra c k .
(12) T he l igh t o f the S p ir i t by a ll th ings h idd en is no t
a p p a r e n t .
Y et it is seen by the sha rp and sub t le eye o f reason ,
b y su b tle seers,(13 ) O b la t in g sp eech in th e m in d , th e k n o w led g ab le man sh o u ld
th en o b la te th e m in d in th e g n o s t i c se l f ( th e r easo n ),
T h e g n o s t i c in th e G rea t , an d th e G rea t Se l f in th e O b la te
Self.
(14 ) S t a n d up ! A w a k e ! W i n y e w o r t h s , a n d u n d e r s t a n d t h e m —
T h e sh arp en ed ed g e o f a razo r , h a rd to o v erp ass , a d i ff icu l t
p a th — w o rd o f th e p o e ts , th is.
(1 5 ) So u n d less , u n to u ch ab le , u n sh ap en , u n ch an g in g , y es , an d
tasteless, eternal , scentless too,W i th o u t b e g i n n in g o r e n d, b e y o n d t h e G r e at , im m o v a b l e—
w h e r e o n i n te n t , o n e e v a d e s th e j a w s o f d e a th .
Katha . . . IV . 1, 2:
(1 ) Th e Se l f - su b s i s t en t p ie rced th e o r i f i ces o u tward s , th e re fo re
i t i s tha t one look s fo r th , no t a t the Se l f w i th in :
Y e t t h e C o n t e m p l a t i v e , s e e k i n g t h e U n d y i n g , w i t h i n v e r t e d
v i s io n , saw H im self .
(2) C hi ld ren are the y that fo l low af ter ex terna l loves , they w alk i n to t h e w i d e s p re a d s n a r e o f d e ath ;
B u t t h e C o n t e m p l a t i v e s , k n o w i n g t h e U n d y i n g , l o o k n o t f o r
t h ’i m m o v a b l e a m o n g s t t h in g s m o b i le h er e.
Katha . . . V . 8 - 1 2 :
(8) H e w h o w ak es in th em th a t sl eep , th e Per so n w h o fash io n s
man i fo ld lo v es ,
He in d eed i s th e Br ig h t On e , th a t i s B rah ma, ca l l cd th e
U n d y i n g ;O n w h o m th e w o r ld s de p en d ; that n o o n e s o e v e r t ra n s c e n d s —
This veri ly , is That.
(9 ) As i t_ is one F i re tha t indw el ls the w or ld , and as sum es the
s e m b l a n ce o f e v e r y a p p e a r a nc e ,
So th e In n er Se l f o f a ll b e in g s assu mes th e sem b lan ce
o f ev ery ap p earan ce , an d i s y e t ap ar t f ro m all.
(1 0) A t i t is th e o n e G a le th a t in d w el ls th e w o r ld , an d assu m es
t h e s e m b l a n c e o f e v e r y a p p e ar a nc e ,
So th e o n e In n er S e l f o f a ll b ein g s assu mes th e sem b lan ce
o f ev ery ap p earan ce , an d i s y e t ap ar t f ro m a ll.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 299/484
(11) As the Sun , th e w ho le w o r ld ’s eye , is un s ta ined by the
o u t w a r d f au lt s o f w h a t h e s ees ,
So the Inne r S el f o f a ll be ings i s uns ta ined by the i lls
o f t h e w o r l d , b e i n g a p a r t f r o m t h e m .
(1 2) T h e In n er S e l f o f a ll b e in g s , w h o m ak es h is o n e fo rm to b e
m a n y ,T h o s e w h o p e r ce iv e H i m w i th i n th e m , t h es e, t h e C o n t e m p l a -
t ives , the i rs ’ and no ne o th er s’ is eve r las t ing fe lic ity .
Katha . . . V I . 12, 13:
(12 ) N e i t h e r b y w o r d s n o r b y t h e m i n d , n o r b y v is io n c a n H e
b e k n o w n ;
H o w c a n H e b e k n o w n b u t b y s a y i n g t h a t “ H E I S ” ?
(13) H e c a n i n d e ed b e k n o w n b y t h e t h o u g h t “ H E I S ” , a n d b y th e
t r u t h o f b o t h h i s n a tu r e s ;F o r w h o m H e i s k n o w n b y t h e t h o u g h t “ H E I S ” , t h e n H i s
t rue nature p resen ts i t se l f .
K U , in the letter above = Katha Upanishad.
To R. F. C. HULL
September 26, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
Brahma and Brahman are both legitimate, but I prefer the
nominative form, Brahma: the important distinction is from
the masculine Brahma.
For Greek, C ornfo rd is, o f course, all right; Jo w ett is
perfectly acceptable, but has a slightly Vic torian flavour. Ingeneral I use the Loeb Library versions, which are not always
perfect, but good on the whole. I also use the Loeb Library
version o f Aristotle. The title o fj . B urn et’s book is Early Greek
Philosophy. In the case o f any difficulty it should be easy to getthe advice o f som e Greek scholar in England.
In general, Sutras arc texts; Karkias rather o f the nature o fcommentaries, in verse.
I shall be glad to read the Brahm an-A tm an passages you referto. T he only translation o f Vacaspati Misra’s Samkhya-Tattva-
Kaumudi I kn ow o f is that by G anganatha Jha, Bo mbay
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 300/484
Theosophical Society Publishing Fund, 1986; you could prob
ably find a copy at the Royal Asiatic Society or at the British
Museum. There is also a German version by Garbo in Abh
Bayerischen A kad Wiss Phil K l, 19.3 (1892). For Vijnana Bhiksu,
seej. R. Ballantyne, Samkhya Aphorisms o f Kapila in Trubncr’sOriental Series (1885). For Narayana Tirtha (sic) see S. C.
Banerji, Samkhya Philosophy, Calcutta, 1898. For Sankhya
books in greate r detail, see list in th e U nio n List . . . (A merican
Orien tal Series, N o 7, 1935, N os 2513ff.
I am using a borrowed typewriter, excuse results.
Very sincerely,
R. F. C. Hull, as above.
To R. F. C. HULL
October 18, 1946
Dear Mr Hull:
In the first place, I am sending you my RV X.90.1 which
may give you some help on the general psychological
background.
2) Y our passage, “This is perfect . . . (Yeats p 159): the
reference is to BU 5.1. The word he renders by “perfect” is
piirnam, which means “pleroma”, or as Hume has it, “fulness”;
“ perfect” m ay be true, bu t it is no t the meaning o f the text.
Root in piirnam is pr, “ fill” , same root as in “ plerom a” .
3) I shall make some necessary spelling corrections on theMs; notably, Yajnavalkya for Yadnavalkya throughout.
4) As regards y our main question , I shall append m y
proposed transla tion o f BU IV. 1.2. “ N ot beyond our ken” in
the original is literally aparoksa, “n ot out o f sight” , “eye to eye”
ie, “ face to face” , coram\ cfin my RV paper, note 12, esp Taitt
Up 1.12, where pratyaksam = sdksat {pratyaksam, literally,“ against the eye”— hence “eye to eye” ). Such im mediate vision
applies in the first place to the percep tion o f ord inary “objects”and contrasts with paroksam, “ out of sight” (the word aksa,
“eye”, being present in all three words), which last applies toall that has to do with the (invisible) Gods, who arc said to be
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 301/484
priva, “ fond of, o r wonted to, the ob-scure” , C f Chapter V o f
m y Transformation o f Nature in Art.
N ow the transla tion:“Then U , the son o f Cak ra, asked him: ‘Yajnavalkya’, he
said, ‘demonstrate (or make known) to me the B[rahma].Brahm a face to face, not ou t o f sight (saksat-aparoksat )”. “He is
your Self that is w ithin all thin gs .” “ But, Y ajnavalkya, which
‘self is it that is ‘in all things’?” “That which breathes together
with the breath (prana) is both y ourself and all-within. Th at
which breathes (or expires when you expire) out with your
breathin g out (apdtta) is your Self and all-within. T ha t which
distributively breathes with your distributive breath (vyana) is
you r Self and all-within. Th at w hich breathes w ith yourdistributive breath (vyana) is your Self and all-within. T ha t
which breathes upward (or aspires) with your breathing
upward (udana) is yo ur Self and all-within.’
Yajna is perfectly correct; the Brahma is manifested only by
its vital functions (prana, often explicitly = ayus, “life”); all the
vital and sensitive functions o f the psyche are extensions o f the
Spirit, Self, or Soul of the soul, thought o f as seated at the centre
o f our being and in all beings. In the next part, U objects that Y
has only referred to various aspects o f the G, just as if one were
asked what an animal is, and told only “for example, cows and
horses”—which answer docs not tell us what an animal as such is.
Y explains that the B o f A is not an object that can be know n by
a subject. . . . So, 2) U, the son of C, said “ you have expressed
it, as one might say yonder cow, or yonder horse. (Again, I
ask), d em onstrate to me the B[rahman], n ot out o f sight— who
is the Self w ithin all thin gs.” (Y repeats) “ He is your Self, the
all-within. You canno t see the seer o f seeing, o r hear the hearero f hearing, or think the thinker o f though t, or discriminate the
discriminator. For He is your Self, the all-within; all else is a
m isery .” “The reat, U , son o f C, desisted.”
Th e unknow ability o f the Self is often insisted upon — as also by Jung, w ho poin ts out that only the Ego can be know n
objectively; the eye cannot see itself, and so it is with theuniversal Subject. I have read Sankara’s commentary and made
my version as literal as possible, w ithout think ing o f any thingthat Misch says.I don ’t see that Misch is far off the mark, bu t he does seem to
attribute to U what is really Y’s doctrine (and the common
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 302/484
one), viz, that the functions o f life are the m anifestations o f B,and it is this mistake (which I think you should regard as a
lapsus linguae to be corrected) that makes Misch’s account
confusing to me. Moreover, I would not say “was reduced to
the identification o f the various vital functions” ; B is manifested
in these functions, not “reduced” to them. For this epiphany
otherwise formulated, see Kaush Up II. 12.13 (Hum e, pp 316,
317) and cf B U 1.5.21 (ibid, p 91). Perhaps you had best let me
know how far all this meets your difficulty, before I try to go
into it any further, if needed. In any case, I shall regard the
translation o f B U 4.1.2 as done. I m ight add that the “ Breath”
(pratja) is repeatedly a tremendous concept, not merely a flatus,
but an im m anent princip le equated w ith the Sun, Self, Brahma,
Indra, etc. On the “Breaths”, see also note 29, 2nd para, in myRV paper.
Very sincerely,
R. F. C. Hull, as above.
‘R V X. 90.1: aty atisthad dasangulam', Journal of the American Oriental Society,
LX VI, 1946, no 2.
Kaush UP = Kaushitaki Upanishad B U = Brhddaranyaka Upanishad
T o MISS I . B . HO RNE R
14 May 1947
Dear Miss Horner:
Brahma-khetta, c f Buddha-khetta, Vism 414; also, Vism 220 punna-khetta=brahma-khetta. In Stt 524 T think brahma-
khetta=brahma-loka as distinct from Indra-loka, and perhaps
we should understand Brahma. The khetta-jina is one who isno longer concerned with any “fields”, having mastered and
don e w ith all. Khetta-bandhana is attached to o r connection w ithany “field” znd^samyoga; to see this read BG 13.26. All threefields are spheres of samsara, and the khetta-jina is one who has
done [with] the m all, and has m ade the uttara-tiissaranam. Is this
adequate?Thag 533, taya, m ust be ablative or instr., neither o f which
seems to justify “ in” , so I w ould think “ for thee” better than
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 303/484
“ in thee” . O f course, saccanamo, as elsewhere, is “whose name
is Truth”, not “in very Truth”, for which one would expect
simply saccam at the beginning o f the sentence, ju st as satyam is
used to mean “verily”.
By the way, J IV. 127, attanam attano is interesting, and mustmean “ Self o f the se lf ’, as in M U 6.7, atmano’tma.
I would’nt like “used up” for nibbuto. One good sense would
be “ dow sed” . By the way, cf Oratio ad Graecos..., “O teaching
that quenches the fire within the soul.”
Kindest regards,
PS: With Vin 1.34: jivha addita c f James iii, 6: “ The tongue is a
fire and setteth afire the wheel o f becom ing .”
4
Miss I. B. H orn er, Secretary o f the Pali T ex t Society and a well kno w n
scholar living in London . She collaborated with AK C in The Living Thoughts
o f Gotama the Buddha, London, 1948.
Vism = Visuddhimaga
Sn = Suttanipata
Thag = Theragatha
] =JatakaVin = Vinaya-Pitaka
The above are Pali texts, the language of Hinaya B uddhism.
To MISS I. B. HOR NER
Date uncertain
Dear Miss Horner:
Re sclf-naughting: this is the same as Self-realisation.
Abhin ibbut’atto (= abhinibbout’ attana atta) but the atta referred to
is not the same! In fact, nibbuto applies only to self and vimutto to
Self. If the B [uddha] is nibbuto this does not mean that he is
extinguished , bu t that he is abhinibbut’ atto, one in who m self has
been to tally extinguished; he is therefore sitibhuto.
“He that would save his soul, let him lose it.” “He whowould follow me, denegat seipsum” (not an ethical but anontological demand). “All scripture cries aloud for freedomfrom self.” So in Islam, as God says to the man at the door,“ W ho’s there?” “ I” . “ Begone. N o room for tw o here .” All this
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 304/484
is quite universal and not in the least peculiar to Buddhism.
D 11.120 katam me saranam attano\ this atta certainly not the
maranadhammo atto (M. I. 167), only the former is the saruppam
attano o f Sn 368. T he great error is to see attam anattani, “ Self in
what-is-not-Self”, (NB: I am very careful with my s and S), eg,
in the sabbe dhamma anatta. . .
AKC
Miss I. B. Horner, as above.
T o MISS I. B. HO RN ER
June 24, 1946Dear Miss Horner:
Appamada: lit, absence of infatuation, intoxication (mad),
pride, etc, im plies diligence , no doubt, but diligence is hardly a
translation, is it? Yours ofJune 21. I’m glad we agree on several
points. I th ink we had better keep ariyan — “ w orthy” w ould be
goo d in itself, b ut wou ld not convey w hat is needed. Regarding
samaya and asamaya, I’m very sure that your “unstable” and
“stable” arc good in themselves (whether or not in every
context): this would fit in very well with khana, where alone
true thiti can be found— khana, strictly speaking is that in which
a thing is in-stant, eg, as arahat paramgato thale titthati.
AKC,
Miss I. B. Horner, as above.
To MISS I. B. HORNER
July 2, 1946
Dear Miss Horner:
I have yours o f 9th and 20th and an undated one w ith
“ H ouseholde rs” . I’m in such a position, too, that I can hardlyfind another minute to give! Anyhow, final decisions onrenderings must be yours: it is good that we are agreed on
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 305/484
many o f them, eg, metta, love. To be sure Bhagavata is a word
common to other religions, especially early Vaisnavism con
temporary with the great Nikayas —and this too m ust be taken
into consideration in connection with the great importance
attached to bhatti = bhakti in the sense o f devoted service;
“beneficent” or “generous” seems to be the real meaning of Bhagavat — or “ wealthy dispenser” . Perhaps you are right in
retaining “lord”, though it is a paraphrase rather than a
translation. . . Viriyavada seems to me that “ Doctrine o f ener
gy” implying (as often stated in other words) that “manly
effort must be made”. Kammavada, “doctrinc that there is an
ough t to be do ne.” Sanditthika and ditth’ eva dhamme seem to me
both = “ here and now ”— or one m ight differentiate by saying
“immediate” for the first. I do think it important to renderkhana by “moment” or “ instant” .
(Incidentally, Macdonald in his, writing on the Islamic
doctrine o f the moment suggests a Buddhist origin for it; but I
find more Greek sources also, than he does.)
Pamada is something like “elevation” in the way one can call
a drunk person “elevated”, but probably “temperance” and
“ intem pera nce ” are the best words to use. It is a pity tha t there
is no literal opp osite o f “ infatuation” .
The whole problem of nirvana, etc, is very hard: one should
always bear in m ind the desirability o f using renderings that are
no t incompatible w ith the putting o ut o f a fire, wh ich was
certainly the dominant content for a Buddhist.
Certainly, -jo and -nimmito are more or less equivalent terms:
one = genitus, the other = factus; both apply to production.
Perhaps “formed” would be best for -nimmito — “ form ed by” ,
or even.“moulcd by”; -jo, m ore literally, “ begotten o f ’. The
idea that the pup il is reborn o f his teacher is com m on. Viraga: I’m willing to accept “aversion”. Skr vairaga is really contemptus
mundi. For gocara, “field” would do for psychological contexts.
Ajjhattam and paccattam seem to me nearly the same: perhaps
“inwardly” rather than “subjectively” which has a slightlydifferent value— or as you say “personally” , with application to
one’s own experience. . . . Ariya is difficult unless one says just “ Aryan ” , bu t that
w ould need reservations; when E ckhart says “ the fastidious soulcan rest on nothing that has name”, that is the meaning—thenotion is of an elite. . . .
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 306/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 307/484
PS: I just received Edgcrton’s Bhagavad Gita (HOS 38 & 39). I
am rather appalled by the spectacle o f a scholar who confesses
ignorance o f and lack o f interest in m etaphysics, and yet
undertakes such a task. However good his scholarship, he has
hardly any m ore understanding o f what is being talked about
than W hitney o f the Atharva Veda. It is works like these that
have led som e Indian scholars to speak o f European scholarship< t M l
as a crim e !
G eorge Sarton, professor of the history o f science, H arvard U niversity,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
‘Gradation and Evolution, II’, Isis, XXXVIII, 1947, numbers 111 and 112.
Franklin E dgcrton translation o f the Bhagavad Gita, Harvard Oriental Series,
N um bers 111 and 112.
W. D. Whitney, Atharva-Veda Samhita, Harvard Oriental Series, No 7.
To GEORGE SARTON
N ovem ber 4, (year uncertain)
My dear Sarton:
Apropos o f ou r discussion o f spoken languages. C f Keith in Aitareya Aranyaka, Oxford, 1909, p 196, no 19. Sanskrit can
only have been a vernacular very long ago (say before 800B C). Later, the educated classes used a Prakrit for every day
purposes, though still understanding Sanskrit, which was
partially understo od even by peasants (as now). Sanskrit is still
sufficiently widely kn ow n that some European scholars travell
ing in India could use it as a lingua franca. I take it modern Greek
is nearer to ancient Greek than Hindi is to Sanskrit.
AKC
Geo rge Sarton, professor o f the history o f science, H arvard Un iversity,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 308/484
T o MRS C. MORGAN
Date uncertain
Dear Mrs Morgan:
When you first spoke o f “ stages” I thou gh t you had in m indthe successive levels o f reference or stages o f being attained in
contem plative practice. For stages in the progress o f the
individual, I suggest G. I. Wade, Thomas Traherne (Princeton,
1944), c f pp 52, 53 and 62, 64.
At the university . . . I saw that there were things in this
w or ld o f which I had never dreamed; glorious secrets and
glorious persons past imagination. . . . Nevertheless, some
things were defective, too. There was never a tutor that did professly teach Felicity, though that be the mistress o f all
other sciences. N or did any o f us study these things but as
aliens, which we ought to have studied as our own
enjoym ents. We studied to inform o ur know ledge, bu t knew
no t for what end w e so studied. And for lack o f aiming at a
certain end we erred in the manner.
Later Traherne realized that:
Outward things . . . lay so well, methought, that they
could not be mended: but I must be mended to enjoythem.
Wade adds:
Tha t mending, that purification of the will, constitutes the
spiritual history o f the nex t ten years.
In that g row th a large part o f the means was certainly Plato,Plotinus, Hermes. “Searching the Scriptures” is a liberating
procedure; one learns to th ink, not “ for onese lf’, b ut correctly,which is better.
For the Kundalini, abou t wh ich you enquired: cf Avalon,The Serpent Power, Luzac, 1919.
Further for “stages” the following might be useful: JohnCordelier, The Spiral Way, Meditations upon the Fifteen Mysteries
o f the Soul's Ascent (Watkins, London, 1922) and perhapsDietrich von Hilderbrand, Liturgy and Personality (LongmansGreen, N Y, 1943).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 309/484
Other references include Fritz Marti, “Religion, Philosophy
and the College”, in Review o f Religion, VII, 1942, 3; J. A.
Stewart, The M yths o f Plato (Macmillan, N Y, 1905); N. K.
Chadwick, Poetry and Prophecy (Cambridge, 1942); Avalon,
Shakti and Shakta (Luzac); and Swami Nikhilananda, The
Gospel o f Sri Ramakrishna, N. Y., 1942).
It is ju st because wh at w c are after is hardly to be found “ in
N cw buryport” th at one m ust read and read; it can be found in
the living books, which are available even here and now.
This is all I can think o f at the m om ent. Wc enjoyed your
visit very much.
Very sincerely,
Mrs C. Morgan, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
T o M U R R A Y F O W L E R
March 4, 1944
Dear Murray:
I read your review with pleasure. I can only promise to think
about the “love” and “ethic” problem. O ne wo uld have to start
from the question, w ha t is the true object of love? O ne could
show that the Upanishads, Aristotle and Aquinas agree that it is
ou r “ S e lf’ (if wc k now “ wh ich s e lf ’); and that the same is
implicit in “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto these, ye have
done it unto M e” . Altruism, the love of “ others” as such is as
much as the hatred o f “ othe rs” a delusion. Even if we subm it to
this delusion o f “ othe rs” , our love for them should be foundedin ou r love o f the One.
As for “ethics”, one would have to show that, as for Plato,
there is no real distinction o f “ ethics” from “ politics” .As for the other point, sannyasa: this corresponds to the
Pauline distinction of liberty from law. I think I made it clear
that a complete socicty must recognize that the f in a l end of
the individual is one o f deliverance from his ob ligations;although an end that can only be approached by a fulfilment ofthem. C f Ed gerton in JA O S 62.152, recognizing the ordinary
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 310/484
and the extraordinary norm s. Th e very concepts o f finite and
infinite necessitate both. . . .
Kindest regards,
PS: I take it tha t the true doctrine o f inaction is not to do
nothing, but to “act without acting”; as in the Chinese doctrine
o f u’u wei.
M urray Fow ler, M adison, W isconsin, USA , friend o f D r
C oom araswam y and lifelong student of the Rig Veda.
T o GEORGE SARTON
February 6, 1945
Dear Sarton:
I did no t k now o f D atta’s change o f life (which is one way o f
referring to that kind o f retirement). The w ord Saha must have
been either sadhu or sannyasin (the former literally “hitting the
mark”, the latter “giving up”, ie, surrendering all duties and
rights). This represents the “4th stage” or the normal Indianschema o f life (and also corresponds to Plato ’s concept o f m an ’s
latter days, Rep 498, C, D . . .). Sannyasin is pretty near to
what Eckhart calls a “truly poor man”. On the ghats at Benaresyou will find amongst others, university graduates and
cx-millionaires, now “truly poor men” owning nothing. By
the way, too, there arc 4 American sadhus in India; my wife
knew one o f them and he was a good friend o f ou r bo y’s. . . .
As a rule, the funeral rites arc performed for a man who becomes a sannyasin\ he becomes in fact what Rumi calls a
“ dead man w alkin g” ; cf Angelus Silcsius, stirb ehe du stirbst. We
ourselves, in fact, in a few years more, plan to return to India to
approximate, as far as it is practicable for us, to this ideal. InIndia, one does no t look forw ard to an old age o f econom icindependence but to one o f independence o f economics. The re
are many hu m bu gs in India, bu t as one sadhu said to my wife, aslong as there arc even 2 real sadhus in 100, so long there will be
an India.Did I commend to you M. Beck’s “Science in Education” in
Modern Schoolman, Jan 1945?
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 311/484
I have a num be r o f things in the press that will interest you. I
am still w ork ing on the “ Early Iconography o f Sagittarius”,
but am alm ost bogged dow n in the mass o f material (cherubs,
centuars, Janua Coeli, Rape of Soma, etc); and on the concepto f Ether in the Greek and Sanskrit sources.
Perhaps we shall see you at the Pelliot tea tomorrow.
Kindest regards,
PS: You will find an old account o f a man becom ing a
Sannyasin in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad XI.4.1 (in Hume will
do), in which the Atm an (Hume’s “Soul”) is the Common Man
whom we have now reduced to the dimensions of T om , Dick,
and Harry, and whose legitimate title of Fuehrer has now beengiven to tyrants!
Geo rge Sarton, professor of the history o f science, H arvard U niversity,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
‘Early Iconogra phy o f Sagittarius’ was incom plete at the time o f A K C ’s
death and has not been published.
To MRS NORBERT WEINER
December 14, 1945
Dear Mrs Weiner:
This is ju st a line to improve up on w hat I was trying to say
the other evening. I quite agree that we have to put our ownfires out, and ou gh t to help ou r neighbour w hen his house is on
fire. But in either case, such activities are distractions from our
own proper work; and the real point is that “helping others”directly is not a vocation, and that we have no right to make a business o f it. We ought to have our ow n w ork to do, and
dqvote our energies to it, with only such interruptions as areinevitable when they arise; we certainly ought not to look for
occasions that call upon our time, but only ought to attend tothem when we are naturally made aware o f them.
Very sincerely,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 312/484
Mrs N orbe rt W einer, wife of Norb crt W einer, professor at the Mas
sachusetts Institute o f Tec hnology , C am bridge, M assachusetts, U SA, and
author o f the popular book that philosophized about the dawn o f the
computer age, Cybernetics.
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y, L O N D O N
January 13, 1938
Sir,
Apropos of various Articles in recent issues of the N ew
English Weekly, it seems to me that what wc need is not an
emphasis on Christian ethics, goodwill, ctc. What we need is
the revival o f Christian dogm a. (This is precisely w here theEast is o f use and help— I have even been told by Catho lics that
my own work has given them renewed confidence, which is
jus t the effect it should have.) . . . Ethics have no power o f their
own to bring abo ut peace o r justice or even to hold their ow n in
theory; they have become mere sentiment and will do little or
nothing to better the world. W ith a revival o f dog m a you will
have a new life put into both making and doing (art and
prudence). Wc may then once m ore learn to act, not “ prettily” , but “ correctly” . If people w ould only treat prudence as they do
mathematics: a m atter o f right or w rong, no t from “feeling”,
but in the same sense that 2 + 2 = 4, and no t 5!
AKC
To PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, S . J .
February 2, 1938
Dear Professor Furfey:
Enclosed may interest you. I should mention it is an extractfrom a private letter, published without permission, hence itscolloquial style.
Very sincerely,
PS: Still, I feel the point about dogma is important, and that
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 313/484
conduct should be first a matter of order and secondly a m atter ofthe will (will following the intellect).
Paul Henley Furfey, S. J., depa rtme nt of sociology, C atholic Unive rsity of
America, Washington, D. C., USA.
The previous letter was enclosed; it had been sent to the editor of The New
English Weekly, a personal friend of AK C, and was published by him despite
the fact that it was p art o f a personal letter.
T o GEORGE SARTON
October 14, 1938
Dear Sarton:
Many thanks for your interesting leaflets. I only rather
dem ur to the idea o f “ individual conscience” , since I cannot but
regard the “conscience” (the word o f course originally m eant
“consciousness”, an awareness) as “impersonal”—in the sense
that the “active intellect” is for some Schoolmen impersonal
and that Synteresis is impersonal and the Vedic “Inner
Controller”, the Platonic and neo-Platonic hegemon, viz, theSpirit o f God within you.
Further, I believe good will can only be [universalized]*
insofar as the good will is made to rest on strictly intellectual
(metaphysical) sanctions, so conduc t is regulated by knowledge
rather than by opinion-feeling. A consent o f East and West can
only proceed from this highest ground and must first of all (as
Guenon says) therefore be the work o f an elite.
Very sincerely,
* T he w ord “ universalized” is supplied because o f the illegibility o f the text,
but it com ple m ents and does not contra dic t th e context o f th e le tter.
G eorge Sarton, professor of the history of science, Ha rvard Un iversity,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 314/484
To GEORGE SARTON
July 13, 1947
Dear Sarton:
Y our birthday boo k is full o f interest. Bu ffon’s tout ce qui peut etre, est is very good philosophy. Leake’s paragraph 3 on page
264 is quite ridiculous— no t on ly as if anyone ever did any thing
w ithout a view to som e result to be secured or avoided, b ut also
he does no t realise that the whole business o f doing u nto others
rests upon the question Who am /?, and Who are you? A nd again
he know s no thing o f the contexts (people are so glib in citing
Indian term s and ideas secondhand!), or o f such contex ts as the
Buddha’s “Whoever would nurse me, let him nurse the
sick” . . .
Q uite ano ther point: I find it of the highest interest that
Dante (in De Monarchia) uses “G od and Nature ” w ith a singular
verb— as if the expression w ere a gramm atical dual den oting a
mixta persona (“not that the one is two, but that the two are
on e” , as H erm es says). Th is is a survival o f the oldest
• meanings. . ., those o f the early Greek “physicists” , and one
that can be co ntinuously traced thereafter, side by side w ith the
other meaning (that of natura naturata).
Kindest regards,
George Sarton, as on p. 274.
To MEYER SCHAPIRO
May 2, 1932
Dear Professor Schapiro:
On rereading your letter it occurs to me to add one thing to
mine. You speak o f the values of contem plation being detachedfrom those o f daily use. T o m y m ind, speculation about a kindo f truth conccivcd to exist in vacuo is nothing but “curiosity”;
m oreo ver, it goes for me tha t the ultima te truth is precisely and by defin ition th at which cannot be know n. However, so far asthe best sort o f relative truth goes, and apart from m y ow n
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 315/484
views, I w ou ld say that in India we have no philosophy pursued
as such for its ow n sake, for the sole purpose o f con structing a
ne tw ork o f w ords that shall be as far as possible unassailable.
Indians have sometimes said w ith perfect justice that European
students cannot understand Indian philosophy (or as it ought
rather to be called, metaphysics) because they do not live it.Indian metaphysics is in origin a means to power, in develop
ment becoming means to the summum bonum; it is never an end
in itself. On this sec Guenon, L ’Homme et son devenir selon le
Vedanta (Paris, 1924 [and numerous subsequent editions]). So
we shall no t get anywhere as to understanding the East if we
start from an idea o f contemplation as a thing in and for its own
sake; it is a means to becom ing w hat w e are, b ut there are other
means co ncom m ittant and inseparable. O f course, in saying“ m ean s” , I speak em pirically— there arc no m eans to enlighten
m ent (perfection), to a thing o f which w e are already possessed,
but only means to the destruction o f our unawareness o f it,
which unawareness is our “imperfection”.
Very sincerely,
D r M eyer Schapiro, professor o f art history, C olumbia Un iversity, N ew
York.
To THE ART BULLETIN
Date uncertain
Sir:
In Professor Schapiro’s review o f the Survey o f Persian A rt inthe March* issue of the A rt Bulletin, I sympathize with his
criticisms o f the E dito r’s tendency to isolate and exalt Persian
art from and above all others. But when he says that “The
renderings o f terro r and rage wo uld be as unlikely here . . . ” ,
and tha t “ the rigid hands o f the archaic statues were notrepresentations o f psychological states, bu t characteristics o f a
style”, in the w ords o f Apollonius o f Tyana, “ simply the styleo f the ancien ts” , false conclusions are implied. For there is nosuch thing as “simply the style”: nothing happens by chance.The better we come to understand the mind o f the ancients (I
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 316/484
find it mo re intelligible than the mind o f the moderns), the
more clearly wc see that their “style” corresponds to this
“ m ind” . I say “m ind” deliberately, because it is to the mind far
more than to the feelings that art (and especially geometric art)
is pertinent. All that Plato has to say about art is tantamount to
praise o f Greek archaic or even geometric art, and dispraise o fGreek naturalistic art; while for Aristotle the representation of
charac ter in tragedy is still subordinate to that o f action, ie,
essence, since for him as for the ancients generally, the man is
what he does.
Whether Professor Schapiro means to say that style is an
“accidcnt”, or that a style is brought into being solely for
“aesthetic” reasons, he is ignoring the fact that “the style is the
m an” (or group o f men) and inevitably expresses their po int ofview, if it is no t to be d ismissed as an “ artificial style” , which
would be rather ridiculous for the neolithic pottery painting.
Style reveals essence; and i f an archaic face is impassive, it
means that those whose style this was, or rather those with
w ho m this style originated, were “ stoics” in this sense and that
of the Bhagavad Gita, “able to stand up against pleasure and
pain” , and in this sense, although not in ours , “ apathetic” .
Moreover, is not Professor Schapiro confusing style with
iconography? “ Prim itive” a rt is essentially an “im itation o f the
actions o f the Gods and H ero es,” and as Plato says in this
connection, whoever would represent these invisible realities
“truly” must have known “themselves as they really are.” But
noth ing can be kno w n except in the mode o f the knower; to the
extent that the Gods are man-made they “take the shapes that
are imagined by their worshippers,” and these are an index to
the w orshippers themselves. N or m ust wc forget that the body
is traditionally an image o f the soul, w hich is the fo rm of the body; ju st as the shape o f the w ork o f art is dete rm ined by its
form. Things such as facial expression and gesture are therefore
significant o f states o f being, as is explicit in X eno phon ,
Memorabilia, III. 10.8; where textual sources are available, as inIndia, these gestures arc ma tters o f prescription, no t o f taste,
the intention being to conform the icon to its paradigm, so thatthere may be what Plato calls not so much “likeness” as an
“adequate” representation. It is surely to all sculpture that theremarks o f Socrates q uoted by X enopho n, Mem III. 10 .6-8apply: he concludes, “Then must not the menacing glance of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 317/484
fighters be correctly represented, and the triumphant glance of
victors imitated? M ost assuredly. So then, the sculptor is able to
represent in his images the activities o f the soul.” Unless we
mean to stop sho rt at the aesthetic surfaces o f w orks o f art,
ignoring their content, it will not be enough to know the what
o f iconography , we m ust also understand its why. And in so faras the theme is mythical, as is notably the case in “primitive”
works o f art, this will mean a reductio artium ad theologiam, “ areference o f the arts to th eo logy.”
AKC
* T he year was 1941, and this exchange appeared in volum e XX III of the Art
Bulletin.
To TREES (A BRITISH JOURNAL)
1945— date not specified fur ther
M r Finlay son’s Providential Order o f Fairplay
Mr Richard St Barbe Baker, whom I have had the good
fortune to know personally, and whose own book, Africa
Drums, I greatly admire, asks me to write a note on
M r Fin layson ’s Providential Order o f Fairplay. This minimum, as
he also calls it, is one o f fairplay to earth, ne ighbour, and
“ (better) se lf ’. This “ bette r s e lf ’ is, for the philosopher or
theologian at least, anyth ing but “ a rather vague term ” ; for this“ Self o f the s e lf ’, the “ se lf s im m ortal Leader” , as we call it in
India, is at once the “G od o f Socrates” and ou r “ C om m on
M an” , the imm ane nt deity, and it is to this M an and no t to theaverage m an (a statistical illusion, o f much u tility to dem ago
gues and bankers) that the term “common” is properlyapplicable; it is to this Man in every man and woman, this
Fuhere, that obedience is primarily due. If only w e had in m inda “ century of this Co m m on M an” !
Fairplay is a good enough word, although with rather toom uch the flavour o f the “sporting instinct” . I w ould prefer,
without insisting upon, the rather more pregnant and morecatholic term “Justice”, Greek dikaiosune. This word is rendered by “righteousness”, (. . .and all these things shall be
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 318/484
added unto you); but better by “justice” in most translations
from other Greek sources. Why the seeking first of this Justice
should invo lve (as it necessarily does) a provision for all hum an
needs, will be understood if wc p resume that the conno tation is
that o f Plato ’s definition, for w hom Justice is “ for every man to
do what it is his to do, in accordance with his own nature”, to“do what it is natural for him to do”, or, more colloqually,
“ mind his own proper business” . This is the definition o f a
vocational society and o f “ fairplay to neighbou r” .
Similarly, in India, where the word for Justice is Dharm a: and
this is Dharma, and the means of his ow n perfection, for
evcryman to fulfil his own share of justice, his sva-dharma, that
function which is determined for him by his own nature and
native endo w m ent. This, in turn, is a statement o f the principleo f the nowad ays so much m isunderstood “ caste system ” in
which, as the late A. M. Hocart (whose book Les Castes is the best on the subject), says chaque occupation est une sacerdoce —
every metier a minis try, to which he adds that the feudal system,
a system o f personal relations and m utua l loyalties, has only
been pain ted in such dark colours because it is incompatible
with an industrial organization where there arc no personal
relations and production is not for use but for profit. The castc
or vocational forms o f society, once universal (not only
Indian), prov ided for all human needs, just because o f the
variety o f hum an e ndow m ent (“ It is the wealth and genius o f
variety among our people, both in character and kind, that
needs to be rescued now ”— the Earl o f Portsm outh , Alternatives
to Death, page 30) . . ., and by the same token, at the same time
that it provided for every man’s individual dignity, such
societies represent the only true fo rm o f democracy, based
upo n the all-im portant concept o f Equality, so much stressed by the Greeks. M odern democracies, on the other hand, so
called, are forms o f m ob-rule , resulting only in a balance of
pow er as between groups o f com peting interests — an entirelydifferent conception from that o f a governm ent according ttf
Justice o r “ Fairplay”— the exercise of power by one w ho rules“in his ow n interest” . The conflict of interests in a m ode rndemocracy, so called, inevitably leads to a Dictatorship, ie,
to the v ictory o f the interest of some one class, w hether Capitalist (as in Facism) or proletarian (as in a Soviet), cf Plato, Laws
700 ff.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 319/484
This leads to the further consideration, almost always
overlooked, that the Christian concept of a “ Kingdom o f God
on earth” remains completely unintelligible for so long as we
have no clear understanding, but only a prcjudical misconcep
tion o f w hat was the Classical and O riental theory o f Kingship
to which this expression refers, as to a well known pattern. Thetrue King, like his divine prototype, is a viceroy, governing in
no bo dy ’s private interest, w he ther his own o r that of any one
class, b ut according to Justice, or Equality (“ I’m for M onarchy
for the sake o f Equality” , as Goldsm ith said). N o King, for
example, would permit such commercial exploitations of
natural resources, no such a “ rape o f the earth ” as is possible
and perhaps inevitable in a so called dem ocracy o r state o f “ free
enterprise” , such as we call in India “the law o f the sharks” .Bu t here again, in speaking o f Equality, wc have to be
careful. What the ancients, eg, Euripides or Philo, meant by
“ Equality” , as the only true basis o f polity, was no t the
arithmetical and egalitarian equality that is interpreted in a
contem pt o f “ aristocracy” and the boast that “ I’m as good as
you arc” , o r the belief in the equal validity o f eve ryone’s
opinions. The Classical Equality is not an arithmetical but a
“ prop ortio na te” equa lity o f exactly the same sort as that
“proportion” that makes a symbol an “adequate” representa
tion o f its arche type, and it is this kind o f Equality that
correspo nds to Justice as defined above. Ra ther than a
government by counting all noses (a valid procedure only
w ithin groups, guilds or castes of similarly gifted men), the
Classical Equality means “from each according to his ability,and to each according to his need”.
O ne last word: the prim ary European ex ponent o f Justice or
Fairplay in this sense was Plato, who has nevertheless beenfreely accused o f advocating a totalitarian or technocratic form
o f governm en t. In two notable passages, on the contrary, Plato
expressly lays it dow n that the capacity for justice is no t, likethat for particular sciences or arts, private to any individuals or
classes o f men, bu t accessible to all; and that it is for those w hoare really ju st men , and only for them, even if they are illiterate
or in any o ther way devoid o f technical training, to take part in
government.U ntil we are prepared to return from the notion o f agovernment (whether internal or international) by a balance of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 320/484
pow er, from the notion o f the governm ent o f a m inority by a
m ajority, and from that of the governm ent o f colonies by
self-styled “ em pero rs” , to a notion o f govern m ent in term s o f
Justice, Equality or “Fairplay”, we might as well abandon all
hopes for a “ better w orld” . N o “ plans” will, o f themselves,
brin g into being a better world ; the creation o f a kingdom o f
heaven o n earth dem ands a change o f heart, alike as regards o ur
fellow m en and that “n ature” that we boast o f “c onq uering” ,
but have forgotten how to woo and w in and live w ith.
AKC
H. G. D. Finlayson is not further identified. Similarly, his Providential Order
o f Fairplay could n ot be identified from any o f the standard bibliographictools, tho ug h the rem ark near the beginning o f the letter suggests that it was
a book or pamphlet. This communication from AKC (published in Trees,
IX, 1945, n o 2) is include d here desp ite the unavailability o f the original,
because th e sequence o f letters that follow w ould be less m eanin gful w ithou t
it.
Richard St Barbe Baker, Africa Drums, London, 1945.
A. M. Hocart, Les Castes; see Bibliography for English translation.
T o MR H. G. D. FINLAYSO N
July 14, 1944
Dear Mr Finlayson:
Many thanks for your letter and enclosures. So far as I can
tell from this rather br ief material, I am fully in agree m ent w ith
you on the “p rovident m inimu m o f decency” . Regarding “ I
A M ” , a goo d deal depends on all that we und erstand by this.B ut by your equation o f the individual spiritual life w ith the
cultivation o f ou r “ better se lf ’, I presume we see together. In
my article “ Sir Gawain . . . ” in Speculum (Jan 1944), I pointed
ou t that the true argum ent is not Cogito ergo sum, but Cogito ergo
Est. However, I don’t see my way at present to write anythingspecifically on the “minimum”.
Regard ing “ cosmic stricture” , I think Przyluski, La Participa
tion might interest you. On the other hand, also Giono, Letters aux paysans.
Very sincerely,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 321/484
H. G. D. Finlayson, as above.
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Indra and Namuci”, Speculum, XIX,
1944.
J. Przyluski, La Participation.
Jean Giona, Lettre aux paysans.
T o MR H. G. D. FINLAYSO N
Date uncertain, but presumably autumn 1944
Dear Mr Finlayson:
M any thanks for yours o f A ugust 22 (my 67th birthday). I
certainly do no t see anything in yo ur “ m inim um ” as defined in
yo ur “ Statemen t o f acco unt” . W hat you call the “ charitable
poise” seems to me much m ore actual in oth er religions th an in
Christianity, with its Extra ecclesium nulla salus; although, of
course, this formula is not to be taken literally, Christian
theo logy recognizing a “baptism o f the spirit” as well as the
“ baptism o f w ater” . I do n’t think you need be afraid o f any
spread o f interest in C om parative Religion, but o nly o f a
w rong approach to the subject. T he fact o f the universal
enunciation o f the fundam ental doctrines, often in almost thesame idioms, is actually very impressive; this universality
deriving from the Perennial Philosophy on which all religions
ultimately rest. I think the recent paper on “The Only
Transmigrant” would interest you as it deals with the divine
imm anance as the only real basis o f agreem ent
Very sincerely,
H. G. D. Finlayson, as above.
“On the One and Only Transmigrant” , Journal o f the American Oriental
Society, LX IV, S upp lem ent 3, 1944.
T o H. G. D. FINLAY SON
N ovem ber 2, 1944
Dear M r Finlayson:
I think you w ou ld be interested in Pr o f F. W. Bu ckler’s
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 322/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 323/484
franca o f all cultures before the “confusion o f tongues” .
Very sincerely,
H. G. D. Finlayson, as above.
‘On the One and Only Transmigrant’, see previous letter.
To HORAC E M. KALLEN
December 7, 1943
Dear Prof Kallcn:
I w rite to thank you for sending me the Jefferson paper.
There is very much in his notions about art with which I
heartily agree, especially as summarised in the beginning ofyour section VI.
On the other hand, naturally, I do not agree with your
interp reta tion and estimate o f feudal, ie, vocational, societies,
for I hold with those who believe that “the need for a
restoration of the cthics of vocation has become the central problem o f socie ty ” . I will only go in to this for a m om ent in
conncction with art. In the vocational societies it is not only
held that to heautou prattein kata phusin is o f the very essence o f
justice (dikaiosune , rendered in the New Testament by “right
eousness”) but ou r conception o f fine or useless art, and o f
“connoisscurship” as a luxury arc unknown; all art is for use,
and to be jud ge d by its utility (not, o f course, in the nar row
“ utilitarian” sense, b ut w ith reference to the needs o f the wholeman). Your inference that the artist is only a ijieans to the
consumer’s ends is perfectly correct, but does not involve what
you infer. O ne can best grasp the relations if wc consider first
the case in which the artist is working for himself, eg, buildinghis own house; in this case it is evident that the artist as such is
“means” to the man as such. There is no difference in principlewhen artist [and consumer] arc two different persons; how can
the maker be other than “ means” to the user? The user (patron,
consumer) is the “ first and last cause” o f the work; it is done forhim and d irected to him; all other causes, inc luding the efficientcause, arc by hypothesis “means” to this “end”. The balance
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 324/484
here is “corrected” in various ways. In the first place, in such
societies, the artist is not a special kind o f man, bu t every m an is
a special kind o f artist; hence, while A is “ means” to B, in one
relation, B is means to A in another. M em bers o f a vocational
society, in other words, provide for one another’s needs, and
each in turn does a service to the other. There is nothing
whatever degrading in this “servility”. In the second place, in
such societies the “ fractioning o f the hum an faculty” involved
in our mcchanical and industrialised m ethods o f production has
not arisen; the artist is still an individual responsible for the
product, either indiv idually or through his guild. His w ork is
never, therefore, entirely “servile” (using the word now in its
more technical sense), but both free and servile; free inasmuch
as he works by art, and servile inasmuch as he works by hand.
It is in our socicty, preeminently, that “excellence in the liberalarts is the stu ff o f ho no ur in the eyes of men and that w orkm en
are no t capable o f this excellence or ever w or thy o f such
honour .”
Cordially
H. M. K allcn, N ew York, U SA.
To H. M. KALLEN
December 9, 1943
Dear Professor Kallcn:
Many thanks for your kind note. I don’t, however, agree
w ith yo ur interpre tation o f the “ reco rd” . As I see it, men havenever been less “ free” (except, o f course, to w ork or starve)
than here and now . Th e no tion o f a hierarchy o f functions I
accept. But “despising the worker and treating him as a tool of
the consumer” is not attributed to Christian doctrine, but tothe aband onm ent o f the Christian doctrine against usury andthe accompanying gradual industrialization substitution offactory for workshop, etc. Exactly the same process can bewatched today wherever industrial methods impinge upon
vocational societies; the responsible workman is reduced to a producer o f raw materials. The w orkm an to be “ despised” (or,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 325/484
I w ou ld ra ther say, “ pitied” ) is one whose p rodu ction is for the
needs o f the bod y alone, and no t for the needs o f the soul
toge ther and sim ultaneously (Plato’s dem and, and according to
the anthropologists, the condition that existed in savage
societies). Also, there is a great deal o f difference between being
the “ too l” o f the consumer, and the “ servant” o f the consumer;
one involves degradation, not the other.
Very sincerely,
H. M. Kallcn, as above.
T o BERNARD KELLY
Date uncertain, but 1943 or later
Dear Mr Kelly:
It is no t very easy to give a brie f and at the same timeadequate answer to your question. I would say that from the
Indian point o f view, Laborare est orare; and that the emphasislaid upon perfection in doing-and-making (karma) in terms of
vocation, by which at the same time the man perfects both hiswork and himself, is very strong. The Bhagavad Gita defines
Yoga as “ skill in w ork s” (here “skill” is wisdom , ju st as Greek
sophia w as originally “ skill”). F urthermore, o f the H indu terms
for Sacrifice, karma (action) is precisely a doing in the sense of
sacra facere. This establishes the norm o f all activity; as I have
tried to indicate in Hinduism and Buddhism, the requirements
o f divine service and the satisfaction o f hum an needs are
inseparable.Again, there is no liberation b ut for those wh o are “all in ac t”(krtakrtyah, “having done what there was to be done”). I think
it is difficult for the modern Western mind, which does not
merely and p rope rly recognize the validity of bo th the activeand contemplative lives, but reverses their hierarchy (setting
Martha above Mary), to realise that alike in Christianity andHinduism, there is recognized a double norm, an ordinary and
an extrao rdina ry n orm . We have no t only to live this life well,
but also to prepare for another. There are not only “values” , but also an ult im ate “w orth ” beyond all contraries.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 326/484
We shall die; and it is the Christian (Thomist, etc) doctrine
that it is the “intellectual virtues” that will survive. In the
H indu scheme o fli fe there are recognized four “ stations” (<isra-
ma), those (1) o f studen tship, (2) marriage, p rocreation and
vocational occu pation, (3) retirement, and (4) total renunciation
(sannyasa) o f all rights and duties (w hich are handed over,naturally and ritually, to one’s dcscendcnts, in whom our
“character” is reborn and who take our place in the world of
rights and duties, o f which the incumbency is thus hereditary).
There is also recognized the possibility o f the special vocation
by which one may be im periously sum m oned to a to ta l
renunciation o f status and obligations at any age; and how everstrong the Hindu emphasis upon social rcsposibility may be,
the presence in the w or ld o f those who , at least in old age, have
laid down their burden, is a perpetual witness to the reality of
the worth that transcends all virtues and vices. A society that
made a final end o flife itse lf wou ld be materialistic indeed; that
w ou ld be to su bstitute an ideal of mere prosp erity and
“ prog ress” for the kingdom o f heaven [which on earth] can
only be realised . . . “within you”.To abandon one’s vocational activity is not essential to
perfection (the “ unified sta te”). The ideal is to “ act w ithout
acting”; this is like an actor who plays his part perfectly, but isnot involved in it; and who is, therefore, the unmoved
spectato r o f his ow n “ fate” , at the same time that this destiny is
enacted by his own temporary psycho-physical vehicle. It is in
these terms that an Indian “Utopia” is conceived.
You will find, I think , this philosophy o f life explicitly
enough expounded in the Bhagavad Gita (esp III, 15—35 and
XVIII, 45-49); and the extent to which this compendium of
Vedic tradition underlies and informs Hindu society couldhardly be exaggerated.
I trust you will find at least a partial answer in the above; or if
not, please write further.
Very sincerely,
Bernard Kelly, Windsor, England; see page 20.
Hinduism and Buddhism, New York, 1943; also see Bibliography.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 327/484
To M R L U D O V I C D E G A I G N E R O N
December 16, 1935
My dear Mr Gaigneron:
Let me add tha t a further perusal o f your book leads me to
admire very much your most able dialectic.O n ju st one p oint, 1 feel that the argu m ent is a little
precarious, viz, in conncction w ith the doctrine o f “ lost
cultu res” . It seems to me very unsafe to assume that precisely all
the evidences o f a mechanically superior civilisation have been
lost and only those o f a mechanically inferio r civilisation
preserved. It w ould be a strange chance th at preserved only the
stone w eapons o f “ prim itives” (ie, early) m an all over the
w orld and no where any trace of his m ore elaboratemechanisms—if such there were. I think the po int is much
rather that the lost cultures were superior intellectually, but not
materially. By w ay o f illustration, the mode o f thoug ht o f an
American Indian shaman is even now more abstract than that of
the “civilised” man, by far. W hen the Chinese speak of the “pure
men o f old ” , they rather assume that they had very few wants,
and used very little means, than the contrary. If early man was
more “angelic” than ourselves, must he not, like the angels,have had “fewer ideas and used less means than men”? The
m agn itude o f our means and multiplicity o f ou r ideas are in fact
the m easure o f ou r decadence. The pure men o f old were not
“ civilised” w ithin the profane meaning o f the word.
Sincerely,
Ludovic de Gaigneron, Paris, France, author of Vers la connaissance interdite,
Paris, 1935.
To GEORGE SARTON
March 25, 1939
Dear Dr Sarton:
You probably know and must have reviewed F. M. Lund, A d
Quadratum, London, 1921. It seems to me a quite remarkablew ork . If by any chance you have no t dealt with it, it seems to
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 328/484
me it would be good to have an article on this and Ghyka’s Le
Nombre d ’O r (many editions, eg, Paris, 1931) toge ther. N ot o f
course a jo b I could do, though there is much material in bo th
o f deepest interest fo r me. As I have often said, “ pririiitive”
man knew no thing o f a possible divorce o f function and
meaning: all his inventions were applied meaning.
Very sincerely,
Ge orge Sarton, professor o f the history o f science, H arvard Un iversity,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
A N O N Y M O U S
Date uncertain
Sir:
The effect o f ou r civilization and o f industrialism upon any
traditional society is to d estroy the basis o f hereditary vocation
on which such societies are based: and we may say that thus to
rob the man o f his vocation, even tho ugh it be done in the nameo f “ liberty” , is to rob the m an o f his “living” , not only in an
economic sense, but in the sense that “man does not live by
bread alo ne” : since it is precisely in such societies th at the
professions themselves and for the very reason that the
vocation is in every sense of the w ord natural, prov ide the solid basis o f in itiatory teaching.
Sincerely,
The above handwritten letter was neither addressed nor dated.
T o T H E N E W E N G LI S H W EE K L Y , L O N D O N
April 1, 1943
Sir:As against Mr Couscns, I maintain that Pontifex Ill’s fine
saying, “The first essential is for Teaching to become a
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 329/484
Vocation, which on ly they may enter who have heard the call”,
should be engraved on every school and college protal, and tha t
“only they may enter who have heard the call” should be
understood to apply to pupils as well as teachers. Assuredly, in
this case there would be fewer teachers and fewer pupils. So
what? 1 take it wc are all agreed that a dem and for quality
should take precedence o f any demand for quantity. We are
suffering nowadays not from too little, but from too much
educa tion, or w hat is so-called. The im portance o f even literacy
has been immensely overrated. Innumerable peoples have been
profoundly cultu red w ho could not read or write : for example,
o f the late Dali M or o f the Uses, Carm ichacl writes that “ he
played w ith equal skill upon several in strum ents . He had a
marvelous ear for the old-world music and melodies, and aw onderful m em ory for old songs and hymns, m ost of which
died with him when he died. The man was unlettered, and
knew Geolic on ly .” W hat was true for the Gael was true no lessfor the American Indian, the Indian peasant and a thousand
others before the w ithering touch o f ou r “ civilisation” fell upon
them like a blight.
Apart from an elite o f teachcrs and pupils, the effects o f a
modern education, school or college, are almost whollydestruc tive o f any existing culture, and wh at they put in its
place is som ething that moves on a much lower level o f
reference. I have known more than one Professor who has told
me that it took him ten years to outgrow his Harvard education.
If that can be said o f one o f the best existing colleges, wha t can
be said o f the products o f English and American systems o f
“Universal Compulsory Education”? Speaking for what survi
ves o f the trad itiona l cultures o f the East, I have said m yself ina kind o f O pen Letter that will appear in the March Asia , that
“ w hatever you do to us in the future by way o f wars o f
agression or ‘pacification’, keep at least your college education
for home consumption.” As you have so well said in the sameissue in which Mr Cousen’s letter is printed, “how seldom
nations can be relied upon to keep the peace unless their internal
life fulfils for them their own ideas as to what it ought to be.” Isthat w ha t you r “ edu cation” has done for the Gael, the Irish, the
American Indian and the South Sea Islander? Is that what it hasdone for you?
Surely ou r crying need is for less and better rather than more
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 330/484
and (if possible) w orse education? And that should app ly to
every o ther aspect o f life; the first essential is that occupa tions,
however “practical”, should not be “jobs”, but professions. The
kind o f book -learning that can be handed ou t in large quantities
will no t provide for that! That was the basis o f a caste system inwhich, as Hocart says, chaque metier est une sacerdoce. What has
our education got to offer to compare with that? We cannot
pre tend to culture until by the phrase “standard o f living” we
come to mean a qualitative standard. It is only where trades are
callings that, as Plato says, more will be done, and better done,
than in any other way.
If that applies anywhere, it surely applies to education, bywhich our very being can be either warped or erected. Literacy
is o f suprem e importance only for shopkeepers and chain-beltworkers, who must be able to keep accounts and able to read
the instructions that are pu t up on the factory notice board. For
the rest, it were far better not to be able to read at all than to read
what the great majority o f Europeans and Am ericans read
tod ay .* M odern education is designed to fit us to take ou r place
in the counting house and at the chain-belt; a real culture breeds
a race o f men able to ask: “ W hat kind o f w ork is worth doing?”
AKC
* H ow mu ch m ore ex cruciatingly pe rtinent is this observation in the
conditions prevailing over forty years later!
To DR ROBERT ULICH
August 24, 1942
Dear Dr Ulich:
I think one o f the best points made in you r book is the
statem ent that “ all good teaching consists in changing passivityinto activity” . For is it no t the whole nature o f progress to progress from pote ntiali ty to act? God is “ all in act” . M oreoverit is consistent with the Platonic and Indian doctrine that all
learning is a recollection; a picture o f a lesson based on thisassumption is given following [ie, in^or according to] Meno.
I often feel that one cannot teach any understanding directly,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 331/484
but only break down misunderstanding: in other words, dialectical
procedure. The Buddhis t texts often describe a fine serm on as
like bringing a lamp into a dark room. The destruction of
something enables us to see for ourselves what was already
there.Very sincerely,
PS: I think you would enjoy P. K. Barlow, The Discipline of
Peace, Faber and Faber, 1942.
D r Ro bert U lich, professor of education at Harverd Un iversity, Cam bridge,
M assachusetts, U SA, and author of num erous books on the history, theoryand practice o f education.
To P R O F E S S O R L A N G D O N W A R N E R
April 13, 1932
My dear Langdon Warner:
Many thanks for your letter. I am sorry indeed nothing can be done in the case o f Aga O glu, w ho w ould be such a great
addition to our forces—but is useless to grieve over a thing
which cannot be amended, after one has done everything
possible.
A prop os o f ou r conversation, I reflect that I cannot really
agree with the idea that it is good to say to students “ bring y ou r
ow n standards” . It is the beginning o f w isdom to realise that all
standards are relative, and why not let them face this fact atonce? In my N Y lectures, beginning with a few words as to
the “ value o f ou r discipline” , I suggested that if this fact were
learnt from the course, it w ould be of m ore value to the studentthan any o f the facts o f the art history that he m ight acquire
from it. I tell them that art is not a universal language; “pure
aesthetic experience” is immutable and universal, indeedinscrutable, but no one is competent to enjoy aestheticexperience until all his objections (based on his own standards,for example) and curiosities have been allayed. So I set myselfto rem ove these barriers, thinking that it depends then entirelyon the student’s own nature, when he is in a position to possess
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 332/484
the art, o r at the very least to take it for granted, whethe r or not
he can enjoy aesthetic experience. O therw ise, 1 tell them , in
merely liking and disliking any work they are doing no more
than gaining one more new sensation; than which it would be
bette r not to go abroad, mais cultiver son jardin. All this may behard sledding for the average student, but the m ore you ask the
m ore you get, and I do no t believe in comprom ise. I know you
will be shocked.
Very sincerely,
Langdon Warner, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
T o STUART CHASE
3 February 1941
Dear Mr Chase:
I was much interested in your article in the February Reader’s
Digest, which I saw by chance. It affords another instance o f the
rediscovery o f a principle that has always been kn ow ntraditionally. Plato ( Republic 395 B, 500 D) points out that the
practice o f an art and the wage-earning capacity or business
instinct are two different things, so that “a man does not earn
wages by his art” as such, b ut accidentally. He says that “ m ore
things are produced, and better and more easily, when one man
perform s one kind o f w ork in accordance with his own nature,
opportunely and at leisure from other cares” (ibidem 370 C, cf
374 B, C , 347 E, 406 C, etc); and this “doing o f on e’s ow nw o rk ” is his type o f “justice” (ibidem 433 B, 443 C). St.
Thom as Aquinas says that the wo rkm an is “ inclined by justice
to do his work faithfully” (Sum Theol I-II 57.3 ad 2) and that he
is “o nly concerned w ith the good o f the wo rk to be done”
(ididem 1.91'.3). I have m yself po inted out in print, as did also
Eric Gill, that un der no rm al (vocational) conditions the man atwork is doing what he likes best and would rather do than even
play. The fact that under a system o f production for pro fit, in
which the w ork m an is no longer a responsible maker bu t only atool himself, a system in which livelihood is earned not in thecourse o f following a vocation, but in a jo b to which one is
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 333/484
forced by need and to which one could never be “callcd” by
anyone but a “manufacturer”, the traditional axiom that
“pleasure perfects the operation” can no longer apply. I will no t
lengthen out this letter by citing Oriental sources, but only say
that I have m yse lf em ployed hereditary craftsmen in the East tomake a certain n um ber o f objects for me, being paid by the day
while the work was going on. These men were so much
interested in and fond o f their work and appreciation o f it that
they could not be dissuaded from working at it by candlelight
at night, althoug h this obviously reduced the total o f money
they would be able to earn from me. I may add that my own
w ork is also my vocation, and that “h ours o f labor” mean
no thing to me; I should be very angry if asked to work only so
many hours per week. But this is the exception under modern
conditions, though it was once the rule. I believe it is only
when production is primarily for use and not primarily for
profit th at on the one hand the w orkm an is free and happy, and
on the oth er produces objects o f such quality as can rightly be
desired by the consumer. It is only because industrialism
reverses these con ditions, and no t because machines o f any kind
are bad in themselves, that people have become accustomed to
expect “art” only in museums, and nothing but utilityelsewhere.*
Very sincerely,
Stuart Chase graduated from H arvard in 1910 and w orked as an accountant
at the Federal Trade Commission before becoming a freelance writer. The
article in question was ‘What Makes the Worker Like to Work?’, Reader’s
Digest, Febru ary 1941. M r Ch ase was later associated w ith the art and
archeology department at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire,USA.* Machines must be distinguished from tools. The latter are unquestionably
legitim ate, bu t if the fo rm er arc no t ‘bad in them selves’ it m ust nevertheless
be recogn ized that from a traditional perspective so meth in g like an
‘occasion o f sin’ indu bitab ly attaches to them
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 334/484
To S T U A R T C H A S E
February 11, 1941
Dear Mr Chase:
Thanks for your letter. The problem you raise seems to meto be one of values, and closely bound up with the alternatives,
production for use or production for profit . It is significant that
“manufacture” has come to mean not the actual maker of
anything, bu t essentially a big salesman. I am n ot go ing to deny
the “benefits o f quantity p rodu ction” , but to make some
reservations.
I think it is our great mistake to tend to identify civilisationand standards o f living w ith quantity o f wan ts and their
satisfaction. Vast quantities o f things arc no w made, which are
ju st w hat Plato w ould have described as “ not such as free men
really nee d” . Some o f these things have only com e to seem to
be necessities because o f the excessive degree o f m en’s
separation from the soil on which he ultimately depends.
Others which provide us with amusement and “distraction” in
many cases seem to be necessities only for the very reason that
we are not deriving adequate pleasure (the traditional “pleasure
that perfects the operation”) from our work. Others are madeonly to sell. And in any case there is some natural antithesis
between quantity and quality .
N ow th e events o f the last th irty years have made us a little
less confident that our “progress” has been altogether in the
right direction; wc are not altogether unwilling to make
revaluations. The same problem comes up in our educational
program m es. If we are to have any standards by which to judge
means to living, must wc not somehow once more come to kind ofagreem ent about the purpose o f life and hence w hat we ought
to mean by “ standard o f living” , or in traditional terms, “ the
good life”?
Means arc not and must not be confused with ends: they arcmeans to ends. In any case, it seems obvious that the kind of
men we p roduce is more im po rtant than the quantity o f thingsthey can possess*; and that the kind o f men wc p roduce is very
closely bou nd up w ith the kind o f things they m ake, and thequality o f these things themselves, w hich they use and bywhich they cannot but be influenced.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 335/484
Th e basic requirem ent, is, then, an establishment o f and
some agreement about real values. The result would be, not
necessarily an abolition o f all quantity p roduction , bu t certainly
a reduction in the am ount o f it. T his alone w ould som ew hat
simplify the problem, which turns fundamentally upon the
question, w hat are the things that ough t to be made or w hat arethe things that free men ou gh t to possess? (I am not, o f course,
referring to a m erely political freedom, which as we kno w does
not secure to the worker the opportunity to be happy in his
work; it has in fact often been the case, historically, that slaves
have been able to be happy at their work in a way that our
politically free “ wage-slaves” cannot be). I am far from
denying that som e things can be beautifully made by the use o f
machines, when these are essentially tools in the hands ofintelligent and responsible workmen; but would say that it
seems to me that it is not proper for free men (in the full sense
o f the words) either to make o r to use things w hich are no t bo th
beautiful and adapted to good use, pulcher et aptus; that only
those things that are both useful are really (ie, “formally right”)as Plato says “Wholesome”; and that it is from this point of
view, and considering men first and things second, that we
have to approach this problem.
I am sending you a recent pam phlet. If you are ever in
Boston, perhaps you will find time to drop in at the Museum
where I am daily except on Saturdays.
Very sincerely,
Stuart Chase, as above.
*In the modem industrialized world, West or East, no one remembers or
wishe s to rem em be r that ‘ . . .a m an ’s life does not consist in the abundanc eo f the th ings w hich he possesses’ (Lk xii, 15). Indeed, ‘in the fatness o f these
pursey tim es . . . ” , ava rice becomes th e counterfeit o f a social vir tu e.
The wording in the last sentence in the penultimate paragraph may seem
confusing, but it has been checked against the original.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 336/484
T o ARTEMUS PACKARD
May 26, 1941
Dear Professor Packard:
First o f all, I w an t to say how com pletely I agree abou t the“ genius m y th” . Satan was the first to think of himself as a
genius. We all have a genius (immanent daimon), which we
(so-and-so) should obey, but as so-and-so cannot be. To
becom e it is theosis, but then w e are no longer “ ourselves” , but
nameless.
Probably we could reach some approximation to agreement
on other problems. I am wholly anti-totalitarian. But I could
hardly think o f dem ocracy, how eve r high its present value, asan ultimate ideal, as I crave to be governed by my superiors, not
by m y equals. I do not welcome increased leisure (for m yself or
for anyone else). By (political) liberty, I understand freedom to
heautou prattein. When at work wc should be doing what we
most delight in. C ulture throug h w ork (vocation) or not at all, if
we mean the real thing!
The man with the hoe is only disgusting because the farmer,
too, has become a proletarian. I do not quite agree that Plato is
inapplicable (I am talking about Plato because that is where thediscussion started— actually m y indoctrination w ith the Philoso-
phia Perennis is primarily Oriental, secondarily Mediaeval, and
thirdly classic) now.
I still think m ore will be done and b etter done, and w e shall
have better men, w hen each man follows a vocation. 1 canno t
regard w ork on a chain- belt as a vocation bu t rather as “ w hat is
unbeco m ing for a free m an ” . So long as we dem and such a high
material standard o f living as wc do, it seems to m e some m enm ust be “ warped by their menial tasks” , if it is to be provided.
So it seems all important to decide what is worth making, and
w hether we w ant m ore things, more than we w ant better men
(men for whom life is intelligible). I hope you may be inBoston some time.
Very sincerely,
Professor Artemas Packard is not identified, though apparently he was
connected with Dartmouth College, Hanover, N"w Hampshire, USA.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 337/484
T o THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
September 5, 1946
Sir:
Captain Ludovici and others have referred to the decline inthe birth rate as rep resenting a loss o f the sense o f responsibility
to society. M ay it not be that this loss of the sense o f
responsibility is bound up with and cannot be considered apart
from other and even more fundamental impoverishments? I
mean, in particular, that the decline in the birthrate may be
largely a function o r sy m ptom o f the loss o f the sense of
vocation, metier, ministerium.
For Plato and the Vedic tradition, all men are born indebt—to their ancestors, to whom they owe the existing
amenities of the environm ent into wh ich they arc born; and the
main reason for having children is that they may in their turn
assume the specific functions that were fulfilled by their
fathers before them. The vocation is an incumbency; and it is
pro verbia l th at everyone is in love w ith his ow n family “ trade”
(tread, walk, way). Bu t wh o no w takes, o r can take this kind of
pride in his “ ow n w ork” , or desires above all th ings to be what
his father was? For the vast majority of men are no longerresponsible artists, having a calling, but only cam their living
by labouring at joys to which no one but the industria l system,or m ore abstractly, “ economic determination” , has sum mo ned
them? If ever once again the concept o f vocational responsibility
can be restored— if ever the miner’s union, for example, com es
to regard it as their fir st responsibility to keep home fires
burnin g— then, when the stability o f society itself is thus
ensured, responsibility will also be felt again, to procreate inthat others may carry on our tasks.
AKC
T o T H E E D I T O R O F C O M M O N S E N S E
August 1943
Sir:
William Jordy, discussing prc-fabricated houses, says in your
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 338/484
July issue, “Whether the results be socially or esthetically
desirable is another question, but at least we are abandoning
nineteenth century handicraft methods for more efficient and
sensible modes o f pro du ction .” I w ould ask, ho w can m ethods
be described as efficient if the social desirability of the result is
uncertain, and how as sensible, if we are dou btful about theesthetic value o f the results? The philosopher, being the
practical man par excellence, has always assumed that the only
reason for making things is for man’s good use; but for the
industrialist, who for the present has the consumer by the
throat, the primary reason for making things is the profit that
can be made by selling them. He is perfectly willing to go
ahead, however doubtful the social and esthetic, ie, human
value o f the pro du ct may be, i f only he is persuaded that people
can be made to want the product; and he has many ways of
making people want what he can supply. The human value of
the product m ay be more doubtful; but wh at does that m atter if
at least old fashioned procedures can be abandoned? The
advertiser knows very well that a people believing blindly in
“progress” can always and easily be convinced that any change
would be for the better.
W hat all this means, o f course, is that the con sum er’s good is
“ another qu estion” . N othing m atters but the interests o f the“corporations” and “huge glass and steel firms” who arc eager
to sell their products, in this case, pre-fabricated houses. This
obvious consideration should have been more clearly stated,
and not merely hinted at.
AKC
PS: Xenephon, Memorabilia III.8.8: ‘tha t the same house is bo th beautiful and useful, was a lesson in the art o f buildin g houses
as they ou gh t to b e.’ Common Sense, published for a time at
U nion , N ew Jersey, bore the subtitle: the N ation’s A nti-
Communist Newspaper.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 339/484
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
Undated
Sir:
M r R eckitt’s discussion o f the “ Ivory Shelter” in you r issue
o f N ov 2 raises what can only be a prob lem in a functionallyunorgan ized and “ atom ic” society, in which there are no longer
professions or vocations, no lo nger metiers, bu t only jobs and
occupations, and where, therefore, the “artist” can be regarded
as a special kind o f man. In a traditiona l social order, every man
who makes or orders anything is an artist: the forging of
weapons is an art, war is an art, and painting and sculpture are
no m ore arts than either o f these. T here arises then no question
betw een man and artist as to w ho shall fight; the question arisesonly as betw een different kinds o f artist, all o f wh ich kinds may
be equally essential to “ good use” and, there fore, to the “ good
life” that we have in view when we think o f civilisation as a
“ good” . In an [traditionally] organized society it is every m an’s
first duty to practice his own vocation; which, in as much as
vocation corresponds to nature, is also his best means of
working out his own salvation; man’s first duty socially thus
coinciding w ith his first duty from the religious po int o f view.It is then, the duty only o f the professional soldier, or in
other w ords o f the mem bers o f the ruling (kshatrya, ritterlich)
class, to fight; it is neither for the priest, the trader, nor for the
“a rtist” (the maker o f anything “by art” ) to fight. If at the
present day it is— even for wom en and children— to fight(women over 50 have been denied U.S. citizenship because
they w ou ld n ot p rom ise to bear arms in defense o f their
country) this can only mean that the community is in extremis,
where mere existence and “bread alone” are at stake. The fact isthat those who aspire to “empire” (in the modern connotation
o f the term) cann ot also afford a culture, or even an agriculture:
we do not sufficiently realise that the “civilisation” that men are
supposed to be fighting for is already a museum piece. If at the present day we are not shocked by this last consequence o f
individualism and laissez faire, a consequence that violates thena ture o f every man w ho is no t a soldier born and bred, it is
because we are inured to membership in industr ia l societies thatare no t organ ic structures b ut atom ic aggregates o f servile units
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 340/484
that can be pu t to any task that ma y be required o f them by a
deified “ na tion ” : the individual, w ho w as no t “ free” before the
war, bu t already part of a “ system ” , is no t now “ free” to stand
aloof from it.
AKC
T o T H E N E W E N G LI S H W E E K LY , L O N D O N
13 March, 1941
Sir:
Mr Herbert Read “refuses to succeed as an artist at the
expense o f his m ora lity” (Jan 16, 1941, p 147). Bravo! This was
the basis o f Pla to’s famous “ censorship” ; and as Cicero said,
cum artifex, turn vir. I should have thought that it had been
demonstrated once for all, by Plato (not to mention other
traditional form s o f the philosophia perennis), that if we are to
have “things fit for free men” made by art (and certainly many
things n ow made for sale are unfit for the use o f free men), they
must be both “correct”, “true”, or “beautiful”, and also
“useful” or “convenient”, and are only then “wholesome”. Itwas said by William Morris, too, that we ought not to possess
anything not both beautiful and useful; and in fact all else is
either “brutality” or “luxury”. The artist is the judge of the
work’s truth, perfection or beauty, and being only concerned
w ith the good o f the w ork itself, will not norm ally (as the
“manufacturer” or salesman may) offer the consumer anything
but a true w ork o f art. The consumer, on the other hand,
requires the w ork for use, and is the jud ge o f its value for gooduse. A re we n ot all consum ers, and if so w hy sh rink from
putting the artist in his ow n place and from judging the w ork
by its value? By employing an artist we take it for granted that
the wo rk will be pulcher, and m ust decide for ourselves w hethe ror not it is et aptus.
AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 341/484
A N O N Y M O U S
Date uncertain
Dr Ncibuhr is mistaken when he takes it for granted that
caste is a color-discrim ination analogous to the color-prejudices
w ith w hich we are familiar in Am erica. The late A. M. Hocart,a scholar and a nthrop olog ist o f w orldw ide experience (very
necessary in this case, just because caste is not an exclusively
Indian phen om eno n), devotes twelve pages (44-58) of his book ,
Les Castes to a destructive criticism o f the theo ry tha t
aristocracies are the end p rodu cts o f conquests, and that the
Indian word for “color” (varna) can be adduced in support of
this concept. Th e Indian w ord that most nearly corresponds to
the Portuguese casta is ja ti, “birth” or “lineage”. As Mr Hocart poin ts out, the four castes are connected w ith the four quarte rs
(and four ages), o f wh ich the “colours” arc red, white, yellow
and black; and as he says, on the conquest theory, we should
have to presum e successive invasions by peoples o f these four
colors, and that the last comers always became the Brahmans.
It is no t qu ite so easy as all tha t for a conquering race to becom e
the priests o f the conquered. We m ust always reme m ber that in
ancient India, where the now so much abused word “Aryan”
originated, the distinction o f Aryan from non -A ryan was a
cultura l and n ot a racial discrim ination. We can speak o f an
Aryan language, bu t not o f an Aryan people. The distinction
o f high er from low er castes in India is no t racial, but m ore o f
“ character” (in the theological sense o f the word).
Although, on the average, high castes arc fairer than low
castes, there are very dark Brahmans and very fair Sudras; in
Kashm ir, som e o f the lowest castes are quite blonde. I have
known Europeans who were liked in spite of what was calledtheir “unfortunate off-colou r” . As a m atter o f taste, the
preferred colour is “ golden” . And there cannot be said to be a
prejudice against a dark colour where this is the colour o f one o f
the ch ief forms o f deity, Vishnu, and o f his descendents Ramaand Krishna.
I think it is because the N egro problem that he know s isactually one of race and colour, that Dr Ncibuhr is too much
inclined to confuse social with racial differences. As M r Fisherhas already po inted out, the distinction o f M uham m adans*from Hindus is hardly at all a m atter o f ' race; Indian
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 342/484
M uham m adans are almost who lly o f Indian blood and that,
indeed, is one o f the principal reasons w hy such a fusion o f the
two cultures as actually took place was possible; the other
being, in th e w ords o f the M ughal Em peror Jahangir , that
“their Vedanta is the same as our Tassawwuj (Sufism)”.
A further point: what does Dr Neibuhr mean by “snobbishness?” and who are his snobs? A snob is “a person who does
not belong to the upper classes; one obviously without rank or
gen tility. . .one who vulgarly affects the manners or stations o f
those o f sup erio r rank, esp by a display o f w ealth” (W ebster). It
is then with the lower castes that he seems to be finding fault.
The corresponding vice in an upper class would be “arro
gance”. Englishmen in India arc often arrogant, and physical
or moral “half-castes” sometimes “snobbish”, but one couldhard ly preten d that either o f these vices are characteristic of the
Indian peoples themselves.
And finally w ith respect to the distinction o f vocational from
plu tocratic societies, I should like to quote from a Polish write r:
It matters not whether the present-day factory worker is, as
regards the intensity and dura tion o f his exertion, in a better
or worse condition than the savage hunter or the artisan of
the M iddle Ages. The point that does ma tter is that his mindhas no share in determ ining the aims o f his w ork and that his
body, as an instrum ent o f independent creative pow er, has
lost most o f its significance. H ence his mind, divorced from
creative activity, turns in the main to the problem of
satisfying the needs o f his primitive animal appetites; w hile
his body having lost, in his own eyes, well nigh all its
importanc e as an instrum ent o f skilled prod uction, interests
him alm ost exclusively as a source o f pleasure and discom fo rt” (F Snaniecki, cited in A. J. Krzesinski, Is Modern Culture
Doomed?). That is what the Indian holds against the modern
plu tocracies and w hy he docs not w ant to im itate them ,
except to the extent that he may be forced to do so inself-defence.
AKC
* Were Dr Coomaraswamy writing today, almost certainly he would usethe word Muslim (or one of the spelling variants) rather than ‘M uha m m adan ’. The latter, an adjectival form o f the name o f the Prop het o f Islam, was
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 343/484
adopted by W esterners on analogy w ith ‘Ch ristian’; but the role o f the two
Messengers differs sufficiently to render the supposed analogy null and void,
and this has become generally accepted in the years since Dr Coomaras-
wamy’s death. The religion is Islam, which in Arabic means submission, ie,
to A llah ; and one who submits is a Muslim .
Th e recipient o f this letter is no t identified.
Louis Fisher, w riter and pro m inent w estern follower o f M ahatma G andhi.
A. J. Krzesinski, Is Modem Culture Doomed ?, New York, 1942.
D r Rcinhold N eibu r was a prom inent ‘ne o-o rtho do x’ protestan t theologian.
T o T H E N A T I O N , N E W Y O RK
January 30, 1943
Dear Sirs;
D r N eibu hr, in his review o f Sh ridharni’s Warning to the West
in The Nation o fJanua ry 2, speaks o f the Indian caste system as
“ the m ost rigid form o f class snobbishness in history ” . One
could no t have a better illustration o f the fallacy o f claiming
that the form o f on e’s ow n go vern m ent” is best, no t only for
himself, b ut also for the rest o f m ankind” (Franz Boas, cited in
the same issue). In the first place, it may be observed that nosnobbishness can exist where there is no social ambition:
Indians do not, like Americans, have to keep up with the
Joneses. And let me add that the form o f his social ord er is the
last thing that could occur to an Indian to apologize for, when
he com pares it with the informality o f W estern proletarian
industrialisms. I say “Industrialisms” rather than “democra
cies” because in these so-called self-governing societies the
Indian [can see] nothing that can be compared with the really
dem ocratic character o f the internal self-governm ent o f his ow n
castes or guilds and his own village communities.
It has been very truly pointed out by A. M. Hocart, author
o f Les Castes (Paris, 1938), probably the best bo ok in the subjectavailable that “ hered itary service is quite incom patible w ith ourindustrialism, and that is why it is always painted in such dark
colors.” Mr Hocart also points out that we must not befrightened by the connotations o f the European w ords that are
used to translate Indian terms. The caste system, he says, is notone o f oppression, “ but, on the contrary, may be much lessoppressive than o ur industrial system .” ’The mem bers o f the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 344/484
most menial castes are chargcd with certain functions; but there
is no one who can compel them to perform them, otherwise
than by the em ploym ent o f a proper etiquette, addressing themwith requests arc treating them with respect.
Traditiona l societies o f the Indian type are based on vocation.
The vocation is sacrcd, and one’s descendents in due course
take on e’s place in the fram ew ork o f socicty for the fulfilment
o f what is strictly speaking a m inistration (it was cxactly for
the same reason that Plato held that we owe it to society to
beget successors). If the Indian has no children, this can be
remedied by adoption; bu t if one’s children adop t anothe r
profession than their father’s, that is the end o f the “ family” as
such; its honour is no more, and that holds as much for the
highest as for the lowest.
AKC
Th is letter ends r athe r abru ptly, bu t it is all that is available to the editors and
we believe it makes the essential point clearly enough.
To D O N A L U I S A C O O M A R A S W A M Y
August 11, 1935
Darling:
. . . I did receive, value and answer your letter abou t the
Vidyapati experience: 1 remarked on you r having been able to
retain it after elimination o f the personal element. I do not
know about kudra as Krishna's ego. But Indra’s position in R V already—not all the time, but in many places—represents the
revolt o f the tem poral pow er (ksatra) against the spiritual pow er
(brahma), although the legitimacy of ksatra depends entirely onbrahma consecration (rajasiiya). The dual Indragni gives you the
2 operating in one—the primordial condition: Indra, to whomAgni entrusts the vajra, the true relationship when the functionsare separated. When Indra asserts his independence, beingcarricd away by pride (abhimana) the real deviation begins.
Historically, this is the Ksatra asserting itself, retaining aLuciferian grandeur, but the movement ultimately becomesSatanic. Historically, the ksatra revolt is indicated in the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 345/484
Buddhist period and results in heterodoxy. What has taken
place in the West (and is taking place in the East also) is ju st theinevitable subsequent revolt o f the econom ic (vaisya) power
against the ksatra, and finally the revolt o f the sudras, resulting
no longer even heterodoxy, but a completely antitraditional
attitude and disorder. It is the last stage o f the Kali Yuga. These
stages move with accelerated rapidity towards the close. They
should be followed by “a new heaven and a new earth”, ie, a
restoration o f spirituality. The transition is always dark and
catastrophic. The present crisis is more acute and world wide
than any we know in history: what is to follow should be
therefore a very great revolution in character, a real Menschen-
erneurung. I have no dou bt that the identification o f Indra with
Lucifcr-Satan is sound. Satan in this sense is the Prince o f theW orld— no t to be confused w ith the Pow er o f Darkness that is
the ab intra (guhya) aspect o f the Light. T he “ back” o f God is
indeed “hell” for those who “fall”—as Satan falls, but as you
will see, it is not really Satan’s home, bu t a condition tha t he falls
into; Satan’s home is in heaven, as Lucifer, as you see in the
identifications o f Indra w ith the Sun and his frequent control o f
the Solar Wheel. . . .
To return to the futility o f certain ones— it is a part o f thegeneral delusion, the attempt to compromise; one must be
rigidly orthodox or else impure. My objection to most
Christians is not bigotry but that they compromise with
m odernism . I think consistently highly of Guenon. Speaking of
the desirability o f a return (for Europe) to Ch ristianity, he
remarks that “ if this could be, the modern world would
automatically disappear.” Also very good, that while from the
eternal p oin t o f view it is inevitable tha t all possibilities, even
evil ones, should be worked out, in time, eg, in and especially
as now at the end o f the Kali Yuga, the text applies “It must be
that offenses will come, but woe unto them through whomthey com e. . . . ”
Th e one thing lacking in the organisation o f life is rta. What
rta means is the metaphysical pattern, the divine art. Some day Ishall try to show how the whole domestic and marital patternin India follows a purely metaphysical plan, as it was in the
begin nin g (agre). Especially as regards pardah*, exogamy, etc.The husband is always Aryan, the mother non-Aryan, respectively Deva and Asura, pow ers o f Light and Darkness; in othe r
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 346/484
words, the maternal possibility, the power that enables things
to be (as distinguished from the power that makes them be) isalways a priori in the darkness, and o f the darkness, and “has
never seen the Sun nor felt the w ind ” , in other w ords, is behind
the curtain (o f the sky), that is to say Pardah.
Therefore Pardah, as that reflection o f the divine pattern, may
be reflected on earth. It is as usual nothing but man that makes
people rebel at such th ings, ju st “ I” .
As regards the lack of profo und persons in India also: in any
case there is still there a solid mass o f conservative peasants
whose mentality is almost unspoiled, and this is a great reserve
force. Also there are more o f the “o rtho do x” than one
sees— the be tter they are, the less visible. I think in time you
will recognize m ore such people. Anyhow, it is useless to spendtime considering the defects o f the “educa ted” , they are lost,
and that’s that; only the positive work is really worth while.
AKC
* M ore comm only purdah, though the Oxford English Dictionary gives pardah
as an alternative form.
Dona Lusia Coomaraswamy, AKC’s wife, who was studying in India atthis time. This letter is a com bination o f tw o from which personal ma tter has
been rem oved.
Purdah o r pardah simply means veil or curtain in Persian, Hindi and Urdu; it
refers to the custom am ong M uslims and higher caste Hindus o f veiling
women and setting aside areas or apartments for them. It is also reflected
am ong m ore traditionally minded wo m en o f the Subcon tinent in the practice
o f drawing a fold o f the sari o r dhupatta over the Face in the presence of
strange men. For an excellent W estern “ case stu dy ” o f the sociological
theo ry o f caste deterior ation along the lines described in this letter, the reader
is referred to Siena, C ity o f the Virgin, by Titus Burckhardt, OxfordUniversity Press, 1960.
To J O H N J. H O N I G M A N N
October 17, 1946
Dear Mr Honigmann:
I greatly appreciate your noticc of my Religious Basis . . . inPsychiatry. I should like to say, however, that you did no t quite
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 347/484
“ get” the concept o f freedom that I tried to explain. I would
admit that a man feels free to the extent that he is in harmony
with the culture in which he participates, and that the elite are
the m ost responsible bearers o f the accepted values. But this is
only a relative freedom, from which the really freeman only
escapes when he adopts the “extraordinary” means.In any case, it is the mem bers o f the “ elite” w ho have the
least freedom “to do what they like”, and that is why I said
Am ericans w ou ld choose (if a caste system w ere im posed upon
them) to be Sudras or “outcastes”.
As to ano ther point: there is no question o f wanting to
“ co nv ert” the West to Indian ways o f thinking as such; I have
often emphasized that. The question is, “what are the basic
premises o f the Western w orld” , that you speak of? I am notsure tha t these are the ideas of “ free ente rprise” , etc, etc, that
happen to be fashionable at the moment. I am not sure that
other ideas such as that o f “ju st price” are no t really m ore basic
even to Western society; and all I would hope for is a return to
w ha t I think o f as the really “ basic prem ises” o f Western
culture, m os t o f which seem to be igno red at the present day.
To that I w ou ld add that w ha t I think o f as the basic premises o f
the W est are no t so far from those o f the East; hence there could be a rapproachm ent w ithout anything in the nature o f “ a
conversion imposed.”
Very sincerely,
John J. H onigm ann had reviewed A K C’s The Religious Basis o f the Forms o f
Indian Society (published as a pamphlet by Orientalia, New York, 1946) in
Psychiatry, IX, 1946, p 285, from w hich the quo tation be low is taken:
What else distinguishes the essay is the fact that it represents a highly
sophisticated Indian interpreting the configurations o f his ow n society, a
notable experience for anthropologists who are accustomed to working
with non-literate groups and who have not yet shown much confidence
in analyzing the premises by which their own culture is shaped. . . . If we
understand Coomaraswamy correctly, freedom in his philosophy comes
w he n a perso n is freed o f responsibility and relieved by an elite o f the
necessity o f m akin g m oral choices. . . .
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 348/484
T o A . M . H O C A R T
Undated
Dear Mr. Hocart:
Very many thanks for your paper on Caste, with very mucho f which I am in agreement. O ne o f the best short discussions
o f caste I kn ow is the sho rt article by M ukhopad hyaya in the
Aryan Path, June 1933. It mig ht be po inted ou t that all castes are
united in divinis, eg, we may say that as Tvastr-Visvakarma (=
Christian Divine Architect whose procession is per artem), the
deity is Sudra, as Agni is Brahmana, as Indra is Ksatriya, etc.
Very sincerely,
A. M. Hoca rt, author o f Les Castes, Paris, 1938.
Incomplete manuscript letter, unsigned.
T o PROFESSOR WESTON LA BARRE
October 30, 1945Dear Professor La Barre:
While I agree with many points made in your August
Psychiatry article (notably the last sentence o f the second
paragraph in which respect, I th ink, Pearl Buck often offends) I
do no t th ink the first sentence o f your no te 63* can be
substantiated; cf, for example Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.14:
“T his is what m akes the Regnum (ruling caste) the Regnum, viz,
Justice (dharma . . ., Chinese /«); wherefore there is nothing that
surpasses Justice, and so a weak m an as regards one strongerthan h im self puts his trust in Justice, just as one m ight in the
K ing.” In the Oriental concept o f m onarchy the king, o f
course, is expected to be the em bodim ent ofju stice; hence, as inthis nex t text, it is taken fo r granted that to appeal to Justice isthe same thing as the appeal to Caesar. Moreover, as the
Arthasastra says, “ the who le o f the science o f gov ernm ent
depends upo n a victory over the powers o f perception andaction” (cf m y Spiritual A uthority and Temporal Power . . .,1942, p 36).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 349/484
In view o f the fact tha t you are intending to analyse Indian
character in a future article, I am rather disturbe d by y ou r notes
26 and 29, w hich seem to show no know ledge o f Indiantheology or sociology other than might be expected from the
most prejudiced missionaries. In particular, “Juggernath”, ie,
Jagannath, “L ord o f the W orld” , is not a “m other” , but one o f
the names of Vishnu, as Solar Rex Mundi\ to whom no human
or other bloody sacrifices are ever made. Again, what you call
“punishment by caste” corresponds to our legal disbarment or
w ithdraw al o f license to practice in the case o f lawyers or
doctors who offend professional ethics. I do venture to hope
that before com m itting yo urse lf on the subject o f caste you will
at least have read w ha t has been said on the subject by such men
as Sir George Birdwood (in Industrial Arts in India, and Sva) andA. M. Hocart ( Les Castes)', as the latter remarks, pp 70, 237,
238:
N ous devons ne pas etre egares par les equivalents europeen
pour des m ots indiens. . . . nous savons que l’his to ire de ce
systemc n’cst pas l’histoirc d’une oppression absolue, mais
qu ’au con traire il peut etre beaucoup mo ins oppressif que
notre systeme industriel. . . . Le service hereditaire est tout a
fait incompatible avec l’industrialisme actuel et c’est pour-
quoi il est peint sous des coleurs aussi sombre.
It is, in fact, precisely from the axiology underlying caste
systems, ie, vocationally integrated social orders, that one can
best criticize th e im m orality o f industr ia l explo itation. I venture
to hope that you will also consult a few such works as Sister
N ivedita’s Web o f Indian L ife and Kali the Mother; Bhagavan
Das’ Science o f Social Organization; The Cultural Heritage o f India;and the late Professor Zimmer’s forthcoming book, before
go ing on to analyse a “ character” w ith which you seem to be so
little acquainted. I am sure you will pardon me for speaking so
frankly on a m atter o f such importance.
Very sincerely,
PS: O n the sub ject o f likeness and difference (East and West)
you m igh t care to look at m y chapter in The Asian Legacy (NewYork , 1945); and perhaps also m y Hinduism and Buddhism (NewYork, 1943).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 350/484
* I t seems that Dr Coomaraswamy must have confused the numbering of
the La Barre foo tnote w ith one o f the notes in an article o f his ow n which
appeared in the same issue o f Psychiatry (August 1945). The La Barre article,
entitled “Some Observations on Character Structure in the Orient: the
Japanese” , did no t have so many footnotes, while the Coom arasw am y article
did. The latter, incidentally, entitled “Spiritual Paternity and the PuppetComplex”, is quite an important study which retains even today all the
extraordinary significance for anthropology that it had when originally
published m ore th an forty years ago. It has been republished a nu m ber o f
times (see Bibliography).
Professor Weston La Barre, American anthropologist and writer on these
and related subjects.
Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory o f Government,
American Oriental Scries, American Oriental Society, 1942.
Sir George Birdwood, The Industrial Arts o f India, and Sva.
Sister Nivedita (Margaret E. Noble), The Web of Indian Life and Kali the
Mother. The Cultural Heritage o f India, a very rich com pend ium o f articles
on all facets o f Indology, in four volume s, issued by the Ram akrishna
Mission, Calcutta.
A. M. Hocart, Les Castes, Paris, 1938.
Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civ ilization,
Princeton, 1946.
T o PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, SJ
August 2, 1935
Dear Professor Furfey:
I found your Forward to Sociology and read it with pleasure
and interest. It is abou t time to realise tha t science was m ade for
man, not man for science. I look forward to anything furtheryou may find in St Thomas on intuitive knowledge. However,
I think it is not—at least generally speaking—sufficient to rely
on such intu ition as one m ay on eself be capable of, merely, bu t
that w e have also the guidance o f Revelation— I refer o f courseto universal revelation and not exclusively to its formulation in
any one religion. Society can only be, let us say, a successinsofar as it conforms to the pattern in principio\ and thisdem ands at least a kno wledge o f the doctrine o f hierarchy. Andhow can one properly com prehend the true relation o f Ch urchand State, Spiritual and temporal power, without a realisationthat these are again in principio functions o f one perfect
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 351/484
consciousness, the eternal Avatar being both Priest and King
(which is also Thomist doctrine).
Very sincerely,
Paul Han ley Furfey, SJ, professor of sociology at Catholic U niversity o f
America, Washington, DC, USA.
T o PAUL HANLEY FURFEY, SJ
August 4, 1935
Dear Professor Furfey:I should like to add to my last note that while I have much
aggrcment with your sociology article, I feel you do not go far
enough. Th e prop er ordering o f society demands m ore than
purely hum an effort, and m ust be based on transcendenta l
truths . We have discussed the possibility o f arriving at
som ething o f this so rt by inspiration, bu t while the possibility
o f inspiration un do ub ted ly exists, is this not really the prophetic
power and more than we can look for from the fallible and profane socio logis t o f today? It is surely the business o f the
spiritual power to lay dow n the order o f society, as it is of the tem
pora l (governmenta l) to organize and prote ct the said order.
Th e spiritual po w er has two resources here (over and above the
m atter o f “ guessing righ t” to which you refer, and as to which
in this sense I am a little suspicious): these resources are (1) the
infallibility o f the Pope, and (2) transm itted doctrine, or
Revelation. F or example, the C hu rch m ust surely condem n thecapitalistic form, since it condemns usury. I do not indeed see
how any social order can approximate to perfection, once the
temporal power has revolted against the spiritual power.
Moreover, once this has taken place, the next and inevitable
step is a revolt o f the econom ic pow er against the tem poral or
executive p ow er pro per ly so called, and finally a revo lt o f the physically laboring pow er, o f th e prole taria t, against theeconomic power, resulting in an equalitarianism entirely
incom patible w ith the doc trine as to hierarchy (if there ishierarchy in Heaven, then to the extent that a K ingdo m o f Godcan be realised on earth, there must be hierarchy here also). In
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 352/484
sum , I do n o t see any real value in a sociology w hich leaves out
principles and is based only on facts or experim ent. O r in other
words, if we leave ou t God, what can we expcct? N o doub t
you are in a difficult position— nevertheless, it is the du ty o f the
Church to be uncompromising. I agree with your remarks
about selfishness—b ut it is no t enough for the sociologist to begood, he m ust also be wise (gentle as the dove and cunning, in the
etym ological sense, as the serpent). W hat becomes o f the
spiritual po wer, if she canno t or does no t speak with authority,
but takes part in discussion w ith profane teachers as if on equal
terms? It is not for the Church to argue, but to tell.
Very sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, SJ, as above.
N o te that th is rem arkably perspicacio us le tter was w ritte n m ore th an fifty
years ago!
To PAUL HANELY FURFEY, SJ
N ovem ber 16, 1935
Dear Dr Furfey:
I wo nder i f perhaps w e m ight w rite a jo in t article on
“ spiritual au tho rity” : it could be in tw o parts, 1) Christian and
2) Hindu, or possibly in some way fused. Your part starting
w ith the idea o f a true sociology as “as in Heaven so on E arth ” ,
and the no tion o f Eternal Law; mine very similar, dealing w ith
social order as “regular” or “irregular” (just as an individual
man’s life may be) using Indian material. Only yesterday I wasw riting a note on the Indian custom o f releasing prisoners and
rem itting debts on the occasion o f the birth o f a royal heir,
which directly imitates what was done in the beginning when
the b irth o f G od ’s son and heir freed those that sat in darkness.
The spiritual soc iology is the doctrine o f a society tha t should be exemplary in the technical sense.
Very sincerely,
Paul Hanley Furfey, SJ, as above.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 353/484
T o PAUL HANELY FURFEY, SJ
August 29, (year unavailable)
Dear Dr Furfey:
M ee’s bo ok may be useful, b ut I have no t seen it myself. AlsoBhagavan Das’, The Law s o f Manu in the Light o f Theosophy
(Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras, 1910) gives a good
account (discounting the specifically theosophical element).
Also recommended, Sister Nivedita, The Web o f Indian Life,
Longm ans (she was a pupil o f Patrick Geddes).
Plato, Laws IV, 709: “ give me a tyran t governed city to form
our community from, let the tyrant be young, docile, brave,
temperate, and so far fortunate as to have at his side a true
thinker and law giver” , shows the proper relation o f the
temporal and spiritual power and corresponds to the Indian
scheme in which the king should be Ksatriya, his minister a
Brahman. (Ksatriya is the Kingly caste, Brahman the priestly;
ksatra the temporal, brahma the spiritual power—originally
united in the pricst-king as also in the Messiah.
Sincerely,
Paul H anley Furfey, S. J., as above.
T o T H E N A T I O N
May 29, 1945
Dear Sirs:
In your M ay 26 issue, p 604, M r Ho ok attributes to Plato the
doctrine that “expert knowledge alone gives the right to rule”.
This is misleading, sincc what Plato had in mind wassomething very different from what we mean when we speak
o f “ gov ernm ent by ex perts”. His doctrine is that only w isdomand the love of wisdom qualify for rule, and at the same time
impose upon those who are thus qualified a duty to participatein public life, for which they will have*no natural taste. In the Laws, Book III, he defines as ignorant those who are
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 354/484
unamenable to reason and are ruled by their likes and dislikes;and they are “ignorant”, “even though they be expert
calculators, and trained in all manner o f accomplishm ents” ; it is
to the wise who live reasonably and harmoniously, that the
governm ent should be entrusted, even if they arc illiterate and
unlearned w orkm en. His distinction o f the ignorant from theexpert is as between those who hate and those who love what
they jud ge to be good and fair. Protagoras speaks similarly,
322-3.
In the same issue, p 603, Miss Marshall quotes with approval
D r N om ad on the camel and the eye o f needle. O ne would like
to kn ow in what autho ritative version o f the Greek Gospels the
word was kamilos: n ot only is it kamelos in the O xford edition of
the text that was followed by the Revisers of the Au thorizedVersion, and in the O xford text o f the Four Gospels published
in 1932, but also in the Jam es S trong Exhaustive Concordance.
Jalalu’d din Rumi, who both knew camels and was familiar also
w ith the traditional meaning o f “ threading the eye o f the
needle”, writes: “The eye of the needle is not suitable for the
camel” ( M athnawi, 1.83). The camel has been, in fact, a
recognized sym bol o f the carnal as distinguished from the
spiritual self; and wc have the related figure in Matthew, of
“swallowing a camel.” While it is true that “rope” would also
have made good (and traditional) sense, it appears from Liddell
and Scott (who can cite only two references to the word
kamilos, neither o f them Biblical) that “ rope has been thoug ht
by som e a m ore likely figure than a camel” , and it seems to me
that M r Nom ad, too, is only voicing an opinion, and that he
has no right to laugh at the translators, who were not men of
the sort ' that make “boners”.
AKC
To S I D N E Y H O O K
Undated
Dear Professor Hook:
I send you the copy o f a letter [above] sent to the Nation which I daresay they may not find room for. However, I am
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 355/484
sure yo u will adm it the justice o f m y criticism.
Very sincerely,
Sidney Hook, professor o f philosophy, N ew York U niversity, N ew Y ork,
N Y , USA.
T o S I D N E Y H O O K
June 6, 1945
Dear Professor Hook:
M any thanks for you r letter. We clearly disagree. H ow ever, Iwould say that the whole matter is for Plato not so much a
m atter o f right to rule as of duty. To philosophers generally,
governmental activity is distasteful, and should be exercised
precisely by those who are not interested in power. Govern
m ent, as distingu ished from tyranny , is a m atter o f Justice, or
Proportionate Equality. In Protagoras, 322-3, it is pointed out
that while the special knowledges and vocations pertain to the
relatively few specialists in their fields, the sense ofjustice, etc,
is not pecu liar to the few, bu t com m on to all regardless o f their
vocation, and therefore that all may be consulted in civic
m atters. All, that is, w ho aren’t “ig no ran t” in the sense of the
Laws passage to which I previously referred. I think these
passages are absolu te ly relevant to the present discussion.
Philo follows Plato in saying that philosophers should be
kings, o r kings philosophers. Philo, o f course, maintains that
“democfacy”, as distinguished from “mob rule”, is the best
constitution. But neither Plato nor Philo is thinking of“philosophy” as a speciality in our academic sense, but of
som ething that is quite as much a way o f life as a w ay o f
knowing. In most traditional societies philosophy, in their
sense, is actually widely distributed and common to all classes.
O n the other hand, ou r form o f gov ernm ent here is not in fact ademocracy at all in Philo’s sense, but represents a balance of
pow er reached as betw een com peting in terests; and so
approaches the classical definition o f tyranny , viz, gov ernm en t by a rule r in his ow n in terest. To be disinterested is the primaryqualification. As the Indian books on government maintain,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 356/484
“ Th e w hole o f this science has to do w ith the victory ove r the
pow ers o f sensation and action” , ie, w ith self-control as the
prim ary condition o f authority .
Yours very sincerely,
Sidney Hook, as above.
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
March 13, 1941
Sir:
You gave currency (Jan 23, p 154) to M r Ch am be rlain ’s
recent statem ent in Harper’s that “ personal autocracy” is typical
o f Asiatic states. I have spen t the greater part o f the last two
years on a study o f the Indian theo ry o f governm ent; the theo ry
is essentially the same as the Platonic and Chinese theories, and
is in fact the on ly theo ry o f gov ernm ent that could be set up on
the basis o f the philosophia perennis. I can say positively that the
Indian kingship, although divinely sanctioned (it would be truer
to say because divinely sanctioned), implied anything but a“ personal autocracy” . Th e last thing expected o f the Indian
king was to “do as he liked”; he had to do what was “correct”
and according to the “scicnce” o f governm ent. The R egnum is
the agent o f the Saccrdo tum , and it is the king ’s business to do
what the philosopher knows ought to be done; might, in other
words, is to be the servant o f right.
Th e traditional theory o f gov ernm ent is certainly no t one o f a
government by all the people, b ut it is a theo ry o f governm en tin accordance with justice, and fo r all the people. The distinc
tions between monarchy and tyranny are sharply drawn; them onarch governs by divine right and w ith the consent of the
people; the tyrant is asserting his ow n will and opin io ns, to
which the people are forcibly subjected. Wc need hardly say
that there is nothing royal about a totalitarian despotism; thetyrant, indeed, is generally a plebian himself.
AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 357/484
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
N ovem ber 1946
Sir:
I fully agree with your reviewer, Paul Derrick ( N E W, Oct
10) that “between the idea of popular sovereignty and the idea
o f natural law, there can be no com prom ise” , and with the
views cited from Dr McCabe and Philip Murray. But I must
poin t out th at he is w rong in saying that “ the doctrine o f the
divine right o f majorities has much in com m on with the
doctrine o f the divine right o f kings, and w ith such ideas as that
o f the h istoric mission o f the German race.” In the first place
there is no such thing as a “ doc trine” o f the divine right o f
majorities, but only an opinion held by many that it is right and proper for a m ajo rity to im pose its will on a min ority; and this
view is entertained by many for whom the notion o f a divine
right has no meaning whatever. In the second place, the
doc trine o f a divine right o f kings is not, historically speaking, a
doc trine that kings, as such, arc divinely sanctioned to do what
they like. It is, strictly speaking, a doctrine o f the vicc-royalty
on beh alf o f the King o f kings. As Rumi says in so many
words: “ Kings arc the theatre for the manifestation o f G od ’skingship” ( M athnawi 6.3174); while the classical definition of a
tyrant is a “king governing in his own interests.” The king is
the m ediator o f the Natural Law and by all means subject to it
himself. As an Upanishad expresses it: “The Law (dharma) is
that by which the ruler is a ruler, and so there is nothing higher
than the Law. Hence a weak man can control a strong one by
the Law, as if by a kin g” (B U 1.4, 14). An anonymous fifteenthcentury English writer remarks that “the Law is the highest
inheritance o f the king by which he and all his subjects shall be
ruled. And if there were no Law, there would be no king and no
inheritance.” More recently G. Every, writing in Purpose
(April-Junc 1939) remarked that “an aristocracy functioning as
such m ust have a standard o f responsibility outside o f its ow nand its leader’s will.” As for the Germans: there is a sense inwhich every race and every individual has a “historic mission”,
or, in other words, divinely sanctioned rights and responsibili
ties.; where the Germ ans erred was in assuming tha t they had adivine sanction to play the tyrant, as defined above.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 358/484
Furtherm ore, the traditional doctrine o f monarchy is inseparable from that o f vocation, w hich involves, as M r Derrick
knows, all men’s “right (and duty) to participate as responsible
agents in the wo rk o f the w orld ”—as “ co-w orkers” w ith God.
Every man in his calling participates “ in the m ystery o f the
vice-rcgcncy (khilafah, Caliphate) which was conferred on manalone”, as a “trust” (amanah). And finally, as Professor Buckler
has so often pointed out—see The Epiphany o f the Cross
(Cambridge, 1938)— the analogy o f the “kingd om o f God on
earth” cannot be understood unless the political theory on
which the analogy rests has first been understood. Whoever has
m isunderstood the political analogy o f earthly kingdom s and
their righteousness, cannot have grasped the meaning o f “ the
kingdom o f God and its righteousness”, a meaning “whichdepends fo r its revelation on the inner m eaning o f eastern
kingship”, as Buckler points out in his chapter on “The
Oriental Despot”. All these considerations rather support than
invalidate M r Derrick’s general position, and I think he may
find them acceptable.
AKC
F. W. Buc kler, identified on p 72 above.
To PROFESSOR FERNANDO NOBRE
October 31, 1946
My dear Professor Nobre:It was a very great pleasure to have your company on
Tuesday. I have found it very difficult to write any suitable“phrase” for your book; I append below what I have done.
What ch iefly interests me is that your endeavour has been todesign a workable social order ultimately based on the concepto f the L ex Aeterna, or U niversal Justice. O n the other hand, Iam no more than M. Guenon, free to comm it myself to any
kind o f political propaganda. M oreover, even the best patterned struc ture must depend for its successful operation on thegoodw ill o f its m embers.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 359/484
As regards the photograph: I had not understood that you
wished to reproduce it. I could not agree to that. The only photograph that could suitably appear in your book w ould be
one o f yourself. Besides, I am very m uch inclined to accept the
traditional poin t o f view, that all portraiture is undesirable.
I am a mona rchist, for many o f the same reasons that
Professor No bre is a “ dem ophile” . Bu t mon archy is hardly a
live issue at the present day. To talitarianism— a caricature o f
monarchy—is anathema. Dissatisfaction with the actual
operation o f dem ocracy— in effect, free enterprise—is almost
universal except am ong those wh o profit by it. Hence, if any
new and better world can be devised, it will not be in any of
these patterns. Professor Nobre has made an interesting and
practical suggestion in his plan o f a “ Demophile G overnm en t” ; intended to p reserve the stability o f the traditional
orde rs based on the concept o f Natura l Law, and at the same
time, to avoid the kind o f gov ernm ent that rests on unstable
balances o f pow er reached by com peting in terests th at are by
no means those o f all the people.
AKC
Professor Fernando Nobre, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
T o THE EDITOR OF ASIA
Undated, but written during World War II
Sir:
M r L am ott’s discussion o f the Japanese prob lem in the
October issue of Asia is scarcely realistic. He sees that it is idle
to expect that the Japanese people will, o f thcmsleves,“repudiate the wicked militarists and go to liberal leadership”,
and also that nothing short o f a com munistic revolution “ will
ever be sufficient to displace the present deeply-rooted attachm ent to the thron e.” I w onder if he is no t on an altogether
w ron g track in wan ting to “ dispose o f ’ the “ Divine-Em perorideology o f Jap an ” , which seems to him so ridiculous. I amassum ing that Japan will ultimately suffer m ilitary defeat and
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 360/484
that that will mean, as he says, “ the collapse of all that the
makers o f Japan have toiled at building these many years.” But
is the m odem Japan, created in the image o f Europe, and sodistasteful to us, the creation o f the Divine Em peror? N ot at all:
it is the work o f the industrialists and militarists.
It will certainly not be good psychological propaganda toannounce that we are out to destroy the ultimate basis of
Japanese culture and, indeed, to offend their deepest religious
instincts. If there is great suffering in Japan, its people m igh t
well listen to those who sought to destroy, not the Emperor,
but the militarists and industrialists th rough w hom the suffering
came, and to whose pow er the Em peror is now subjected. T he
Divine E m peror ideology o f the East (for it is not only a
Japanese concept) having been uninterrupted in the history ofJapan , m igh t have given Japan a certain title to act as the leader
o f Asia in a m ovem ent designated by the slogan “ Asia for the
Asiatics”. It is the militarists and not the Emperor that
perverted that in to “ Asia fo r the Japanese” .
The Asiatic theory o f kingship stands for the subordination
o f the m ilitary to the sacerdotal pow er, m ight to right. It is in
every sense o f the w ord , philosophical and vernacular, an
idealistic theory . I need hard ly say that Western sociologists are profoundly ignorant o f Orie nta l theories o f governm ent, and
scarcely even conscious that a totalitarian state governed by a prole tarian individual exercising unlimited pow er is nothing but a pathetic caricature o f monarchy. The Em peror H irohito
and Adolph Hitler make strange allies, and sarcastic propaganda to that effect could hardly fail to meet with some favorable
response.
I w ou ld suggest that instead o f proposing to break dow n the
Divine E m peror ideology o f Japan, for which I cannot share
Mr Lamott’s contempt, we should propose to the defeated
Japanese a “ restoration o f the Em pero r to a place of real
pow er.” At the same time that such a proposal w ould enlist
the deepest sympathies o f the Japanese psyche, a restoration o f
the Emperor to power would automatically put the militaryand industrial factions in their place.
AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 361/484
T o HELEN CHAPIN
Octobcr 21, 1945
Dear Helen Chapin:
O n games generally, cf m y “ Symbolism o f A rchery” in Ars Islamica, X, 1943.
In all ball games I think the ball is the Sun: there is a contest
for possession o f it, or to direct it on its way; Gods and Titans
com peting for the possession or direction o f the wo rld.
“ Severed head” , precisely because that is the genesis of the sun
(this last I think you might have understood in the article). As
to w ha t you said abou t castc, d on’t confuse caste with classes in
a would-be egalitarian culture. Just as one must not confuse
m ona rchy with totalitarianism; the old definition o f tyranny as
a “monarch ruling in his own interests”. All monarchy
presupposes viceroyalty on behalf o f a transcendent justice
(dharma, dikaiosone): and castc metier function, determined by
one’s nature, represents that “own” (sva in sva-dharma) share of
this vice-regal responsibility. Castc is the only system that provides for the dig nity o f all men, whatever their occupation
(the only way that [integrates] all men into a certain royality,
provid ed it is not im posed upon them merely by economicnecessity). There arc conditions below caste (Russia, America)
and above castc (God, sannyasi, bhikkhu)', b ut the social no rm is
one o f the natural hierarchy o f functions. “ W e” only resent the
idea because it is incompatiablc with capitalism (free for all, devil
take the hindm ost, law o f the sharks, etc) because our ideal is
not of “beautiful work” but only one of idleness (“leisure”,
Plato’s living in sports always), and bccausc we have no longer
any conception o f liberty as any thing but liberty o f choice. In acastc system this liberty (comparable to tha t o f children in a
family, who do not yet share their parent’s responsibilities) todo w ha t one likes— really, the state of subjection to one ’s likes
and dislikes—is least at the top. The proletarian ideal is one ofleveling all men dow n to this childish level. O f course, a herd , a
prole taria t such as ours . . . could not bear the sudden im posi
tion o f a sense o f functional responsibility— they w ould ridiculethe idea o f jud gin g w ork by “ is it worth doing?” instead o f“will it pay?” I ought not to have to tell you all this: who havelived in the East w here it has no t yet* become the fashion toregard all values as bunk.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 362/484
This brings me to you r “ gu ru ” problem. When I go to India,
I shall hope to find one myself. At present all I have done is
what is called intellectual preparation. However, that is deja
quelque chose, and brings abou t a goo d deal o f “ liberation” .
What liberation I have thus attained—and however little it is, is
still eminently worth while—has come about mainly throughconstant reading o f all the traditional literature and learning to
think in those terms. It means, o f course, a metanoia, a thoroug h
change o f mind: insensibly, those things our w orld rejects
became the standard by which we judge it. T o undergo this
transformation demands a simultaneous crede ut intelligas and
intellige ut credas. So speaking qua “ gu ru” , I w ould say you have
to read the “ 100 best boo ks ” (I don’t mean the St Jo h n ’s
College list, a lthough some o f them arc on it), n ot “ thinkingfor yourself’, but understanding for yourself, and always
proposing to be w hat you understand ; for the popular view of
the philosopher as one who takes things, takes life, philosophi
cally is perfectly correct, and unless one proposes to live
philosophically, the study o f philosophy becomes no more than
a drawing-room accomplishment.
T o com e dow n to the book: for instance, all o f Plato, Philo,
Plotinus, Hermes, D ionysius, Eckhart, Boehm e; som e o f JohnScotus Erigcna, Nicholas o f Cusa, St Th om as Aquinas (eg, at
least the first volume of the Summa in translation), St Bernard;
The Cloud of Unknowing. Also some o f the American Indian
origin myths; all o f Irish m ythology; and the Mabinogion.
Folklore generally. From the East, all o f Rum i, A ttar and othe r
Sufi writings including Jami’s Lawaih; the Bhagavad Gita (in
various versions, until you know it almost by heart); the
Satapatha and the other Brahmanas—and you know what of
Chinese and Japanese yourself. When you have assimilated all
this and begin to act accordingly, you will have got som ew here
and will find that m uch o f the internal conflict— “ which shall
rule, the better or the worse, inner or outer man”—will have
subsided.
Very sincerely,
Helen Chapin, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. AfterW orld W ar II, she was ‘Asiatic A rt and M onum ents Specialist’ for the US
D epa rtm ent o f the A rm y and had been a research analyst in Chinese andJapanese for the De partm ent o f Justicc. It was not D r Coo m arasw am y’s
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 363/484
posit io n th at such an exte nsiv e course o f s tu dy was necessa ry for all; b u t he
felt that those who by position or choice were scholars should be properly
and fully prepared.
T o W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
June 25, 1910
Dear Rothenstein:
Thank you for your letters and understanding words. I am
touche d by the real sym pathy between us. By the way, it seems
that you did not realise my wife is with me! If, as some havesuggested, I shou ld be accused o f or even im prisoned for
sedition on accoun t o f that book, I know that you and others
will do something to point out that such work does make for
real un ity and that I m ight be mo re useful out o f prison than in.
I fully enter into what you say. I want to serve not merely
India, but humanity, and to be as absolutely universal as
possib le— like the avalokitesvara. M y ow n life jus t now seems
tangled. I do trust this may never hurt the work.
Yours,
Ro thenstein, Sir William, critic, one time head o f the Royal College o f Art,
leading figure in art circlcs and friend o f C oom arasw am y.
To W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
Undated
Dear Rothenstein:
I received your boo k o f beautiful drawings a few days ago;
thank you very much first. I am delighted to have thesereproductions o f your w ork and mem ories o f Rabindranath.
I am still harassed about the permit to leave, have spentseveral hours at Scotland Yard—the difficulty is due to wordsin a speech I made at Cheltenham in 1907! It is a bitter irony
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 364/484
altogether. I fear I shall fail, but am to hear at 12:20 tomorrow.
T he y fear I shall jo in the California seditionists w ho are in
league with the Germans! Will let you know the result.
Yours,
William Rothenstein, as above.
‘Rabindranath’ is Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Indian poet and
philosopher w ho at one perio d enjo yed consid erable popula rity in Europe
and America, and who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1913. There
were a num ber o f talented brothers in the Tagore family, and Co om aras
w am y was on friendly terms w ith this circle. Later, howe ver, he outg rew the
rather vague humanism which characterized the “Bengali renaissance”, of
w hich the Tago res w ere the chief representatives.
T o W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
February 6, 1916
Dear Rothenstein:
I have had a very unpleasant expcricncc in connection with
our trip to Amercia. I got a passport without difficulty in N ovem ber, and afte rwards made all arrangements— a m atter o f
no little expense and trouble, as you will imagine. Now at the
last moment, absolutely, I am informed (late on Saturday) that
I may not leave the country. No reason assigned, though I am
to see the Asst Co m m issioner o f the CID at Scotland Yard
tom orro w and m ay possibly be told. I w ond er if you have any
influence with the Home Office? There arc only 2 days to do
any thing in. I don ’t so much feel the m ere fact o f no t going,though that presents very great financial disadvantages but I
very m uch resent the ind ignity o f being treated this way at the
last moment. It seems to me extremely unjust. My wife is veryanxious not to go ju st n ow , for other reasons: bu t we had
decided to go, and had made all arrangements, so that I do not
like to be “done” in this way, and think you may possibly beable to intervene or advise.
I hope you received Rajput Painting safely. Enclosed noticeso f m y w ife’s recitals may interest you.
Yours very sincerely,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 365/484
William Rothenstein, as above.A K C had cons iderable difficulties w ith the B ritish authorities because of his
views on Indian independence and, in fact, entered the United States as a
political re fu gee — de facto if not de jure — in 1917. See Introduction.
AKS’s wife, using the stage name “Ratan Devi”, sang and accompanied
her self on Ind ian instrum ents, giving recitals in Britain and Am erica.
Rajpu t Painting, Oxford University Press, 1916.
T o THE PEOP LE’S EDITOR, BOST ON TRAVELLER
Dcccmbcr 1943
Dear Sir:
In your issue of Dec 7, “ R am bler” (rambling!) suggests that
India could n ot have defended herself w itho ut B ritish help. As
to this, there are three things to be said: (1) could England have
defended he rself w itho ut Am erican help? (2) a totally disarmed
people cannot be asked to defend themselves, even when they
have been “declared to be at war” by their foreign rulers, who
in disarming them, have assumed the responsibility for their
defence, and (3) that after what took place in Malaya and
Burm a, Indians have no t felt too sure of En glan d’s capacity to
defend them. In actual fact, Indians are helping England to
defend herself.
N obody doubts that indiv idual Englishmen have devoted
their lives to India. Was it their intention, by this devotion, to
establish a claim to political rights? In other words, is the
un-asked devotion o f these few to be paid fo r by a whole people
at the price of years of political and economic subjection? As
one w ho , like Gandhi-ji, is fond o f Eng lishmen (on their nativeheath), I pro test tha t the very idea o f such a bargain w ou ld be
repulsive to any Englishman. Even Mr Churchill is too honest
for that, and frankly admits that England’s reasons for holding
India are economic (“if we lose India . . . two million breadwinners in this c ou ntry . . . wou ld be tram ping the stree ts”
broadcast on Jan 29, 1935).
Why should the Indians, whose average annual income is
abou t 18 dollars (Budget speech, C entral Legislature Assembly,April 1938) be asked to support two million English breadwinners? If Rambler does not like the Polish parallel, let me ask, why
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 366/484
A room in Norm an Chapel, C oom arasw amy ’s home at Broad Campton, Gloucestershire, about 1908
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 367/484
strip Italy an dja pa n o f their Empires, if the British E m pire m ay
not be liquidated?
To drag in religious questions is disgraceful and childish.
Since when have European power politics been governed by
“Christian” considerations? On the other hand, culture, politics and religion are indiv isible in India. W hat, if anyth ing,
does Rambler kn ow about Indian religion or social organization
from any but prejudiced sources?
Sri Ramakrishna once remarked that English-educated Indi
ans arc “profane”; the late Sister Nivcdita (distinguished English
pupil o f Patrick Geddcs, and author o f Th e Web o f Indian Life,
devoted her life to, and died in India) said that Christianity in
India “carries drunkeness in its wake.”
Yours truly,
The Boston Traveller, now defunct, was a daily newspaper. “Rambler’s”
letter is quoted below:
I thin k it is the height o f insolence for an Am erican recruit to tell British
veterans o f bom bs and shells that “ he was there to win for the m .” As for
com paring the freedom o f Poland and India, I think if the subject was
studied a little mo re and talked o f less, the freedo m o f India w ou ld beaccomplished more quickly. Poland was a Christian country, self-
governed and united. India has many different sects and castes, each
intolerant o f the other. Th eir very religion makes education an uphill jo b
and many British men and women have devoted their lives and ruined
their health trying to help them.
If the British did no t occupy India, w ho do you suppo se wo uld be in
control by now?
Sister Nivcdita, The Web o f Indian Life, London, 1904.
Sri Ram akrishna, greatest o f nineteenth century H indu saints, a Bengali
by bir th ; note d fo r his fre quent and prolo nged ecstasies, he att racte d a wid e
following and has been widely influential.
T o ARTHUR SIBLY
December 6, 1945
Dear Arthur Sibly;Apropos o f yo ur reference to India, in your last letter. I fully
understand that it is very difficult for you to realise that an
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 368/484
Englishman west o f Suez and the same man cast o f Suez arc
morally tw o different beings; this applies, o f course, no t
necessarily to actual physical position, but with reference to
that to which the mind is directed at a given time. Half
consciously, even Kipling understood this when he said thatthere are no ten com m andm ents East o f Suez. N o do ub t he
thou gh t he was speaking o f the “ lesser breeds w ithou t the
law ” ! but very little psychoanalysis would remind one that il
pittore pinge se stesso.
I am sending you tw o books, respectively by a Chinaman and
an Englishman, but only as a man that you can form a “just”
opinion (as an Englishman, your opinion will be “English”). Is
it too much to ask that you read these books only as a man,
forgetting that you arc an Englishman? For your humanity
transcends your nationality.
With kind regards,
A rthu r Sibly w as Principal o f Wycliffc College, S troud, Glostershire,
En gland, and a form er classmate of AKC at this same establishm ent which is
the “public” school at which AKC matriculated prior to entering the
U niversity o f London . A copy o f the previous letter to The Boston Traveller
was enclosed.
To ARTHUR SIBLY
Novem ber 14, 1931
My dear Arthur Sibly:
I can’t help writing you again about India, because your
poin t o f view expressed in the last Star (p 53) is so typicallyheartless and self-satisfied. Quite apart from the fact that in
India we always have hundreds o f men imprisoned w ithou t
charge or trial, and such men can be held for 5 years without
trial (your father’s history lessons taught me what to think ofsuch things as this!), I must mention that I have never met anyIndian (and you will realise that I know many who are your or
my equals or superiors, intellectually and morally) who believed in “ British justice” . Really, a fact like this ought tomake you think seriously. What do you think the English are? I
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 369/484
have no more anti-English feeling than Gandhi has, but it
seems equally ridiculous to suppose they are angels from
heaven, capable o f govern ing a whole coun try entirely alien in
civilisation, from a distance and w ith perfect justice, regardless
o f the fact that justice would often be against their ow n interest.
In fact, I have often said that one o f the strongest reasonsagainst England’s governing India is the profound moral injury
it does to England. Do you realise how you speak like a visitor
from Mars? Whereas in fact you are “the man in possession”. It
w ou ld be funny if it were not so tragic.
With kind regards,
Arthur Sibly, as above.The Star was the school journal.
T o ARTHUR SIBLY
January 12, 1932
Dear Arthur Sibly:
Thanks for your reply to my letter, which I know was rather
forcible in expression. In discussing jus tice I had reference (a) to
the general situation, including for exam ple the failure and even
obstruc tion o f justice that followed the A m ritsar m assacre,
[and] (b) to jus tice as rendered in courts in cases betw een
Indians and the government or European individuals. (No
Englishm an has ever been sentenced to death for the m urd er o f
an Indian, I believe. Lord C urzon lost his Viceroya lty on trying
to do justice in a case o f this kind.) I am ready to adm it that insome cases an English m agistrate jud gin g between two Indian
litigants ma y n ot only be perfectly jus t, bu t m ore jus t than an
Indian judge m igh t always be in these circumstances. B ut this is
on ly a particular case o f w ha t wou ld be generally true: for
exam ple, a Swiss judge m igh t deal better w ith a poach ing case
than could an English squire on the bench. Still this would be
no argu m ent for govern m ent o f England by Switzerland.
I notice that English papers are filled with propaganda to“Buy British”. The corresponding propaganda in India has been made a felony by one o f th e recent arbitrary ordinances.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 370/484
This kind o f thing is part o f w hat I refer to as the injurious
effect o f the present situation on E nglish m orality. Still, I amsure it is painful to men like Lord Willingdon to be forced,
w hethe r by orders from England or by conviction of au ty, to
resort to m ethod s o f repression w hich can only be described as
lawless: which in other countries, or in an India without ideaslike those o f Gandhi, could only provo ke a civil war. It seems
to me that Englishmen, even die-hards, must feel a certain
sense o f shame in using force to coerce a disarmed people.
With kind regards,
Arthur Sibly, as above.
T o ARTHUR SIBLY
January 18, 1932
Dear Arthur Sibly:
I w ou ld add: a bod y o f nine has been condemned to 4 years
im prison m ent for picketing. O ne o f the recent ordinances perm its a police m agistrate to condem n to death in absentia a
man unrepresented by a lawyer and without appeal. Can you
wonder that The Nation here recently had an article entitled
“Has Britain Gone Mad?” I am not solely concerned about
India: I am appalled at the moral depths to which England can
descend, inasmuch as things are being done by Englishmen like
yourself, for example, normally o f high m oral principle andrespect for law.
Very sincerely,
Arthur Sibly, as above.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 371/484
T o T H E N A T I O N , N E W Y O RK
January 29, 1924
Sir:
Lord Willingdon is reported to have said that “no self-respecting government could afford to ignore Gandhi’s chal
lenge.” No one expects the British government in India to
ignore the present situation, but there are different ways of
responding to it. So far, the response to civil disobedience,
which has remained amazingly non-v iolent in view o f the
intensity o f the feelings involved, has been the establishm ent o f
a “legal” reign o f terror. Life pensions have been announced as
available for informers. Political prisoners are given hard
labour or deported. A man can be indefinitely imprisoned
without charge preferred, or condemned to death in absentia on
the basis o f a police repor t alone; and while in Britain, the
slogan “Buy British” is everywhere proclaimed, in India
children have been condem ned to years o f imprisonm ent or to
the lash for peaceful picketing. These are not the acts of
self-respecting governm ent, but o f one driven by blind rage
and fear. One does not know how many English officials are
still living on ly as a consequence o f Indian reluctance to takelife; one does feel that the British arc hoping to break down this
patience so th at they may have an excuse to use their rifles and
bom bs on unarm ed crowds. English diehards have repeatedly
admitted that England cannot “afford” to lose India; at the
same time they have made it impossible that anything elseshould happen.
What, i f any thing , can be done here? We cannot expect the
American government to interfere in British “domesticaffairs”, however scandalous. But would it not be helpful to
publish and dis tr ibute here some o f the recent ordinances,
toge ther w ith a few exam ples o f ferocious penalties inflicted on
children, and then to prepare an open letter o f protest, such as
one cannot d ou bt that a few hundred o f the most distinguished
Americans would be glad to sign in their individual capacity?
AKC
The Nation, New York .
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 372/484
To T H E N E W A GE , L O N D O N
Octobcr 15, 1914
Sir:
The present co-operation of Indian with English forces onthe Euro pean battlefield is an unpreceden ted event. As no t even
a w ar can be productive o f unm ixedly evil results— such is the
fundamental goodw ill o f man— we m ay, perhaps, put the fact
o f this co-operation on the credit side. B ut let us, at the same
time, consider som e o f its larger implications.
I am no t one o f those w ho think that India owes a debt o f
gratitude to England. Where Englishmen have served or do
serve the interests of India to the best of their ability in their
lifework, they do no m ore than their simple duty, whether we
regard this as responsibility volun tarily assumed, or as that o f a
servant paid with Indian money. In the cold light o f reason, it is
after all from the latter standpoint that most Anglo-Indians
have to be jud ged . In many cases, perhaps in m ost cases, the
same work might have been done as well by Indians: and even
if less efficiently, none the less bette r done by Indians, since
efficiency is not the last word in human values. Passing over
elements o f evident injustice, such as the Arms and Press Acts,the Cotton Excise and Deportations without Trial, I see in the
ord inary operations o f G overnm ent few causes for gratitude: so
far as “Progress” is concerned, to have done less would have
been crim inal, to have done more would not have been
astonishing.
When we consider the so-called English Education that has
been “ given” to India— largely developed in the Macaulayan
spirit o f those w ho think that a single shelf o f a good Europeanlibrary is worth all the literature o f India, Arabia and
Persia— and now essentially a m atter o f vested interests for
English publishers, the closely preserved Imperial Education
Service, and Missionaries—when we remember the largely political purposes and bias o f all this education, its needless
secularisation, and that it has discontented the Indians with allthat was dearest and best in their home life, and [when we] perceive in what countless ways it has broken the th reads o f
traditional culture— then w e are apt to feel som ething less thangratitude. Compared with all this, the social ostracism of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 373/484
Indians in India, o f which we hear much, is a small matter. N or
can we well forget that i f German culture is to be swept away,
we have something to lose that has done more than English
scholarship has done to make the culture o f the East familiar to
Europe.
But if I say that India has few causes to be grateful to theEnglish, that is no t to say she shou ld no t be friendly. In m ost o f
the deeper issues o f life India has m ore to give than to receive,
and her g row ing consciousness o f this fact is a m ore secure
bond than any considerations o f self-interest. Perhaps there are
no two races that more than the Indians and the English stand
in need o f each o the r’s com plimentary qualities; broadly
speaking, the English needing our long view, and we their
practical view o f life. Thus, there can never be too much goodfeeling between the English and the Indians, nor refutation too
often made o f K ipling’s dividing banalities. Yet, I marvel at the
generosity o f Princes w ho offer sums for the prosecution o f a
European war, o f wh ich sums several exceed the total amount
we have been laboriously collecting for many years for the
Benares Hindu University that is a necessity for our national
consciousness.
It is hoped by all idealists tha t one good resu lt o f the presen twar, if success is achieved by the Allies, will be a reorde ring o f
the map o f Europe on the basis o f Nationality. At this mom ent
even Imperial Britain is in love with Nationalism, and
autocratic Russia has pledged autonomy to Poland. Most
Eng lishmen w ou ld like to see Kiao-chan restored to China, and
would be glad for Persia to recover her full independence, alike
from Russian and English interference. What will England do
for India? Will she do as much as Russia has promised to
Poland?
The present Polish policy, according to a published mani
festo, is one o f neu trality, so far as this is in the pow er o f
individuals. The Poles cannot sympathize with Germany, or
Austria, or even Russia, bu t rather w ish that each o f the Pow ersmay be so weakened as to make possible ultimate guarantees
o f Polish independence. Some such view as this w ould be minefor India, and fo r the Pow ers o f Asia generally. Had India been
ready to create or to re-establish her own spiritual and politicalsovereignty in this m om ent o f European w eakness, everyidealist must have rejoiced. But India is still increasingly
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 374/484
dom inated by European ideals, and these often o f fifty years
ago rather than o f today. Her m ost advanced reformers— with
exception o f a few “ Extrem ists”, and Tolstoyans like Mr
Gandhi—are typical Early Victorians. The time has not yet
come, though perhaps its seeds have been sown, when the
Indian consciousness could so far recover its equipoise as torequire expression in term s o f imm ediate political self
dominion. One could wish it otherwise, but it is a fact beyond
denial that India has yet to go through the European experience
with Industrialism before she can become free in any sense
w orth the name; her ultimate freedom has to be wo n in mental
warfare, and not in rebellion. Having regard, then, to the
circumstances o f ou r day, and rem em bering that time and
desire arc equally needful for all fruitions, we can feel that the present Indian co-operatio n and its welcome acceptance may
have, and, indeed must have, great and good results, beyond
those o f the imm ediate conflicts. It is someth ing gained, that
East and West will fight together against the ideals of
militarism, though, perhaps, few o f the fighting Indians view
the matter in this light. At any rate, we can sympathize with the
English in their war for the Transvaal. It is something that the
Canadians (who have shown themselves so eager to excludeevery Indian immigrant from Canada) “should offer praise and
gratitude for the action o f India, wh ich places that g reat
com m unity in the post of duty and ho nour and will make it to
live in history” (Toronto Star): notwithstanding, it may
somewhat amuse us that this should be regarded as the
guarantee of our “place in history”—-just as Japan was first
considered civilized when she achieved military success against
the Russians!
For all these and k indred reasons neither the national idealist,
no r the hater o f w ar as war, need regret that in this war English
and Indians are fighting side by side. Only let the Indians—asdistinct from their own autocracies and from the English
bureaucracy— rem em ber the days to come. For the Germansare not the only, though they may be the most extreme,
militarists in Europe: and after the war is ended, there yetremains the unceasing, and, in the long run, more cruel war of
Industrialism. When humanity has solved that problem, andmade that peace—which can never.be till East and Westconsciously co-operate in social evolution, nor before the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 375/484
religious aspect o f life is considered side by side with the
material— there may be peace indeed.
AKC
T o PHILIP MAIRET
March 6, 1946
Dear Pam:
Entre nous and no t for publication: In so many o f you r
editorials you say so many wise things that it shocks me to
what an extent you can at other times be confused. I’mreferring no w to yo ur remarks about India in the issue o f Feb 7.
Do you know, my wife (who has lived two years in India as a
student, lived as Indians live, spoke H indi and learned Sanskrit)
laughed out loud when she read it? My primary interest is not , as
you know, political, so I will dismiss that aspect by remarking
that som eone asked me recently if I did not think there would
be great disorder if the English quit, to which I replied: “ Little
doubt; it m igh t be alm ost as bad as it is n o w ” . As regards theEnglish “conscience”, that is simply pour rire to us; no Indian
today regards an Englishman’s word as even worth the paper it
may be written on. R ight or w rong , these are the facts. O n the
other hand, you admit another fact: that the Indians are
unanim ous in saying “ quit India” . If the Englishman remains,
it is an illustration o f the fact that outside E ngland , he is
denatured; at hom e, the Englishman is a gentleman, one o f the
m ost ch'arming in the world; east o f Suez, something m ore like
a bounder. Do gentlemen remain where they are not wanted,not trusted, and frankly disliked?
What you go on to say about Hinduism and Indian societymight have been written by any Baptist missionary. It is
precisely from the standpoint o f the moral principles that
underlie the forms o f Indian society that those o f us w ho are notyet Westernized and modernized, not yet mechanized orindustrialized, can and do criticize the imm orality o f m odem
Western societies, with their “free enterprise”, which we callthe “ law o f the sharks” . I have in the press a lecture on The
Religious Basis o f the Forms o f Indian Society which I gave this
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 376/484
year by request o f a Studen t’s Religious Association at
Michigan U nive rsity recently, and will send it on as soon as it is
available. Meanwhile, for an English and Christian estimate of
the castc system do see Sir George Birdwood, Sva, 1915, pp 83-88. You owe it to yourself to do this. I w ish, at the same
time, you could read Muehl’s article on the famine in the
January issue of Asia and the Americas: and two articles by two
other Americans, called “Colonial Report: First-hand Observa
tions”, in Harpers, M arch 1946. “ Q uit . . . India, Java,
A nnam ,— Asia” ; that is the only thing one can, i f one has any
humanity left, say to all Europeans. I’m only amazed that you
can take up the subject so superficially and quite evidently with
so little k now ledge o f the cultural situation, and in particular
and obviously so little (if any?) kno wledge o f “ H indu ism ” .Since you kno w ho w much I respect and agree with m uch o f
your work, I am sure you will feel you had rather I spoke
frankly as above, than not.
Very sincerely,
Philip M airet, editor o f the New English Weekly, Lon don, a personal friend of
AKC and who married the first Mrs Coomaraswamy.Sir George Birdwood, Sva, London, 1915.
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y L O N D O N
August 20, 1942
Sir:
From the stand po int o f the purposes for which the Allies are
supposed to be fighting, the gov ernm en t o f India by B ritain is
an anom aly. Indians have been asked to fight for a freedom thatdocs not include their own freedom. The Allies have not wonthe w hole-hearted co-operation o f even those Asiatics w ho are
fighting on their side; nor will they until they include in their
program w hat still remains o f a Japanese slogan, “ Asia for theAsiatics”, making it very clear that that includes India for theIndians. Apologists o f British rule have lately argued that the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 377/484
Indians have been and w ould be far better off under British than
under Japanese rule. Indians agree. T ha t is to say, that o f two
evils, they prefer the lesser evil. But such a choice scarcely
makes for enthusiasm . The Allies can count far more on the fact
that the Indians arc whole-heartedly pro-Chinese than upontheir “loyalty” to England; so long as the Allies are true to
China, the Indians will be on their side for that reason alone,
but not because they are “ pro-B rit ish” ; they are prim arily
pro-Indian.
If the recent negotiations broke dow n, whatever the imm edi
ate or nominal reasons may have been, the ultimate reason is
that it was on ly too obvious tha t the British offers (even if a
British promise could have been trusted) did not proceed from
any change o f heart on the British part; no such offers wou ld
ever have been made if Britain had n ot needed India’s aid.
Actually, nothing can be offered effectively by England that
does no t im ply and confess a conviction o f past sins. The
British arc human beings and Gandhi still believes in “the
possib ility o f hum an beings making an upw ard g row th .” The
time for such an upw ard g row th is now . Short of that, the
struggle will go on until the inevitable conclusion follows:
inevitable, because whatever the outcom e o f the present war, itis clear that the days o f European exploitation o f Asia are over.
To free India from Britain is pre-requisite to saving India from
Japan; to ho ld on grim ly to the “ brightest jew el in the British
cro w n” may mean losing it—to Japan.
Bound up w ith the political problem , but ultimately far more
important, is that o f the “ cultural relations” to be established in aworld conditioned by Allied victory and organized on the basis
o f universal and co -operative self-determination. In that futureworld all men will of necessity and to an ever increasing extent
have to live togethe r. Th e m ere industrialisation o f Asia will
only set new rivalries in motion, and perhaps result in a newand m ore terrible war, economic if not m ilitary. M uch rather
m ust the nations be united in the endeavour to liberate m ankindfrom the evils of industrialism, from purely monetary valuations, and from the endeavour to live by bread alone, o f whichthe consequences are before our eyes.
In oth er w ords, if there is to be peace, the relations o fEuropeans with Asiatics must be humanised; and since theEuropeans arc the interlopers, that is primarily a problem for
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 378/484
them . Th e cultural relations, so-called, o f Europeans w ith
Asiatics have been until now almost exclusively commercial, or
only o f Europ ean masters w ith Asiatic servants. “ Educated”
Europeans in general and Americans in particular arc abysmally
and incredibly ign oran t o f Asiatic culture. T he time is com ingwhen it will not be held that a man is master of hum anistic
studies merely because he knows Greek; such a master will
have to be familiar also w ith the literature o f at least one o f the
three great classical languages o f Asia: A rabic, Sanskrit or
Chinese. Mutual understanding and respect can only be
founded in an agreement on principles going deep enough to
result in the recognition o f the inevitability o f great differences
in the m anner o f their application.
The greatest obstacle to such an agreement on principles are
(sic) to be found in what Rene Guenon has so aptly termed the
“ proselytising fu ry” o f Europeans (and Americans). Actually,
the belief that there is bu t a single type o f culture w or thy to be
so called, and the conviction that it is one’s duty to impose this
culture upon others for their ow n good, if not at the point o f
the bayonet, at least by a resort to all the resources o f prestigeand money power, is hardly less dangerous or destructive than
the belief in the existence o f a naturally superior race, to whichall others o ug ht to be subordinated for its own good and theirs.
By “ proselytising fu ry” neither I nor Guenon have in mind
by any means exclusively or even chiefly the activ ity o f
religious m issionaries, harm ful as these have often been. In this
connection, how ever, we must observe that a procedure based
upon the conviction that our own religion is the only true or
revealed religion, and not one amongst other religions based
upon a Truth in which all participate, not merely violates the princip le that truths can only be stated and know n in
accordance with the mode o f the knower, bu t can have results
quite as terrible as those tha t follow from the belief in a singlesuperior race or superior culture; every student o f the history o freligious persecutions knows this. The proselytising fury is far
from being a purely religious phenomena. We see it quite asclearly in the field o f “ education” , and in the often franklyexpressed wish and endeavour to impose a purely “scientific
humanism” upon the whole world, and in the distinctioncommonly made between the “advanced” or “progressive” peoples (ourselves) and the “ backward” races (o thers). All that
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 379/484
must be outgrown; or shall we never grow up, never learn to
mix w ith m en o f other races on equal terms, bu t always remain
cultural provincials? As things now stand, we cannot be too
grateful that millions o f “ illiterate” Indian peasants and wom en
who cannot read our newspapers and magazines but are as
familiar with their own great Epics as Americans arc with
movie stars and baseball heroes, are still practically untouched
by any m odern influence. O ur first duty to these innocents (in
the highest sense of the word) is not to teach them our way of
living (in view o f ou r present disillusionment, how could we
have the face to do that?) but simply to protect them from
industrial exploitation, whether by foreigners, or Indians.
Education can w ait until we have educated ourselves; diseduca-
tion is far worse than none, for a culture that has survived formillenia can be destroyed in a generation with the best
intentions. There arc probably not a dozen Englishmen
qualified to pronounce on any problem having to do with
humanistic studies in India.
I have already made this article too long. What I want to
emphasize is that the European, for his own and all man’s sake
in the future world, must not only cease to harm and exploit
the othe r peoples o f the world, bu t also give up the cherishedand flattering belief that he can do them good in any other way
than by being good himself; and that that is the first thing to be
unders tood w henever the question o f British rule in India is
discussed.
AKC
This co m m unication evoked the follow ing correspondence from A. S.Elw cll-Sutton in the Septem ber 3, 1942 issue of the New English Weekly.
Sir:
D r Ananda K C oo m ara sw am y’s article is so full o f question- begging sta tements th at it would occupy to o much o f yourspace to deal with them adequately. I would, however, like to
put the follo wing th ree questions to him:1) When he speaks o f the Indian ou tlook, culture, civilisa
tion, etc, does he refer to that o f the Caste-Hindus, or the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 380/484
“Scheduled” Castes, or the Moslems, Sikhs, Christians (some
o f the latter dating from Apostolic times)?
2) Does he consider that the standard o f adm inistration and
justice in India before the British came were as high as those
since achieved?3) W hy is he so anxious to up ho ld the fallacy (as blatant as
that o f “racialism” ) o f some insurmountable barrier between
the outlook o f “E uropean ” and “ Asiatic” , which Christianity
and Islam (themselves largely “Asiatic” religions) set out to
overthrow many centuries ago?
A. S. Elwell-Sutton
AKC’s answer follows in the next letter.
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
N ovem ber 12, 1942
Sir:
W ith reference to M r E lwe ll-Sutton’s questions o f Septem ber 3rd: I need not say much about No. 3, as the Editor has
answered adequately on my behalf. I do oppose the typically
modern anti-traditional civilisation and culture, with its
impoverishment of reality (cf Iredell Jenkins in the Journal o f
Philosophy, Septem ber 24, 1942) and abstraction o f meaning
from life (cf Aldous Huxley, Ways and Means, p 270ff) to the
traditional and n orm al civilisations and cultures o f which
Indian can be cited as the—or a—type. On the other hand, mywritings are packed w ith references to the identities o f Indian,Platonic, C hristian and othe r like ways o f thinking ; it is very
rarely that I cite a doctrine (eg, that o f the “ Single Essence and
Two Natures)”, or duo sunt in homitie) from one source alone.Further, I would refer Mr Elwell-Sutton to the chapter,
“ A greem ent on P rinciples” in Rene G uen on’s East and West. As
to No 2, I should like to take this opportunity to endorse andemphasize M r H ero n’s dictum ( N ew English Weekly, September
10, 1942, p 171) that “ systems o f governm ent should beextensions o f the peoples concerned” , and to quo te Plato ’s wellknow n definition o f “justice ” as the condition in which “every
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 381/484
man can fulfil his own natural vocation”, a condition which ithas been the purpose and function o f the caste system to
provide. O n the other hand, education in India, so far as
Englishmen have controlled the expenditure o f Indian money
for educational purposes, has been consistently directed to the
form ation o f a class o f persons “ Indian in blood and colour, but
English in tastes, in opinion, in morals and in intellect” (Lord
Bentinck, see Cambridge History o f India, VI, p 111); and this
education, as Sir George Bird w oo d w rote in 1880, “has
brought discontent in to every family so far as its baneful
influences have reached”. Lord Bentinck even attempted “to
stop the printing of Arabic and Sanskrit books . . . and to
abolish the Muhammedan Madrassa . . . and the Calcutta
Sanskrit College” (ib). Neither can we pretend that theeconomic relations between England and India have ever yet
approached “justice” . In any case, the concept o f “justice”
covers far more than the merely impartial administration of
laws, especially when the said laws have not been made by
those to whom they arc applied, but by the foreign administra
tor himself, who combines in him self executive and judical
powers. It is, indeed, quite possible and even probable that a
well paid foreigner can be more impartial than any native in thetrial of cases in which his own interests are not concerned. Thus, if
the Chinese were rulers o f England, it would be quite likely
that a Chinese m agistrate w ould pronounce a more jus t
decision in a case between a poacher and a squire than would
the English magistrate be disposed to reach; yet we should not
regard that fact as an argum ent for the gov ernm ent o f England
by Chin amen. And what o f the cases, civil or criminal, in
which the interests of Englishmen and Chinese conflicted? Thesame w ould be likely to happen that has always happened w henit is a question o f an Englishman versus Indian. Everyone
kno w s into w hat terrible trouble Lord Cu rzon (who really tried
to be the “ just beast”) got him self by attem pting to enforce the
“ law” in the case of the murder o f a “native” by an Englishman. We may also recall that not many years ago it was possiblein Bengal for a man to be condemned to death without a propertrial or even being allowed to face his accusers, and I believe it
is still true, as it certainly was very recently that a man can bearrested and held incommunicado without preferred chargesfor so long as it seemed convenient. So much for “justice”.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 382/484
Q ue stion N o 1 would require a long discussion and a
profound know ledge o f the cultures referred to. It is partly
answ ered, as in the case o f N o 3, by the consideration that the
differences between these cultures are rather accidental than
essential; the w eigh t o f the differences tends to disappear in
proportion to our understanding and in the absence o f any th ird
party in w hose in terest it is to emphasize them. For example,
Jahangir (in his Memoirs) could speak o f his H indu friend
Jadrup’s Vedanta as “the same as our tasawwuf ' (Sufism); and I
have know n mo re than one Rom an Catholic w ho saw and said
tha t there is no real op position or essential difference betw een .
Christianity and Hinduism, while, as Rene Guenon very truly
remarks: “Hindus may sometimes be seen encouraging Euro
peans to return to Catholicism ,, and even helping th em tounderstand it, without being in the least drawn to it on their
ow n a cco un t.” Those w ho kno w India best and can think in the
terms o f Indian thought, are m ore impressed by her cultural
unity than by her apparent diversity. There are unities more
essential and more important than any political unity; and these
are based on c om m on understandings o f the ultim ate ends o f
life rather than upon its immediate purposes, as to which there
can be an almost endless variety o f notions. N o doubt th e problem o f the minorities in India is not
without its difficulties; we understand that very similar
difficulties are faced by the American Negroes at the present
moment; and that even in Europe the minorities problems will
not be too easily solved even when the war is over. It may be
doubted whether they can be solved by any democratic
government (in which the controlling powers represent in
terested jgroups) or any ty ran ny (in A ristotle ’s definition,govern m ent in the interest o f the ruler), or by any other than a
ju s t governm ent, one in which (as in the Indian th eory o f
governm ent) Justice ( Dharm a) is the King o f kings. Th e present position o f Negroes in “democratic” Amcrica, and the capacities
o f En glishm en for feeling colour (ie, racial) prejudice do n ot
lead one to suppose that either o f these peoples w ould be verycapable o f justly balancing the interests o f different Indian
communities; and in any case, who has told them that to do so
is their business?
AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 383/484
T o M O N S I E U R R O M A I N R O L L A N D
August 22, 1920
My dear M Romain Rolland:
It is by a curious coincidence that I had written to you only afew days before I received you r letter o f July 6, w ith y ou r
invitation to subscribe to the Declaration de I’Independence de
VEsprit. I accept with great appreciation this honor and signify
my adherence accordingly. I am indeed convinced that a real
unity m oves in the m inds o f men w ho are widely separated by
space and by artificial barriers, and that this unity persists
unc hanged behind the curtain o f a conflict that is m ore or less
unreal. By unreal, I mean arising from an illusion superim posed upon people w ho have no quarrel w ith one another.
It is sad tha t the formulae o f thou gh t should have been
prostitu te d in the service o f hatred. B ut to destroy the unreal, it
is needful, not that we should seek to punish others, only that
we ourselves recognize and live in accord with what is real.
Alas that at the present time the “Powers” have shown so
little self-respect, so little self-restraint, and so little sense of
reality. They have sought to build for themselves “bigger
barns” , not th inkin g that their life may be required o f them!
There is a Buddhist text that it would have been well to
rem em ber— “ Victory breeds hatred: because the conquered are
unhappy.”
And with regard to the still subject races—how is it that the
“Powers” forget that the greatest injury must be inflicted by
the tyrant upon himself?
Believe me, yours most cordially,
Romain Rolland, well known Frcnch author; his sister translated AKC’s
Dance o f Sh iva into French.
This letter, so replete with banalities, may serve to show how
Dr C oom arasw am y's thoug ht m atured to the rigorous standards of his later
years.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 384/484
T o SECRETARY OF STATE JAMES F. BYRNES
November 11, 1945
Dear Sir:
It is becoming more and more evident that the AtlanticCharter is a dead letter so far as the American Government is
concerned . C on fronte d w ith the situation in Java, all you have
done is to order that the Dutch—who are using American
military eq uipm ent given to them for use against the Japanese,
to suppress the Javanese national m ove m ent— to paint ou t or
otherw ise rem ove or conceal the signs o f its American origin. Is
this no t a case o f the ostrich hiding its head in the sand? I
w ond er if you have asked y ourself wh ether such an underhand policy will pay in the long run. The Asiatic peoples are
perfectly able to recognize w ho are, or are not, their friends;
and a tim e will come when (to say nothing o f present
moralities) the friendship o f even such far-away peoples as the
Javanese m ay be o f value to the United States, whose
go ve rnm en t is supposed to believe in some kind o f cooperation
by all the peoples o f the world .
Yours very truly,
James Francis Byrnes, Secretary o f State (1945-47), G overnm ent o f the
United States.
A K C signed this letter in his capacity as Ho no rary C hairm an o f the N ational
Committee for India’s Freedom.
T o D R A N U P S I N G H
July 10, 1944
Dear Dr Anup Singh:
I look forw ard w ith pleasure to the appcarancc o f a
Sym posium to be entitled the “V oice of India” , to be publishedin the cause o f India’s freedom . We hear nowadays almost
exclusively o f India’s righ t to a political and econom ic freedomand (with the exception o f an infinitesimal num ber o f Indiantraitors w hose vested interests are bound up w ith the status quo)
we affirm this right unanimously and unconditionally.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 385/484
There are, nevertheless, other and perhaps even more im
portant freedoms to be considered, which may be calledcollectively a cultural freedom, bearing in mind that in a
co un try such as India, w ith all its millenial and living traditions,
and w here it has never been attempted to live by “ bread alone” ,
no dividing line can be drawn between culture and religion.There are cultural and religious as well as political Imperial
isms; and if we arc to be free in any more real sense than that in
wh ich the “econom ically determ ined” W estern man o f today is
free, then our whole system o f education m ust be liberated not
only from direct or indirect control by any foreign govern
ment, and from the text-book racket, but also from the
“ proselytising fury ” o f those w ho identify civilisation w ith
democracy, and dem ocracy w ith industrialism and culture withscientific humanism—or, conversely, religion with Christian
ity.
This m eans that W estern friends o f Indian freedom m ust
recognize that ours, if it is to be real, will include a freedom to
differ from them in very many important issues. Our “voice”
that they can hear is largely the voice o f a generation o f men
already tutored willy-nilly by Europeans and moulded by the
characteristic forms o f W estern education and W estern m oral-ism; bu t there are other voices, those o f ou r true conservatives
and authentically Indian, which it is almost impossible for our
W estern friends to hear. To these friends, whose sense o f ju stice
and disinterested labours we gladly acknowledge, there must
be spoken this w ord o f friendly warning: that it is not always a
freedom to abolish the castc system o r to break dow n purdah, or
to establish a system o f universal com pulsory education—
quantitative rather than qualitative, or a liberty to choose our
representatives by count o f noses, that we want. We want also a
freedom no t to do any o f these things, especially if, like the
Pasha o f M arrakesh, “ we do no t wa nt the incredible American
way o f life”—w ith its exo rbitant percentage o f mental casual
ties. T he voice o f a free India will no t be an echo o f any o ther,however confident, but her own.
AKC
D r An up S ingh, Indian bo rn au thor, lecturer and political scientist resident in
US. This letter was published in The Voice o f India, a mon thly issued by the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 386/484
N ational C om m itt ee fo r India ’s Freedom , W ashin gto n, D. C ., U .S .A ., o f
which Dr Singh was an official.
To T H E V O I C E O F I N D I A
N ovem ber 1946
Sirs:
To Pand it Jawaharlal N ehru I extend cordial greetings on his
bir thday, best wishes for his success in the conduct o f the
present Inte rim Governm ent, in w innin g the confidence and
sup port o f ou r M uslim coun trym en and friends, and in all his
endeavours to establish relations o f economic and culturalintercourse with other peoples. By many sacrifices and much
suffering, and by his persistent efforts in recent years to
“discover India” he has qualified himself for the responsibilities
that rest upon him.
AKC
The Voice o f India as above.
Th e following letter was sent to D r Coom arasw am y on July 4; 1944:
Dear Dr Coomaraswamy:
A com m ittee o f distingu ished citizens in India have made
plans to publish a 500-page volum e to com m em orate G andhi’s
75th birthday and to tender it to the Mahatma on Oct 2nd or
later. The committee have asked me to approach Gandhi’s
friends and admirers in America for contributions—preferably
essays in appreciation, bu t at least brie f messages. A ccord ingly ,I am hu m bly approaching you, kno w ing o f you r admirationfor the Indian leader. . . .
Sincerely, yours,
Krishnalal Shridharani
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 387/484
The following response was sent:
Mahatma Gandhi-ji, Namaste:
I am happy to have this op po rtun ity to express my feelings of
highest respect and admiration for the great leader who,
throughout his life, has consistently refused to dissociate politics from re ligion; and has never repudia ted the caste
system, but would only re-form, ie, correct its working.
I m en tion these tw o things because o f the fundamentally
Indian or rather universally traditional principles involved. The
concept o f govern m ent as a divinely delegated pow er, and that
o f a vocational status determ ined by one’s ow n nature are the
indispensable suppo rts o f any sacramental sociology o r dedi
cated life. T here can be no ju st o r stable governm ent devised oradm inistered by anyone w ho is not him self an obedient subject
ofjust ice (dharma, dikaiosune), or as we should express it, is not
a Dharmaraja. Th e concept o f “self-governm ent” (svaraj) is not
then prima rily, bu t contingently a m atter o f independence o f
foreign domination. In the Indian and traditional theory of
go vern m ent the essential quality o f royalty is one o f self-
control. Th e p rinciple holds goo d equally if the gov ernm ent is
by an aris tocracy or even by a bureaucracy. A ju st governm entis not a balance o f po w er established as between the representa
tives o f com peting , interests; the ruler must not govern in his
ow n interest, or in that of the poor or “ com m on m an” , but
impartially. You, Mahatma-ji, have seen that it is only by
means o f an interior discipline that India can free herself, or
keep her freedom from any external tyranny.
As for the caste system: justice and freedom manifested in the
social order can only mean that it is just that everyman should
be free to earn his daily bread o f following that vocation by
which his natural (natal) abilities imperiously summon him.
T here can be no justice in an industrial society, how ever
“ classless” , un der the “ law o f the sha rks” , or as it is called here,
“free enterprise”, which means “his hand against every man’s,
and every man’s hand against him”; nor freedom whereunem ploy m en t is a condition o f “ progress” , and m an’soccupations are therefore “economically determined”. If, as
Eric Gill poin ts ou t, the factory system is unC hristian “ becauseit deprives workm en o f responsibility for their w ork” , it is noless unHindu in as much as it denies to everyman the very
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 388/484
means th roug h wh ich he can best o f all develop his ow n
perfection— that o f a devotion to his own work. No one can be
called free who is not free to love his own work and to perfect
it. The m odern artisan, on the contrary, as Jean Giono says, has
been degraded by the machine; “ the possibility o f making
masterpieces has been lost to him. We have eradicated from hismind the need for quality and made him eager for quantity and
speed” . Whereas the caste system is inseparably bound up w ith
the concept o f quality, at once in the produce and the
production. It is from the sta ndpoint o f the castc system that
we jud ge “ the incredible A merican way o f life” , and repudiate
it, except to the unfortunate extent that it may be forced upon
us in self-defcnce.
It is proverbial in India that men are naturally inclined tolove, and even to overvalue their own hereditary professions,
whatever these may be; a lineage is, indeed, considered broken
if the family profession is abandoned. In any case, the
professions are sacred obligations and even, as A. M. Hocart
has called them , “ pries thoo ds” . As Jacob Boehm e, w ho was
him self a shoem aker, says (and let us not forget that caste is by
no means an exclusively Indian institution):
Who’er thou art, that to this work art bornA chosen w ork thou hast, h ow e’er the world m ay scorn.
If you ask an Indian who he is, he will reply’ I am a lover o f
G od ” , by his nam e o f Vishnu or K rishna or Siva or Kali, as the
case may be. N one o f us has any difficulty in understanding St
Paul’s recommendation “Let every man abide in the same
calling where in he was called. . . . For he that is called, being a
servant, is the Lord’s freeman”.
As regards the related question o f the untouchab ility o f thosewho arc without castc or have lost castc, it is one that we must
resolve for ourselves in our own way. Since those who havelost castc can be reinstated by rites o f purification, it might be
possible by means o f an analogous prayascitta, to “lift up” any
qualified outcaste, ie, anyone able and willing to accept thespiritual disciplines that caste demands. Swami Vivekananda’sdictum , “ If the outcastcs wo uld im prove their status, let them
learn Sanskrit”, is a pointer in this direction. Let us not forgetthat the Gods, to w ho m memb ers of the three higher castescorrespond, were “originally mortal”, and won their present
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 389/484
position solely by their adherence to the T ruth , that Satyagraha
o f wh ich you have personally demonstrated the pow er. A
related procedure might involve the decision that there are
kinds o f w ork and conditions o f w ork to which no one o f the
human species should be asked to submit; and in m aking such a
decision, one might at the same time contribute by example toa solution o f some o f the problems o f labour in the West, where
the chain belt workers, overseen by efficiency experts, can
hardly be distinguished from the mem bers o f a chain gang
except by the fact o f their daily escape. For the rest, and as
things are, I will only say that we might as well admit
Americans as admit outcastes indiscriminately to our sanc
tuaries. It is indeed by no m eans unlikely that it is a resen tment
o f ou r classification o f them as untouchables, couplcd with pangs o f conscience about th eir ow n treatm ent o f Negro
citizens, that has made Americans so sensitive to many aspects
o f ou r social problems tha t they do n ot understand.
I conclude, Mahatma-ji, by saying how gladly I associate
m yself w ith m y fellow cou ntrymen here in paying you h onor
upo n the occasion o f you r seventy-fifth birthday. All o f us wish
you many, and happier returns of the day.
AKC
The committee in question did not see fit to publish this ‘letter’. For AKC’s
other views o f Gandhi-ji, see also ‘M ahatm a’ in Mahatma Gandhi— Essays and
Reflections on His Life and Work, edited by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, London,
1939.
Prayascitta = expiation, atonement, amends, satisfaction, penance.
To S. DU RAI RAJA SINGAM
October 26, 1946
Dear Durai Raja Singam:
As to yours o f O ctobe r 17, there is obviously very m uch inGandhi-ji’s sayings about art that I can fully agree with, but I
don’t think any good purpose would be served by trying todraw parallels w ith th ings I have said. I have the highest respectfor Gandhi-ji, o f course, and also agree with him in all that he
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 390/484
(and Bharatan Kumarappa) have to say about industrialism on
the one hand and “Villagism” on the other. But all that
Gandhi-ji has to say about art is a pro du ct o f his individual
thinking; he docs’nt really know what he is talking about, and he '
often seems to hold the naive view that “ art” means ju st
pain ting, whereas art, from an Indian and all traditional pointso f view covers all making and ordering, and so embraces about
one ha lf o f all hu m an activity, the other h alf being represented
by conduct (urthi). On the other hand, all that I have to say
abou t art is not a m atter o f personal th ink ing at all; it is a matter
o f know ledge, based on sruti and smriti.
An exam ple o f G andhi-ji’s deviation, the result o f personal
feeling, is his attitude to the w earing o f jew elle ry (on which see
my article on “Ornament” in Figures o f Speech. . . ). Where heshould have distinguished between good (significant) and bad
(meaningless) jewellery, he simply wants everyone to stop
wear ing it! This is a part o f his propagandist asceticism; his
asceticism is right for him, and no one would defend Sanyas
against the world more than I would; but he is very wrong in
demanding not merely a certain austerity—but particular
sacrifices from everyone; that can only result in all the evils o f a
“premature Vairagya”; even Sri Krishna would not have allmen follow in his way ( Bhagavad Gita III, 23)! M uch o f all this
is due to Gandhi-ji’s intellectual background, which is still
fundamentally Victorian. So while I can agree with many
things that Gandhi-ji has to say about art, I disagree with the
general trend o f his position in this matter.
Gandhi-ji is a saint, not an intellectual giant; I am neither, but
I do say that those w hose au thority I rely on w hen I speak have
often been both.
By the way, I can’t find time to write to your son yet awhile;anyw ay, he ough t to write to m e first !!!
Very sincerely,
S. D urai Raja Singam , identified on p 25.
Although we have not undertaken *o define every foreign word and phrase
that appear in this collection, several that are used in this and the preceeding
letter are so fund am ental to an u nd erstanding o f the letters themselves and
especially to so m e degree o f unde rstanding o f Indian tho ug ht generally that
exception have been made. Thus, srwfi=revelation, the revealed word, thatwhich was heard in principio. Smriti derives from sruti, being that which
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 391/484
derives from reflection on the latter; tradition, that which is handed down.
Vairagya -r- turning away, renunciation; from viraga, dispassion. This is the
second requisite for an aspirant to gnosis ( jiiana), the first being viveka or
discrimination (between the Real and the unreal).
To M R K O D A N D O R A O
April 10, 1947
Dear Mr Kodando Rao:
It was a pleasure to meet you again and to hear you speak
yesterday. As you know, I also have constantly emphasized
that the great difference between the traditional Indian and them ode rn w estern outlook on life arc a m atter o f times much
more than that o f place. I would like to urge you to study som e
o f the m odern Western writers on these subjects, especially
Guenon, o f w ho m you will find some account in a little boo k
o f my ow n that I am sending you.
As Mr Toyn bee said, “ We (of the West) arc just beginning to
see some o f the effects o f our action on them (of the East), bu t
we have hardly begun to see the effects—which will certainly
be trem endous— o f their coming counteraction upon us.”
To ynbee speaks o f the West as the “ aggressors” and the East as
the “victims”. Historians, he says, a thousand years hencc, will
be “ chiefly in terested in the trem endous counter cffcct which,
by th at time, the victims will have produced in the life o f the
agresso r” , and thinks the real significance o f the com ing social
unification o f mankind will “ not be found in the field o f
technics and economics, and not in the field o f war and politics,
but in the field o f religio n.” You, perhaps, would prefer to sayin the field o f thoug ht or philosophy; at any rate, in that o f the
ultimate principles on which any civilisation is really based.
We Orientals, then, have at least as much responsibility for
the kind o f world that w c shall be in the future as have theWestern cultures that arc still predominant but at the same timedeclining. Few o f ou r students from India have had any chanceto realize the extent to which leaders of Western thought are
themselves aware o f this decline. Y ou will find some discussiono f it in my little book; b ut let me add that at Harvard, theProfessor o f Education very often refers to Western civilization
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 392/484
as an “organized barbarism”, and that the Professor of Sociology
in a letter I received yesterday refers to it as a “nightmare”. To a
large extent, Indian students are ju st barbarians too, jus t
com ing ov er here to learn our m ethod o f organization. Is it
really this barbarism and this nightmare that we want Indian
students to acquire and take back with them to India? Is it not,on the other hand, also their duty to bring som ething with them
when they come here? Som ething o f their own to contribute to
the solution o f the great problems o f the relation o f m an’s work
to his life, that faces the East and the West alike?
How can man live happily? This is a much more important
question than tha t o f how to raise their standard o f living— so-
called. We forget that men have hearts as well as minds and
bodies that want to be fed!There is something mean and cheap about the way we all
come here, to study. There is an old saying that whoever
would obtain the wealth o f the Indies must take the wealth o f
the Indies with him, to buy with. What do our already
anglicized boys w ho are so much ashamed o f their “ unedu
cated” wives and sisters bring with them? Do they bring
anything whatev er that Americans havc’nt got already? O f
course these Americans are not interested in you; you have
nothing to offer and only come to get what you can! Not two
per cent o f Indian students come here to study cultural
subjects—are only qualified to study p l u m b i n g ?
These boys re turn to India a queer m ixture o f East and W est,
strangers here and no long er at hom e there! H ow can they ever
expect to be happy men?
We arc glad to say that some Indian students at least are soon
disillusioned and long to go back to discover India, for they
have never know n their own home, the which they learn aboutfor the first time from Europeans.*
You raised the question o f hospitality: let me say that we
often, and w ith pleasure, entertain groups o f Indian students at
hom e. Th ey take possession of our kitchen, prepare their ow n
food; the shoes arc left at the door, they wash their hands, we
all eat on the floor, with our own fingers—just as one would inIndia. My wife and I arc intellectually more “orthodox” and
old-fashioned than m ost o f the boys w ho com e to us. Bu t wearc painfully Europeanized nevertheless. What is more, we donot expect that the boys will be free to invite us to cat with
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 393/484
them and their families in their homes, nor do we expect them
to treat us on terms o f social equality in India. H ow much less
have ordinary Americans and Europeans a right to expect sucha thing?
As a m atter o f fact, we respect more those Indians who will
no t cat with us, than those who will. We see no reason wh y we
should contaminate their homes and kitchens merely out of
politcncs.
As for the girls: I say that however much they know—a man
is still u n e d u c a t e d if he cannot appreciate and understand
and be happy with an Indian girl, if she is still Indian, how ever
little o f his kind o f inform ation she may have. Praise God i f the
Indian girl retains standards and concepts o f value about life and
conduct that European wom en have been robbed of. If m ost o fthem want to stay as they are, for God’s sake let them!
Take note o f w hat Sir George B irdwood w rote in 1880:
“ O ur (Western) education has destroyed their love o f their ow n
literature . . . the ir deligh t in their ow n arts and, w orst o f all,
their repose in their own traditional and national religion. It has
disgusted them with their own homes—their parents, their
sisters, their very wives. It brought discontent into every
family so far as its baneful influences have reached.”
With kind regards,
* ‘European’, as frequently used by Asians and Africans, refers to persons of
European ethnic background and is not limited to Frenchmen, Germans,
Spaniards, etc, and may often be applied to Americans.
Pand urangi K odan do Rao was an Indian academic, a lecturer in botany , w ho
became in volv ed in th e in dependence m ovem ent and was im pris oned for his
supp ort o f Gandhi. He w rote w idely on public affairs, and lectured in India,Canada, the USA and Australia. He was married to an American wife, and
was a moderate in politics.
Sir Ge orge Ch ristoph er M olesw orth Birdw ood , British civil servant, born in
India, w as also a profe ssor o f botan y; cam e to England wh ile still a young
man and w orke d for m any years in the India Office. He m aintained a lifelong
pro fe ssio nal in te rest in India.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 394/484
Add ress given by D r C oom arasw am y at Philip Brooks House, Harvard
Un iversity, on the occasion o f the unfurling o f the flags of newly independen t
India (Hindustan) and Pakistan, 15 August 1947.
Th e Renaissance of Indian Culture
O ur problem is not so m uch one o f the rebirth o f an Indian
culture, as it is one o f preserving what remains o f it. This
culture is valid for us not so much because it is Indian as because
it is culture. At the same time its particular forms arc adapted to
a specifically Indian nature and inheritance, and they are
appropriate to us in the same way that a national costume is
app ropriate to those who have a right to wear it. We cut a sorry
figure in our foreign or hybrid clothes, and only invite the
ridicule o f foreign musicians by playing the harm oniu m .
Th e y oun ger generation o f go-getters that comes to A merica
to study, and that will largely shape the course o f Indian and
educational policies in the immediate future is, for the most
part, as ig norant o f Indian traditions and cultura l values as any
European m ight be, and som etimes even m ore so; and jus t
because o f this lack o f background cannot grasp the Americanand European problems that confront it.
Freedom is the opportunity to act in accordance with one’s
own nature. But our leaders arc already de-natured, quite as
much as Lord Macaulay could have wished them to be: “a class
o f persons Indian in blood and colour bu t English in tastes, in
opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” Because they have yet to
“discover” India, they have not realized that the modern world
is no longer an integrated culture, but an “organized barbarism” and a political pandemonium. They hav*e no more the
mo ral courage to “ be themselves”—w ithou t which they can be
o f little use to them selves or anyone else— than had their
predecessors upon w hom a so-called W estern education had
been m ore forcibly im posed in M issionary colleges or govern
ment controlled universities.
It will take many a long year yet for India to recover her
spontaneity. For the present, m ost o f our “ educated” m en are
ju s t as much as Americans dom in ated by the current catchw ords o f “ equality” , “ dem ocracy” , “ progress” , “ literacy” ,and so forth. In the past, and still today, Indians have earned
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 395/484
and deserved much o f the contempt o f the Europeans w hom
they have flattered so sincerely by an imitation o f all their habits
and ways o f thinking. We, too, arc on our way to becom e a
nation of Siidras, at the same time industrious and ignorant.
N otw ithstanding that “all the precepts o f philosophy refer to
life”, we have learnt from the modern world to despise thelover of wisdom, and to leap before we look.
O n the other side of the Indian picture are the great figures o f
such Indian sociologists as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr Bharatan
Kumarappa. Both are advocates o f forms o f hum an association
unfavorable to war, and both arc significant as much for the
rest of the world as for India, in this age o f violence. Unlike the
Utopias o f the m odern West, neither o f these men supposes
that the ills of the world can be cured by planning or economicmeans alone, w itho ut a change of heart. B oth are seeking to
restore form s o f social organization in which human values
shall predom inate over those o f “ success” evaluated in terms o fmoney.
Again, throughout the ages, India has been a land of
profound religious convic tions and o f equally generous reli
gious tolerance. Here at least, if nowhere else, it is still possible
for men to think o f their ow n faith as the natural friend and allyo f all others in a com m on cause. It has been said that in the
West, religion is fast becoming an archaic and impossible
refuge. But in India it still provides for both the hearts and
minds o f men, and gives them an inalienable dignity because of
this. The na tural conncction o f religion with sociology and
politics has never been broken. There is no such oppositio n o f
sacred to profane as is taken for granted in the modern West; in
our experience, culture and religion have been indivisible; and
that, in ou r inheritance, is what we can least o f all afford toabandon.
Indian women, at the present day and in so far as they have
not yet been “brought up to date”, are our best conservators ofIndian culture. And let us no t forget that in a coun try like India,any judgement of standards of culture in terms of literacy
would be ridiculous; literacy in the modern world ofmagazines and newspapers is no guarantee o f culture w hatever;
and it is far better not to know how to read than not to knowwhat to read.In the meantime, also, there is an immediate and desparate
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 396/484
need for the establishment of cultural, and not m erely
econ om ic and political contacts with the rest o f the world . N o
doubt, the West is very largely to be blamed for its own
cultural isolation, which amounts to a very real provincialism;
but the blame is also ours, for our students and otherrepresentatives abroad arc more often engineers, or physicists
or politicians than men o f culture—where they oug ht to have
been both at once, able to contribute someth ing more than their
fees to those from whom they came to learn the newest
techniques. When the culture that we propose to restore was
live, the learned men o f foreign countries came from far and
wide to study in India. The measure o f ou r culture is no t that of
ou r ability to learn new tricks, but that o f what we have to
give.
I have been asked: “ W hat is you r message to the new India o f
our dreams?” This is my answer: “Be yourself. Follow
M ahatma Gandhi, B haratan Kum arappa, D. V. Gundappa,
Abdul Kalam Azad, Abdul Gaffar Khan, and Sri Ramana
Maharshi. Coo perate w ith such men as the Earl o f Ports
mouth, George Bourne, Wilfred Wellock, Marco Pallis, Rene
Guenon, Jean Giono, Fernando Nobre. Do not consider the
inferior philosophers. “Be not deceived: evil communicationscorrupt good manners.”
AKC
Obviously this short address is not strictly a letter, but it repeats in a clear
and incisive manner points that AKC made in letters to his correspondents
and, particularly, to the New English Weekly; it is also an admirable
sum m ation o f his views aprop os the ‘sou l’ o f the newly indepen dent India,
and fo r these reasons it is included— no t to speak of its pertinence forourselves.
To MR S G O B I N D R A M J . W A T U M U L L
August 29, 1944
Dear Mrs Watumull:
Many thanks for your letter and prospectus. I have alwayshad most pleasant relations with the “Bombay merchants” of
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 397/484
India and Ceylon and always respected them as staunch
supporters and adherents o f a truly Indian ortho dox y.
As regards you r Foundation, I feel som e hesitation. I have, as
you say, contributed to the mutual understanding o f East and
West. But this is not at all an easy problem, and means
something more than learning to do business and “eat, drink
and be merry” together. Modem civilisation is fundamentally
opposed to all our deepest values. I am not all sure that even a
wordly advantage is to be gained by learning from America,
land o f the “ dust b ow l” , now when, as Jacks and W hyte say in
Th e Rape o f the Earth, “misapplied science has brought to the
world’s richest virgin lands a desolation compared with which
the ravages o f all the wars in history are negligible.” C f the Earl
of Portsmouth’s Alternatives to Death, and the many similar books th at have been lately published in England; and also, o f
course, Marco Pallis’ Peaks and Lamas, an outstanding work of
the contact o f cultures, and especially valuable for its discussion
of the problem of education.
O ur young men w h o ' come to Am erica know little or
noth ing o f their ow n civilisation; these young ignoramuses,
graduates as they may be o f Agricultural or Engineering
colleges, have noth ing o f their ow n to contribute to America.A true reciprocity is impossible under these conditions. What
we need is Professors o f Indian rathe r than o f Am erican
civilization. I note that your program considers only “agri
cultural and technical” education, to the exclusion o f those
fields on which can be established a real cultural exchange. Had
I not better wait and look forward to your visit to Boston this
Fall?
Very sincerely,
M r and M rs G. J. W atumu ll o f Ho nolulu, Hawaii, had established a
Foundation to promote, and a chair of, Indian Culture at the University of
Haw aii ‘in the interests o f better unde rstanding betw een the peoples o f the
U nited States and India’, and had asked AK C to becom e a m em ber o f the
Advisory Board.
Jacks, G. V. and Whyte, R. O. The Rape o f the Earth, London, 1939.
The Earl o f Portsmouth, Alternative to Death , London, 1943.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, London. 1939.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 398/484
To MR S G O B I N D R A M J . W A T U M U L L
January 3, 1944
Dear Mrs Watumull:
O f course, it is a w or thy object to wish to alleviate Indian poverty and disease. The difficulty lies in the fact that modern
civilisation has so m any difficulties and dangers o f its ow n, for
example such a high lunacy rate in America. One can do
irreparable psychological damage whilst trying to do physical
good. Th ere is ju st as much difference between the “ eno rm ous
ly wealthy” and the “pitifully poor” here as there is in India.
The only ways to remedy such things are partly political and
then by resto ring (if it were possible) the status o f the guildsand panchayats, and the jo in t family system. We have disrupted
the structure of Indian society, and then blame it for notfunctioning!* Does Western society function? What is “free
enterprise” but “his hand against every man, and every man’s
hand against him?”You speak o f the backg roun d o f Oriental learning, etc, that
we possess. It is little enough. But I do not sec how one can
hope to help others until one has thoroughly grasped and unless
one is in sym pa thy w ith their aspirations, their way o f life, their
whole “ideology”. Whoever would [render such help must]
first o f all become one [of them]. In China, the Jesuits are
required to have earned their living for two years by practising a
Chinese trade before they are allowed to teach. I believe the best
thing anyone can do for India is to go there to study.
I shall be meeting the Scientific Mission here, too; and am
reading a lecture for them and the MIT boys on “Science and
Religion” (the argument being that there is no possible conflict betw een them).
With kindest regards,
*AKC, in argument, did not always take into account the fact that India was
culturally decadent and internally divided or else the Europeans would never
have gained a foothold there. The same applies to the earlier and doubtless
provid ential advent o f th e M uslims in India.
M rs Gob indram J. W atumull, as above.M IT = Massachusetts Institute o f Techn ology, C am bridge, M assachusetts,USA.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 399/484
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
May 11, (year not given)
Sir:
M r Duncan, reviewing C. F. Andrews’ The True India inyour issue of M arch 30, is perfectly right in asserting that on ly
Mr Andrew’s moralism leads him to deny the phallic symbol
ism of the litigant and the employm ent o f erotic symbolism in
Indian art and metaphysics. The lingam is unquestionably a
phallus; and there are sculptures and paintings o f which it may
be said th at th ey ought not, perhaps, to be seen by those who
are entirely igno rant o f their significance, and therefore capable
o f a shocking irreverence “ until they rerrch the stage in which,having discovered the essential truths, they become indifferent
to the mode in which they arc presented” (Sir John WoodrofFe,The Garland o f Letters, 1922, p 220).
What could be done in India could not have been done with
equal propriety in Europe, and might have been ill-adapted to
w hat Ju ng has called the “ brutal m orality suited to us as
recently civilised, barbaric Teutonic peoples . . . (for whom) it
was unavoidab le tha t the sphere o f instincts should be
thoro ugh ly repressed” (Wilhelm and Jung , Secret o f the Golden
Flower, p 125).
At the present time, it may be observed that although
Christian theo logy is rarely presented in terms o f an erotic
sym bolism perceptible to the eye, it has by no means neglected
the use o f a verbally erotic sym bolism, and that no distinction
can be draw n in principle between w ha t is com municated to the
eye and what to the ear. It holds for Christianity as for
Hinduism, that “all creation is feminine to God”, andtherefore, in the wo rds o fjo h n Don ne, “nor ever chaste unless
Thou ravish m e.” The language of the Song of Songs is as
technical as that of the Gita Govinda, or that o f the Fideli
d’Amore. Th e generation o f the Son o f God is by “ an act o f
fecundation latent in eternity” (Eckhart), a “vital operationfrom a conjoint principle” (St Thomas Aquinas); St Bonaventuaspeaks o f the Exem plary Reasons (Ideas) as conceived “ in the
vulva or w om b o f the Eternal W isdom” (in vulva aeternae sapientiae seu utero) — th at W isdom o f w hom Dante says that“ She exists in H im in true and perfect fashion as if eternally
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 400/484
wedded to Him”, and whom he addresses as “Virgin Mother,
dau gh ter o f thy Son ” . M r A ndrew s’ sentimentality is essential
ly the same as Miss M ay o’s and we could pray to be delivered
from ou r friends as well as from ou r enemies in this connec tion.
Both Miss Mayo and Mr Andrews should learn more of
Christi«inity before they presume either to malign or to
apologize for Hinduism.
AKC
C. F. Andrews, British educator with life long interest in Indian affairs;
associate o f Gand hi, and Vice President o f Rabindranath T ago re’s Santi-
niketan institution.
Katherine Mayo, crusading American author who liked to initiate ‘causes’; best know n for her Mother India which Indians viewed with indignation.
Sir Jo hn WoodrofFe, British jur ist prom inent on the Calcutta High C ou rt.
His avocation was the study o f the Tan tra, and he did m ore than any other
Anglophone orientalist to expound its underlying principles and signifi
cance. In the earlier part o f his w riting career, he published u nd er the pen
name Arthur Avalon.
Richard W ilhelm and C arl Gustav Jun g, The Secret of the Golden Flower,
London, 1932.
To ERIC GILL
May 23, 1939
Dear Eric:
. . . Ta lking o f “sex sym bolism ” , it is w onderful ho w
Coulton misunderstands and devalues the wonderful Mary
legend which he gives on P 509 o f his Five Centuries o f Religion. He misses entirely the trem end ous significance o f the sacrifice
o f on e’s eyes for the sake o f the vision. There is a Vedic parallel,
too, where Wisdom is said to reveal her very body to some.
Perhaps you can print this legend someday, and I could write a
few w ords o f introduction. O n the other hand, perhaps the
world does not deserve such things nowadays!
With love from Ananda,
Eric Gill, sec the Introduction.
Coulton, George G., Five Centuries of Religion, Vol I, Cambridge, England.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 401/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 402/484
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
Sir:
Permit me to say that Mildred Worth Pinkham’s book onWomen in the Sacred Scriptures o f Hinduism, recently reviewed in
yo ur issue o f Septem ber 16th, cannot be very strong ly
recommended. I rather agree with a more learned reviewer in
the Journal o f the American Oriental Society (1941, p 195), who
says: “ Th ere are a great many quotations, som e o f them
interesting, but they neither prove nor indicate anything in
particular. They are not su itable for the use o f H in du wom en,
no r for scholarly reference, no r are they w elded by interpre ta
tive com m ent into any sort o f unity, nor is the “ status o f H indu
w om en tod ay ” discussed in relation to these snatches from the
scriptures. T he boo k is one o f sustained confusion from
beginning to end . . . . The quotations are all from English
tanslations and pro vide neither a com prehensive list o f refer
ences, nor sufficient context to be very helpful.”
T here is, o f course, an Indian theory, metaphysical, as to the
natural, and the refore just, relationship o f the sexes, interpreted
in terms o f sky and eaith, sacerdotium and regnum, mind and perception, and it is, indeed, in term s o f the Liebesgeschichte
Him mels and the relationships o f Sun and M oon , that w hat we
shou ld no w call the “ psychology o f sex” is set forth. All this
fundam ental material, in the light o f which alone can the special
applications be understood, is ignored. Neither is it realized
that the w hole p roblem is no t merely one o f external
relationships, bu t one o f the proper co -ordination o f the
masculine and feminine pow ers in the constitution o f everyone,whether man or woman, that is involved. Neither is it even
hinted that in our ultimate and very Self, these very powers of
essence of nature are One.
AKC
Mildred Worth Pinkham, Women in the Sacred Scriptures o f Hinduism,
Colum bia U niversity Press, N ew York, 1941. This unfortunate book began
as a Ph D thesis, and reflected only a part o f the said thesis, w hich m ay help
account for its inadequacies.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 403/484
To GEORGE SARTON
My dear Sarton:
M any thanks for your note. “ Spiritual A uthority . . . ”m ight com e m ore into your field, no t only as having to do w ith
“political science” (sociology), but because it deals throughout
with the p rob lem o f conflict between the sexes, wh ich is the
same thing as the conflict between the inner and the ou ter man.
There is, in fact, a traditional psychology that is o f imm ense
practical value and that leads to solutions o f the very problems o f
disintegrated personality with which we are still concerned.
Kindest regards,
Very sincerely,
G eorge Sarton, professor of the history o f science, H arvard U niversity,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Spiritual Au thority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory o f Government,
Supplement to the Journal o f the American Oriental Society, XXII, 1942.
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
Undated
Sir:
A propos o f M r Porteus’ review o f Peach Path, I suggest he
read Evola’s “Uomo e Donna” in Reuolta contra il Mondo
Moderno. In this book as a whole, Evola mis-states thetraditional theory o f the marriage o f Ch urch and State. In thetraditional theory o f the marriage o f the Sacerdotium to the
Regm m , the former is masculine and the latter feminine.Hitler’s and Satan’s way is, therefore, feminine. The deviationo f the m ale, ie, clerical side is not so much by fault as bydefault.
AKC
Jacques Evola, Rivolta contro il Mondo Moderno, Milan, 1934. The chapter in
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 404/484
question was translated by Zlata Llamas (Dona Luisa) Coomaraswamy,
AKC’s wife, and published in the Visvabharati Quarterly, vol V, pt iv, 1940.
T o S. DURAI RAJA SINGAM
April 26, 1947
Dear M r Raja Singam:
Many thanks for your son’s letter and the interesting
photographs o f yourself and family.
As regards your “Selections” from my writings, please omit
page 12 (enclosed); page 9 requires some alternation; I have
never placed nationalism above religion. Better omit the paragraph I have struck out. Also page 11, om it w hat I have
struck out: I have never been “ aware o f the degrading position
of w om en in Cey lon soc iety” ! ! ! Such ideas wou ld seem quite
nonsense to me.
I expect you have received my book, A m I M y Brother’s
Keeper? I have no new photographs.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
S. Durai Raja Singam , Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (cf p 30). M r Singam was
collating a series of quo tations fro m A K C ’s published w orks to be included
in a book of Selections . . . . The section in question here was AK C’s
discussion of ‘tem po rary m arriag e’ in The Dance of Shiva, the chapter on
‘The Status o f Indian W om en’. The Selections . . . were published in a
limited edition by Mr Singam for private circulation.
Am I M y Brother’s Keeper ?, New York, 1947.
To T H E S H I E L D, L O N D O N
January 1911
Sirs:
I w rite these notes at the request o f a friend, b ut it m us t beunderstood that I have made no special study o f the matter,althou gh I do take a great interest in the status o f wom en bo th
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 405/484
in East and West. I am personally convinced that the State
Regulation of Vice is altogether degrading and objectionable.
In India very little interest is taken in the State Regulation of
Vice, because it is a purely European institution; it practically
affects only the British Arm y, and its victims, and m ost Indians
are probab ly unaw are o f the facts. M oreover, the contagiousdiseases in question are either o f European origin, or at least
have become much more prevalent since intercourse with
Europeans became easier.
There is probably no social culture in which the honour of
w om en is m ore jealously guarded than the H indu; at the same
time, no society is free from the prob lems o f prostitution, and
it is characteristic o f H induism that a solution very different
from the Western has been sought. This solution lies in therecognition o f the prostitute as a hum an being. The re is no
street solicitation in India, unless it may be in the large towns
wh ere the structure o f society has broken d ow n, and m odern
conditions prevail. In practice, the dancing girls attached to the
Hindu temples in Southern India, and the professional singers
and dancers generally in other parts o f India, are courtesans.
But they are also in the highest sense artists. They are
independen t, and sometimes' even wealthy. I do no t think they
are ever exp loited, as in the W hite Slave Traffic o f Europe. The
most important point to observe, however, is that they nowise
lack self-respect—they have a position in the world, and are
skilled in a refined classic art, the lyric sym bolism o f which is
essentially religious. The “ A nti-nautch” m ovem ent o f m odern
reformers I regard as fundamentally mistaken, as it merely
degrades the status o f the courtesan w ithou t in any w ay
touching the ro ot o f the problem .
There is also a very grea t difference between the Eastern andWestern attitude towards sexual intercourse. On the one hand
the ethic o f H indu ism, w ith its ideals o f renunciation, is even
severer than that o f Rom an Catholic Christianity: on the other,
we have to note that Hinduism embraces and recognizes andidealizes the whole o f life. Th us it is that sex relations can be
treated frankly and simply in religious and poetic literature. Inits highest fo rm , the sex-relation is a sacrament; and even m ore
secularly regarded, it is rather an art than a mere animalgratification. All this, and many other things, must beconsidered in estimating the status o f the Indian courtesan.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 406/484
The most fundamental idea in Indian religious philosophy is
that o f unity. “T ha t art thou” : every living thing is an
incarnation o f the one Self. All living things are boun d toge ther
by this unity. Thus, in the m ost literal sense, “ In so much as ye
have done it un to these, ye have done it unto M e.” Further, “ In
as much as ye have done it unto Me, ye have done it to
yourselves— and ho w shall ye not pay the price?” For next to
this intution o f unity is the doctrine o f karma — the incvitablc-
ness of the consequences o f actions. As surely as any individual
or society degrades or enslaves any other, so surely that
degradation will react upon themselves. State Regulation is one
o f the many m odern attempts to escape the consequences o f
actions. But this is not possible: in one form or another the
price m ust be paid, and is paid. State Regula tion is an attem ptto protect men (and indirectly some o f those wo m en who
belong to the already economically protected class); it not only
docs not protect, but it degrades those women against whom
society has already offended economically and spiritually.
Some o f these wom en have been betrayed—that is to say, they
have given for love to those w ho have deceived them what it is
quite respectable to sell for a home and a legal guarantee.
Others have been driven by pure economic stress, the need for bread. Some have been coerced. In India conditions arc
somewhat different—courtesans arc generally the daughters of
courtesans. In Southern India some others arc o f those who arc
dedicated in infancy to a temple, as devadasis o r servants o f the
god. I cannot say whether all devadasis arc also courtesans—themajority certainly.
N o society can purify itself physically or spir itually by
further offending against such as these. What is needed is toraise the status o f w om en, to ho nour m otherhood in reality and
not in name merely; and to feel responsibility. A society which
by its conventions or its economic structu re forces certainwomen into this position has for its first duty to protect them,
not those who have offended against them. To fail in this dutycan but increase the evil.
N o society , as I have remarked, has ever been free from the problem o f p rosti tution. I th ink th at the evil has been least evil
where, as in India, the recognized standards o f life areexceedingly high; and where at the same time the courtesan is protected by her defined social or religious status and her own
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 407/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 408/484
w ho lives is the hum an counterpart o f the eternal mother. In
Christianity the eternal mother is the “divine nature by which
the Father begets” , the tempo ral mother M ary, from w ho m the
Son takes on “ hu m an ” nature. T hese arc also the two lotuses o f
the uppe r and nether waters, the lotus o f the nether watersrepresenting the g round o f actual existence, the deck o f the ship
o f life. Th e doctrine o f a temporal and eternal b irth o f Christ is
orthodox (Thomist).
On being “bound to the stake” ( yuba = vanaspati = tree =
cross) see also the case of Nrmadha (= Purusa medha, “human”
sacrifice) in Jaim in iya Brahmana, II, 17, 1. By the way, in
connection with the extraordinary consistency which we have
recognized in traditional scriptures: this consistency is really
that “infallibility” which in Christian tradition is attributed to
the Pope only, but as Guenon remarks should be the attribute
o f every initiate throug h w hom the doctrine is transm it
ted . . . .
. . . O bserve the likeness o f the idea of sacrifice in Vcdic and
Hebrew tradition. In the Zohar, “T he impu lse o f the sacrifice is
the m ainstay o f the w orlds and the blessing o f all worlds. “ By it
the “ lam p is kindled ab ove” (ie, the Sun is made to rise). Again
as to nabha as starting point—“When the world was created, itwas started from that spot which is the culmination and
perfection o f the w orld , the central poin t o f the universe, which
is identical w ith Z io n” , citing Psalms 2, 2: “ O ut o f Zion, the
perfection o f beauty , God hath sh ined fo rth .”
To go back to your question about food: Gandhi’s “the only
acceptable form in which God can dare appear to a people
famishing and idle (asanayita, auratal) is work and promise of
food as wages” is true in principio and metaphysically: those in potentia (“ ante natal hell”) arc precisely famishing and idle. T ha t
is of coursc karma katida stuff. From the jnana kanda point of
view, the last end being the same as the first beginning,“idleness” (properly understood, viz, action without action is
the p rinciple o f action, as in BG) is the goal, but in the.
meantime food is necessary to operation: to the final view is
illustrated in fasting as a metaphysical —not religious— rite, ie, in“initiation” of mrtyu, asandya, c f Br Up I, 1, 2 ............
Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy, AKC’s wife, was, at the time this letter was
written, in India studying Sanskrit.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 409/484
To W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
September 15, 1910
Dear Rothenstein:
It was good to hear from you, August 28, and will be still
better to see you so soon. As I told M rs H. . . , I am engaging
tent accom m odation from 5.10 at Cam p, Exhibition, personal
ly for 2 men and 3 ladies subject to confirmation by Mrs
H. . . when she arrives in Bombay.
It has been a hot time but very interesting travelling about
the last 3 months. I have collected many good pictures and
stayed with many dear and beautiful Indians. There is nothing
like the peace and stillness o f the real ones. I can give you lettersto some, especially Benares and Calcutta. But I also strongly
recommend a visit to Lucknow to see dancing there. A boy of
15, pupil o f India’s mo st fam ous dancer, is so beautiful and so
static. These conventional gesture dances, symbolizing all
religion in a Radha-Krishna archon-language are the most
wond erful things in the w orld, all have the quality o f Hindi
poetry. This is so w onderfully trenchant: “ when we loved, the
edge o f the sw ord was too wide for us to lie on, bu t now a sixtyfoot bed is too narrow.” Another song says with exquisite
absurdity: “Had I known that love brings pain, I must have
procla im ed with beat o f drum that none should love.” H ow
many philosophers have proclaimed that all sorrow is wound
up with desire, and how futile save for the few that escape,
like electrons from an atom, these proclamations by beat of
drum.
I cannot make my home in England anymore for a time.
After a year in Europ e next year I shall live here m ost o f the
time for 10 years. My wife is going back earlier than we
expected for various reasons, m ostly connec ted with this, and I
shall let the chapel next year and she will build a little cottage by
the sea at S. . . [probably Staunton , but illegible], I don’t kno w
yet if she will be ou t here m uch w ith me o r not. We have got on
very well living in purely Indian fashion so far.I w on de r if you will go so far as Lahore— I expect not. You,
too, ought to be here for years. I have never felt the land somuch before. I feel the intense thinness o f Eng lish life incontrast. There is such a deep emotional and philosophical
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 410/484
religious background to all this. There is, or in the ideal life at
least, there is not any meaningless activity.
Learn all the Hindustani you can. It is really easy. Especially
pronounce all vowels as continental and learn to pronounce
consonants after. Forbes’ Hindustani Manual (Crosby Lock
wood, 3/6) is good.
I don’t think y ou ’ll get much out o f Monica Williams. The
Bhagavad Gita is the first thing. Then Laws o f Matiu, Tiruvacha-
kam, and such books. But this will not reach you in time, and
anyhow you will find it easier to read up the matter after you’ve
been here than now.When in Bombay, drive through the Marwari bazaar. There
is very little else to sec in the place, comparatively speaking.
You ough t to sec Agra for the architecture, b ut can very wellomit Delhi.
Yours,
William Rothenstein, see p. 326.
Monica Williams is not identified.
‘The Chapel’ refers to Norman Chapel, Broad Campden, Glostershire,
England, w here AK C had lived and where he ow ned W illiam M orris’
Kelmscott Press, now a National Monument.
To W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
Date uncertain
Dear Rothenstein:
Please post me the Himhar (?) print to Campden. I am afraidyou must have been disappointed last night. I had not heard
him sing before. However, the hymn have a little idea. Thefollowing is a translation:
U nkn ow able, abiding in the thou gh t o f Brahm ans, rare one,Veda-Essence, atom unknown to any, who art honey, whoart milk, who art a shining beam, Lord o f the devas,inseparably mingled in the dark Vishnu, in the four-headed
Brahma, in the fire, in the wind, in the sounding ocean, inthe mightly mountains, who are great and rare and precious,dwelling in Tiger-town (Chidambaram, a sacred town in
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 411/484
South India)—vain arc all the days when thy Name is not
spoken.
Is it not grand to know that men can sing this passionately? I
return to Campden Saturday, and shall not be up again for ten
days after that.
Yours very sincerely,
To William Rothenstein, as above.
To W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
October 10, 1910
Dear Rothenstein:
I shall probably ju st have time to see you in B om bay on 27th,
as I am passing through after a tour in Rajputana. You must
really go to Jaip ur to see thc people. Th e wh ole coun try is full o f
beauty and romance, so different from the British parts. I
should almost recommend a night or a few hours at Ajmere tosee the marble pavillions on the edge o f the lake. Shah Jahan
must have been a supreme artist—everything he had to do with
is marvellous, and his reign marks the zenith o f M ughal art.
I find the indegcnous element in this art even larger than I
surmised, and the Persian element very much smaller. People
have a mania for thinking that everything comes from
somewhere else than where you find it. I am beginning to see
that the best things arc always well rooted in the soil. I have got
hold o f a magn ificent lot o f old Rajput cartoons and tracings o f
m iniatures— I can’t tell you ho w beautiful some o f them are.
Most arc 18th century, and the best may have been earlier than
that; even so, one can only think o f Boticelli as giving an idea of
one or two. This Hindu or Rajput art is the descendant of
Ajanta, its rise and zenith and decline seems to cover at least 1500
years.. The 200 years o f secular M ughal ar t is bu t a breath beside
it.
Th is is a beautiful Rajput city on a lake. I have been over thePalace, pure white marble. No furniture at all in the Raja’sapartmen ts. H ow different the old idea o f luxury. We have no
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 412/484
conception now o f wh at luxury can be— we kno w only
comfort. It seems to me we have lost in nothing more than in
our idea of pleasure.
You will find me alone. My wife had to go home on certain
family affairs, and the question o f econom y also had to be
considered. I have been spending more than all my possessions
on pictures. I expect we shall make great changes. I feel I must
be out here more and also when in England more in London,
etc. So we are go ing to let the Chapel for 5 or 7 years and build
a cottage at Staunton by the sea near Barnstaple and have that
for a country house instead. It is a great wrench, but I thinkmust be for the present.
It will be good to see you at Allahabad. Y ou will have to help
me judge som e pictures, etc. I suppose you will come aboutJanuary 5-10 or thereabouts.
When in Bom bay the only thing o f interest is to drive
through the Marwari Bazaar. I will see you soon after arrivalhowever.
Yours,
William Rothenstein, as above.See note on page 371 as regards ‘the Chapel’.
AKC had been travelling in Rajputana (modern Rajasthan), amassing the
m agnificent collection o f Rajput paintings w hich first propelled him into
prom in ence in th e art w orld. H e was an offic ial at th e All-India Exhib it io n
held at Allahabad in 1910.
To W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
January 22, 1911
Dear Rothenstein:
As per your wire, expect you here 24th at midday. Shall sendservant to station to bring you here. We shall go to see MissFyzcc same afternoon as she is leaving next day.
Enclosed may help to explain the pictures here. I am very
sorry when I w rote the two b ig books I did not quite realise therelative importance o f the Rajput school. N ow I sec it is reallythe great thing and the other in spite o f its wonderful and
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 413/484
beautifu l qualities, lesser. I did not w ant to say this then, either
because it m ight seem (and unfortunately even now may seem)Hindu prejudice. H ow ever, I am quite sure o f it and the
conviction has grown quite slowly and surely with me.
Looking forw ard to seeing you. I have very m uch to talk o f and
am very sad.
Yours,
William Rothenstein, as above.
‘The tw o big books’ were presumably A K C ’s Indian Drawings, 1910 and a
secon d series issued un de r the same title in 1912. T he ‘othe r’ is presum ably
M ughal p ainting w hich, u ntil A K C ’s ‘discove ry’ o f Rajput paintings, was
considered the su m m it of Indian pictorial art.
T o W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
December 29, 1914
Dear Rothenstein:
Thanks for your two notes. I quite agree that criticism andappreciation are not a permanent compensation for creation.
However, the Lord made critics as well as artists, I suppose:
and they feel boun d to get justice done for the w orks that have
touched them most. This necessity which they feel may be the
means o f creating beauty in their ow n wo rk.
The more austere Indian poetry which is at the same time
fully poetical would be found, I take it, in the Saiva and Sakta
hym ns. I w ou ld gladly w ork at these if I could find a suitablecollaborator. However, I think it is still very necessary to
present the typical Vaisnava w ork. Even the Manchester
Guardian declared last year that Ta gore was the first Indian poet
to love life and believe in physical beauty! It is a natural
transition for me from the Vaisnava paintings to the Vaisnava
literature, and I shall prob ably do m ore o f it. I have in hand avery big work on Rajput-Painting which it is almost settled will be published by C larendon Press. In this connection, if you
have any new im po rtant R ajput paintings which I could see, o r photos o f th em , I should be very pleased, as the very lastsubjects are ju st going in for reproduction now .
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 414/484
I w ish there was any chance o f having a good m useum in
India. If they w ou ld only ask me to undertake it— perhaps at
Delhi— I shou ld feel I had g ot one o r tw o things I really could
do well. I also regret there is no place to which I can present or
bequeath m y ow n collection. The other sort o f w ork I should
like wo uld be to be a Professor o f “ Indian” at a WesternUniversity—but that idea would seem absurdly fanciful to
most people.Meanwhile I have also undertaken a book on Buddha and
B udd hism for Harrap. I regret that some o f T agore ’s Buddh ist
pic tu res (which I th ink really very bad) will be used again in
this; however, it can’t be helped.
Yours very sincerely,
PS: Do you think Kabir is genuinely lyrical, or good only for
his ideas?
Rajpu t Painting (see Introduction), Clarendon Press, London, 1916. Repub
lished in 1975.
Buddha and the Gospel o f Buddhism, L ond on, 1916; there have been at least tw o
more recent editions. See Bibliography.Kabir was a 14/15th century bhakti poet; a num ber o f his poems were
translated by Rabindranath Tagore and published as One Hundred Poems of
Kabir, London, 1915.
T he T ago re referred to in the last paragraph o f the letter was Ab anindranath
Ta gore o f the Calcutta school and uncle of the better kno w n Rabindranath.
T o W I L L I A M R O T H E N S T E I N
January 5, 1915
Dear Rothenstein:
I am very glad to have the Kabir translations. They seem to
me to be much m ore authentic than Rabindranath. Y ou know ,o f course, W estcott’s boo k on Kabir and the Kabir Panth. I don’t
think it is at all certain that Kabir is a Moslem name—there arcseveral Hindi poets named Kaviraj, Kabirai, etc.
I forgot to say Vishnu did not care for English housework
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 415/484
and I suppose felt homesick, so we had to send him home—much
to our regret, partly as we had o f course to pay his fare both
ways without having him long. With regard to Vidyapati, I
should like to add to w ha t I said before, tha t I think that sort o f
literature is of value to m ode rn E urope quite apart from the
mysticism—as an education in love: also to remind us thatMuhammad could have been perfectly sincere when he said
“Three things he had loved, Perfume, Women and Prayer, but
the last m ost!” Kabir is a prophet. But V idyapati is an artist and
seems to me to carry out the Kabir doc trine o f seeing the
physical and sp ir itual as one th ing.
I think 7/6 is a good price to charge for the Kabir volum e. By
the way, it is a pity that they don’t have a committee to elect
m em bers. I proposed several in the autum n, and by no t electingthem we have already lost one year’s subscription.
Yours sincerely,
William Rothenstein, as above.
T o W IL L I A M R O T H E NS TE I N . . . . . ln0/1March 14, 1924
My dear Rothenstein:
I was very pleased to hear from you. We have here the largest
series o f pho tograp hs o f Indian architecture and sculpture in the
w orld , I believe, bu t o f course these are only available for study
here. I have tho ug ht o f various large books on Indian art to be
done some day, but I am not ready yet—there is much ground
to be cleared. M eanw hile I will get prints m ade o f a dozen o r so
o f the photogra phs m ost likely to suit you, and send them on. Ishall have to ask for $85 each, but no doubt the publishers
will attend to this. No doubt, too, you will get such materialfrom the Archeological Survey negatives. Johnston and Hoff
man also have some good ones. Anyhow, you may expectsom e from me in a few weeks. Is there anything in the M useum
you are likely to need, I wonder? By the way, I am send ing you
my little new Introduction to Indian Art. If you review itsomewhere . . . so much the better.
I am fairly well settled here. I have been once to India Qapan,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 416/484
Java, Cambodia) and expect to go again soon. I like America,
especially the open country, and go fishing in Maine every
summer. I have been riding and fishing in the wild West, too,
and like that still better.
I learnt o f Arunachalam ’s death the same day y ou r letter
came.I have taken up photography pretty thoroughly. In this
connection, I have come to know and greatly admire Alfred
Steiglitz and have been the means o f inco rporating 27 of his
photo graphs in our Print Departm ent. Yes, on the whole I have
the life I like best (of wha t one can reasonably expect) here.
Perhaps I would prefer an endowment enabling me to spend 10
years studying and photographing the Oriental Theatre! I have
allowed m yse lf to be divorced and have married a very beautiful and dis tinguished girl who am ongst oth er th ings is
familiar w ith Javanese dancing. M ost o f my book s are ou t o f
prin t: but I have still much to say— grow in g m ore and more
inclined to exact study rather than “appreciation”. I am deeply
interested in old H indi and w ork much at it, especially o f late at
the unpublished poems describing the Ragas and Raginis.
If som etim e w e get to London I should be glad to give a few
lectures including some in which the main part would be anexposition o f Javanese dance. By the way, I prepared a
translation o f Sety veld’s DeJavaaniche Daniskunst and believe he
has been in correspondence w ith the I. S. regarding publication
but have heard nothing definite.
Alice is in New York. Rohini in Philadelphia, Narada still in
England. P have heard o f and am glad o f Sim m ond ’s success—
well deserved indeed.
I do -not kn ow anything o f C odrington (unless he be
ex-Ceylon Civil Service) and hope he will become a serious“Indianist”. There is so much to be learnt still.
I m us t close— for in response to your enquiries I seem to have
written all about myself. With kindest regards to you andMrs Rothenstein.
Very sincerely,
William Rothenstein, as above.Setyveld, De Jevaaniche Daniskunst; neither the author or the title could befurther identified from the National Union Catalog.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 417/484
Introduction to Indian Art, Madras, 1923.
The marriage referred to was to Stella Bloch, AKC’s third wife. Alice refers
to his second wife, and Rohini and Na rada to the children by that marriage.
N arada is deceased. Rohin i C oom ara is a profe ssional music ian and teaches
cello in Mexico.
Simmond is not identified.
Co drington , presum ably Kenneth de Burgh C odrington o f the Ceylon Civil
Service who later became an art historian.
To A R T N E W S . . . 1 fl „ nMay-August 1939
Dear Madam:
You have kindly asked wh ether 1 should care to deal with thequestions asked in your issue o f M arch-A pril 1939. I find it
very difficult to grasp their drift, and can only take them one by
one.
Geometry and algebra are abstract arts in that they do not
represent phenomena as such, but the forms on which
phenom ena are buil t (“ form s” in the sense that “ th e soul is the
form o f the b ody ” ). A religious art is necessarily abstract
because its thesis is “ the invisib le th in gs o f G od” which can berepresented in a likeness only by analogy, that is to say, by
means o f symbols. Sym bolism is the representation o f the
reality o f one o rder by the analogous reality o f another order.
Th ere are degrees o f abstraction: an anthrop om orphic sy m bol
ism is unsuited, as St Thom as Aquinas remarks, to “ those who
can think o f no thing nob ler than bo dies.” I f the artist uses
models, it is as the material and n ot the essence o f his art: i f heuses them for their ow n sake and no t m erely as words are used
to communicate a thesis, he is no longer an artist but only an
illustrator. In the latter case, the free contemplative act of
imagination having been omitted, only the servile operation
remains; the same holds good for the archaist and theacademician, or any mere im itator o f styles for their ow n sake.
A bstrac tion be longs to the very nature o f art: an abstract art is
“ w ro ng” on ly when an abstract style is imitated for the sake o f
effect. We m ust no t say, “ Go to now , let us w ork a bstrac tly” :
abstraction is necessitated by the artist’s theme, or not at all.I hardly know what can be meant by a “reaction to ideas of
the past century”. What has truth to do with “centuries”? The
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 418/484
only u prigh t and consistent theory o f art that I kn ow o f belongs
to no one m an, or time, or place, or form o f faith: bu t there are
times, and notably our own, which cover more than one “past
century”, when it has been forgotten.
Who has said that “art is only self-analytic”, or even
“analytic” in any sense? This is, perhaps, the modern view of
art. I cannot see a connection between “self-analytic” and
“ abs tract” art; this wo uld be to be at the same time a nom inalist
and a realist, egoist and “In the spirit”.
Th e artist “ making a study o f aesthetic law s” and the
psychologist “ thinkin g about thought” (the operations o f that
psyche o f wh ich C hrist has said, “ N o man can be m y disciple
but and if he hate it” !) are hardly comparable . Both are artists if
they write or speak well what they have to say. The artist,maker o f things by art, is no t supposed to think, bu t to know ; to
be in possession o f his art as the engineer is in possession o f his
science. Ars sine scientia nihil; “aesthetic laws” can only menthis scientia, with respect to which St Thomas Aqunas has
remarked that “Art has fixed ends and ascertained means of
operation.” Thinking has to do with opinions, rather than with
science. The artist entertains ideas: the psychologist forms
opinions.I agree that a com m unication o f “sacred truths throug h
visual interpretation” is most desirable, though it is by no
means on ly a question o f visual arts, bu t o f all those w hich
appeal to what St Thomas Aquinas calls “the most cognitive
senses”, ie, eye and ear. That it should be necessary to speak at
all o f the desirability o f “ com m unicating sacred truths th rou gh
ar t” is a confession o f departure from the order to the end, and
p ro o f th at we cannot com prom ise w ith the aesthetic view o fart— “ aesthetic” being the equivalent of “ materialistic” , in
asmuch as aisthesis means “sensation”, and matter is that whichcan be “ sensed” . All traditional art, from the Stone Age until
no w (wh en this can hardly be said o f any bu t folk arts and the
arts o f “ savages” ) is at the same time functional and significanto f the invisible things o f God; that we have divorced functionfrom meaning, discovering that man (as we conceive him) canafter all live by bread alone, is pro o f that our c onception o f man
is no longer that o f a whole o r holy m an, bu t o f a divided personali ty . It is not to be wondered that artists such as EricGill have been driven to put down the hammer and take up the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 419/484
pen; for alth ough we are convinced that the visual arts haveonly aesthetic values, we have not yet fully surrendered to the
view that words are only charming sounds.
AKC
T o S. DURAI RAJA SINGAM
July 21, 1947
Dear Raja Singam:
I think you had better use the article on art as it is, with
correc tion o f spelling and punctuation in a few places. If youwish, you can also quote me as follows:
On the last page it is a pity that Sanjiva Dev uses the word
aestheticism because this word, like aesthete, has always a bad
meaning, which the words aesthetic, aesthetics, aesthetician do
not necessarily have. So it is not true that I consider
“Aestheticism to be the sine qua non in the daily life of man.”
What I say is what Ruskin said, that “Industry without art is
brutality” or, as St Thom as Aquinas expressed it, “ There can be no good uses w ithout a rt.” In his capacity as Creator, God is
the archetype o f the hum an artist as manufacturer; which is
w hat is m eant w hen art is called an “im itation o f nature in her
m anner o f operation” , ie, o f the Divine Nature. Bharatan
K um arappa’s understanding o f the place o f art in hum an
life— stated in his wise and splendid book , Capitalism, Socialism
or Villagism — is far deeper than Gandhi-ji’s, w ho is too ready to
give expression to his own feelings on a matter on which he
really knows almost nothing.
Very sincerely,
S. Durai Raja Singam, as on page 25.
Bharatan Kumarappa, Capitalism, Socialism or Villagism, Madras, 1946.
Sanjiva Dev, unidentified.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 420/484
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
Sir:
Ap ropos o f M r Douglas N ew ton ’s article in you r issue o f N ovem ber 1st, I should like to poin t out that “ art” is like
“ G od” , precisely in this respect, that it cannot be seen; all that
we can see is things made by art, and hence properly called
artifacts, and these arc analogous to those effects, which are all
tha t we can see o f God. The art remains in the artist, regardless
o f the vicissitudes to wh ich his works are subject; and I protest
against the serious use o f the term “ art” by a writer w ho really
means “w orks o f art” .AKC
To THE NEW ENGLISH WEEKLY, LONDON
February 3, 1941
Sir:
In connection w ith M r V iva’s review o f Professor Colling-
wood’s Th e Principles o f A rt in your issue for January 21, kindly
allow me to point out that the formula “Art is expression” by
no means necessarily implies “ expression o f em otion” . In the
traditional aesthetic, art has to do with cognition, and is the
expression, n ot p rimarily o f em otion, bu t o f a thesis; no r can
we jud ge o f a wo rk o f art w ithou t first know ing wh at it was
that was to be expressed. From this po int o f view a well-made
table and an “ elegant equation” are really w orks o f art: a w ork
o f art in w hich o rnam ent exceeds the bounds o f responsibilityto its burden is called a sophistry; and the “ bea uty” o f the work
is the attractive aspect o f its meaning o r utility, and com m ensurate w ith the perfection o f the expression o f its purpose.
If w orks o f art are colored by emotion and in turn m oving, itis because they are brought into being not only per artem, butalso ex uoluntate. In other words, although on the one hand ars
sine scientia nihil, it is also true that mens sine desiderio non intelligit (a truth that many “objective” scholars would do well to taketo heart).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 421/484
Mr Viva’s whole discussion takes for granted a proposition
(“ Art is the expression o f em otion ”) which very many o f those
who agree that art is expression could not accept; for these,
historically the grea t m ajority, art is the expression o f a thesis. I
conclude with Quintillain’s Docti rationem componendi intelligunt
etiam indocti voluptatem.
AKC
To A D E D E B E T H U N E
July 26, 1943
Dear Miss Bethune:
Many thanks. I would like to keep the article. I was for a
m om en t surprised by Maria as J am a Coeli (since Christ’s words
are, “ 1 am the do or” ): bu t at once remem bered that bo th Sun
and Moon arc the doors and no doubt it is in her lunar aspect
Maria is the door.*By the way I do not th ink love o f truth for tru th ’s sake and
beauty for beauty’s sake (top o f p 370 in the same issue o f Orate Fratres) is sound Christian doctrine—which is that it is beauty
which summons us to be good (and true)—and is therefore not
an end in itself; while truth is to be sought in as much as “the
truth shall make you free”. I cannot see that any manifested
value ought to be pursued for its own sake, but only as a
pointer to an end beyond itself.
Very sincerely,
* It w ould seem that here D r Coo m araswa m y was thinking primarily of the
symbo lism o f M ary in her role as huma n m other o f the incarnate Word. But
Marian symbolism is both much broader and deeper than this considered in
isolation; it involve s, eg, ‘the act of fecundation latent in etern ity’, a phrase
o f Eckha rt which A KC quoted from time to time and which places Marian
symbolism squarely in divinis — to w hich D ante alluded in his seemin gly
enigmatic address: “ Virgin M other, daughter of Th y Son .” The hum an role
o f M ary implies an archetypal Principle, w ithou t which it wo uld be
inconceivable— literally. D r Coo m arasw am y him self made these points inother contexts.
Adc De Bethune, Newport, Rhode Island, USA; artist and author.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 422/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 423/484
I think also Glcizes, Vers une connaissance plastique: la form e et
Vhistoire.
I must say your own handwriting makes a handsome page!
Very sincerely,
PS: M y article referred to above m ay be said to explain “ lack of
express ion” in religious art, ie, lack o f expression o f hum an
emotions, which lack is not a “privation” but a serenity and
attitude o f the kind tha t are im plied in the phrase “ serene
highness”.
Ade De Bethunc, as above.
“T he T raditional C onception o f Ideal Portraiture” , Journal o f the Indian
Society o f Oriental Art , VII, 1939; also in Twice-a-Year, II—IV, 19 39 -40; also
in Why Exhibit Works of A rt ? London, 1943 (this was reprinted as Christian
and Oriental Philosophy o f Art, New York, 1956).
A Robertson, The Interpretation of Plainchant, Oxford, 1937.
Amede Gastoue, L ’art gregorien and L ’Eglise et la musique, Paris, 1936.
Cecil Gray, History o f Music, 1928 and 1935, New York.
Albert Gleizes, Vers une conscience plastique: la form e et Vhistoire.
T o GEORGE SARTON
March 12, 1946
Dear George Sarton:
Thanks for the article on “portraits”. I daresay you know that
Indian (incl. Cambodian, etc) “portrait” statues are not
intended to be “likenesses” . C f “ The Trad itional C oncep tiono f Ideal Po rtraiture ” in m y Why E xhib it Works o f Art?, 1943, Ch
VII . . . : c f Bona ven tura In Hexiamem, col 12 n q: melius videbo
me in Deo quam in me ipso.
AKC
W alt W hitm an, “ m y . . . looks . . . are no t me, m yse lf.”
George Sarton, page 13.
This was a handwritten postcard.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 424/484
To A . P H IL I P M C M A H O N
N ovem ber 9, 1938
Dear Professor McMahon:
I take it for granted that you read my “Mediaeval Aesthetic”II in March A rt Bulletin. I have no views o f my ow n to
propound, but those which I have made my ow n include:
Art is that norm by which things arc made correctly (just as
prudence is that norm by which th ings are done correctly), and
after which they are called “artifacts” or “ works o f ar t” . There
can be an industry without art, but hardly absolutely. Art and
beauty arc not the same th in g logically. Beauty is the attractive
aspect o f perfection; perfection is the maker’s intention. The
w ork o f art is always occasional; beauty in any thing can only
be a beauty in kind. Beauty is objective and does not depend on
the spectator for its existence, but only for its recognition.
There is no distinction in principle between natural and
artificial, or physical and spiritual beauty. Beauty has nothing
to do with taste. Beauty is not the same thing as aptitude, but
cannot be apart from it; the converse docs not hold, unless we
mean by aptitude, a total prop riety. What is beautiful in a given
context may not appear to be so, ic, will be less attractive inanother.
In application to your second paragraph: art and beauty are
not the same thing, but should coincide in the artist, and must
coincide if he has envisaged the w ork to be done correctly. The
w ork o f art can hard ly ever be as beautiful as the art by w hich it
was made, the degree of approxim ation depending on the
receptivity o f the material and the ex tent o f the artist’s manual
skill. The w ork o f art is always as beautiful as it ever was, in itsoriginal relations: but this beauty may be imperceptible to a
spectator who cannot put back, let us say, the museum object,
into its orig inal context. If it is dam aged, it is less beautiful(though we may like it better) than before, in the same sense
that a one-legged man is by so much less a perfect man, by somuch less than what he “ought” to be.
Art and aesthetic arc totally different things. Art is(1) functional and (2) com municative. In all no rm al art these
two arc inseparable aspccts, though one may predominate. InSanskrit the one word artha denotes both value and meaning.The idea of a function w ithou t meaning or m eaning w ithout
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 425/484
value (typically m ode rn as it may be) is the sym ptom o f a
divided personality. In such works o f art as pics, the aesthetic
aspect may predominate; but for the whole or metaphysical
man is not exclusive even in such cases. Any w ork o f art may
produce sensations, pleasant or unpleasant, at different times
and for different people. These sensations, as such, are simplyreactions or passions, to be distinguished from life as an act.
(Aristotle, actis intellectus est vita, ie, “vital operation” as St
Thomas Aquinas interprets vita here). My own interest is
prim arily in the art, and only secondarily in the sensations it
may evoke. I cannot imagine what interest such sensations,
evoked in me by a wo rk o f art, o r anything else, can have for
other people. On the other hand, the intellectual pleasure
derived from und erstand ing a work o f art is (1) no t aims-ac tion and (2) shou ld be the same for all, and therefore o f
interest to all. I do n ot like the definition o f art with w hich you
conclude paragrap h 2 on p 7.
Professor Dicz just w rote me regarding m y “ Sym bolism o f
the Dome” ( IH Q , XIV, 1938) (o f which I send you a copy,
which please return): “ It is exactly the attitude tow ards art that
warms my heart.”
If this is any help, I shall be glad; if not, please provoke me tofurther comment.
Very sincerely,
A. Philip M cM ahon, Secretary o f the College Art Association, publishers of
the Art Bulletin and Parnassus.
“Symbol ism o f the D om e”, Indian Historical Quarterly, XIV, 1938.
Professor Diez is not identified.
A paragraph from Professor McMahon’s reply is given below in order toclarify the two following letters:
Th e pro blem before us as guides and interp reters o f such objects ( of art) is
to acknowledge that all the contemporary classification called art really
guarantees is patterns o f sensation produ ced by a technique connected
with drawing. Significance and value are discovered in such a work by a
m ind d irected to it. Its prope r meanings do no t flow from the principles
upon which the classification is established. These meanings have to be
ascertained and in only a relatively few such objects may we expect to
grasp them immediately and without a conscious effort.
AKC’s answer follows:
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 426/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 427/484
the heart” (ie, the art that corresponds to the expression “Iknow what I like”) arc condemned as “not leading to heaven”,
while according to the latter, art has fixed purposes and
ascertained means o f operation. N or would it be any exaggera
tion to say that the actus primus o f the Egyptian, Indian or
mediaeval artist implied an “accomplishment in mathematics
and a dialectic”; for Christian symbolism, as Male expresses it,
“ is a calculus” ; and even i f in some cases the work m an
perform ing the actus secundus reproduced the traditional forms
w itho ut a full com prehension o f their significance, this in no
way affects the nature o f the art but only divides it between two
“persons”, the one “free” and the other “servile”, in the
mediaeval sense.
N ow , as to “ creative im agination” ; what the m odern criticgenerally means by this phrase is an idealisation, essentially a
“creature image” or “phantasm”, but improved according to
the artis t’s private notion o f what things “ ought to be like” ; this
has nothing to do with “ideas”, and from the older point of
view is an entirely false concept o f “creative imagination” . This
expression would have meant originally, and certainly in the
M iddle Ages and in India, not a creation o f new forms, bu t the
in-ven tion (finding out, coming upon , discovery) o f the forms,ideas, or eternal reasons that arc creative in their own right and
by the mere fact o f their being. Such invention depends upon
internal vision, mediaeval contemplatio, Indian dhyana, certainly
not on observation or deliberate “improvement”, nor merely
an abstraction. Mediaeval and Indian theory regarded the artist
as creative in a very profound sense—in fact, as like God in so
far as he embodied ideas in material (“similitude is with respectto the form”), the main distinction being not as regards the
nature o f the actus primus, but in the human artist’s necessary
recourse to an actus secundus. According to this theory, “art in
its m ann er o f operation imitates nature; not, o f course ‘na ture ’in the sense of ‘environment’, natura naturata, but natura
naturans, Creatrix, Deus.” The so-called “creative imagination”o f the m odern critic is then a phrase that m erely refers to theartist’s representation o f som ething more conform able to his
taste than what is actually present in the env ironm ent; “ creative
ar t” is no t a mode o f understanding , but only an “escape” . A“ creative art” o f this kind by no means corresponds to thevision o f ideas or creative principles tha t is represented in the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 428/484
ancient gods; which as Blake remarked, were ‘mathematical
diagrams”, or as they are called in India, yantras, that is
“ devices” , and intended to be used as supports o f a contem pla
tive act in w hich the “critic” , seeing the w ork o f art, the
accidental form , as starting po int, recovers the idea expressed in
it. Jud gem en t, from this point o f view, is defined in terms o fthe relation betw een the actual form o f the material work and
its essential form as it existed in the mind o f the artist, whose
ma nner o f operation w as per verbum in intellectu conceptum. Plato
is indeed “ actively hostile to what we now mean by art” . O n
the one hand, this view when set in a larger historical and
geographical perspective takes on a very “ dated ” and provincial
aspect, while Plato’s view appears to be that which humanity
for the most part has endorsed.
AKC
E dito r’s note: Th e follow ing scries of letters on the ‘Tru e P hilosophy o f A rt”
were occasioned by a review in the New English Weekly, London 11 July
1940, o f AK C ’s booklet. The Christian and Oriental, or True, Philosophy of
Art , published in 1939 at Newport, Rhode Island. See Bibliography.
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
Ocrober 3, 1940
Sir:
I appreciate M r Herbert Read’s discussion of my . . . True
Philosophy o f A rt (in yo ur issue of Ju ly 11). As to the “ bom b” , I
agree that I ought not to have said “it is only bad as a work of
art if it fails” , etc. T he statement is too elliptical. It seems to
igno re the basic thesis tha t in valid art, function and significancew ou ld be “ only logically but no t really” separable. I fully agree
that a bomb can be beautiful (a tin can filled with the necessaryingredients may be efficient, but it is not beautiful): this beautywill be an express ion o f the will to destroy , and like the beauty
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 429/484
o f any other w ork o f art, will be an invitation to use. 1 cannot
agree tha t the “ thesis” o f the bom b is purely ballistic: tha t is its
function, not its “thesis”. Its “thesis” pertains to the art and
philosophy o f warfare, and is ultim ate ly metaphysical; in this
respect we cannot distinguish the bomb from any other
weapon such as the sword or the arrow, which I have shown
elsewhere are the material analogues o f spiritual forces; the
knigh t no m ore fights w ith a mere sword than he lives by “bread
alone” . N or has the b om b’s efficiency any ethical quality: it is
made efficient, not by prudence, but by art; the ethical question
is w he the r or no t to make a bom b at all, and when this has been
decided the adequacy o f the bom b becomes the concern o f the
artist, whose only preoccupation is w ith the good o f the work
to be done, and not with any moral good.*As to “symbolism”, a word I by all means propose to retain
(“imagism” being not only “dated” but implying rather le
symbolisme qui cherche than le symbolisme qui sait), I totally
disagree that “ each artist must create his own sym bo ls.” Th at is
to make o f art, n ot a universal language, bu t a Babel. It is
precisely the individualism o f modern art that has inevitably
separated the patron (consumer) from the artist (producer); so
that whereas Plato called the consumer the judge o f art, we haveto em ploy a host o f professional judges to explain each artist
separately; the apprec iation (enjoyment) o f art then becomes an
affair o f little cliques, and “ industry is divorced from a rt. ”M r Read evidently thinks o f symbols as “ conventions” ; but
from the standpoint o f the philosophia perennis, o f which the
“T rue Philosophy o f A rt” is an inseparable part; the validity o f
symbols depends upon the “absolute presupposition” (to use
Professor Collingwoord’s phrase) of the existence of adequate
analogies on all levels o f reference and as between all degrees o freality. The symbol, then, is not a matter for choice, but for
recognition. That symbols lose their significance is not quite
true; the historical fact is that people may forget the meaning ofthe symbols they continue to employ as “art forms” or
“orders”. I am surprised and pleased to find that Mr Read
agrees with me that, in thus becoming “art forms”, thesymbols have lost their vitality. The Greek “Egg and Dart”
would be a good example. But [the fact] that symbolism has become a dead language fo r the majo rity (for whom “aestheticreactions” suffice) is no more reason why “those who have
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 430/484
been educated as th ey ough t” should not read them , than is the
fact that the signs o f higher m athematics are meaningless to
m ost o f us a reason for discarding them . Th e m athematical
signs are, indeed, conventional; but even so, it would be
ridiculous for every mathematician to distinguish him self by
the inven tion o f an entirely new set o f signs. In order to beoriginal it is not necessary to be novel, or even personal.
In conclusion, I venture to call attention to an article on
“ orn am en t” which appeared in the A rt Bulletin, Vol XXI, 1939;
in this article, I show ed that the wo rds m eaning “o rna m en t” or
“decoration” in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and English all meant
originally equipment. This basic fact is one that every stud ent o f
the histo ry o f art shou ld be requ ired to digest. I shou ld like also
to mention my article, De la mentalite prim itif in Etudes Traditionnelles, Vol 44, 1939. In this article, amongst other
things, I discussed the sym bolism o f safety pins. Th e Special
N um ber o f the same journal for A ugust-Septem ber, 1940, will
be devote d to the sym bolism o f gam es.
AKC
* O n occasion and in order to make a case, D r Coom arasw am y could isolateelements o f an argu m en t to the poin t of sophistry. It seems that this is one
such rare case. T he artist docs not w ork as an artificer only, as A KC him self
stated in a lecture (printed as Chap II in Christian and Oriental Philosophy of
A rt , see p 24):
An absolute distinction o f art from prudence is made for purposes o f
logical understanding; but while we make this distinction, we must not
forget the m an is a w hole man, and cannot be justified as such merely by
what he makes; the artist works ‘by art and willingly’. Even supposing
that he avoids artistic sin, it is still essential to him as man to have had a
right will, and so to have avoided moral sin.
Moreover, it is inadmissible to equate sword and bomb in the theory of
warfare. T he sw ord is a tool, the bom b a machine—an infernal machine. T he
sw ord can be and often is a thing o f great beauty; a bo m b excludes any
particip ation in th e div in e quality o f beauty by its es sentia lly negative and
indiscriminately destructive character. We must distinguish in any artifact
between w hat is es sential and w hat is acciden tal. N o r m ay w e forg et th at
m an, as artist, has as his parad igm G od the C reator ; and this implies a degree
o f nob ility in the w orks o f any genuine artist.
Bo th ‘O rna m en t’ and ‘Prim itive M entality’ were republished in Coomaras
wamy: Selected Papers, I, Bollingen Series, LXXXIX, Princeton, 1977; see
Bibliography.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 431/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 432/484
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y L O N D O N
Sir:
I am astonished to find M r Rom ney Green, w ith whose philosophy I am generally in cordial agreement, saying th at
“ art is mainly an affair o f instinct.” Socrates, on the oth er
hand, “ could no t give the name o f art to anything irration al.”
While for the whole Middle Ages, “art is an intellectual
virtu e.” A rt is that kind o f know ledge by which we kn ow how
to make whatever it has been decided should be made for a
given purpose, and without which there can be no good use.
W ere it merely or m ainly a m atter o f instinct, then art wo uld be m erely or main ly a function o f our anim al nature, rather
than o f hum an nature as such. W orks are traditionally supposed
to provide for the needs o f soul and body at one and the same
time; and that means that they arc to be at the same time usefuland intelligible, aptus et pulcher.
O f expressions that arc mainly instinctive one m igh t citc a
baby’s crying or a lam b’s gam bolin g. O f these, the form er is
no t “ m usic”, no r the latter “d ancing” . Dancing, if we ignore
such sensate cultures as our own, is a rational activity because
the gestures arc signs o f things, and w ha t is signified is
som ething ove r and above the pleasures o f the feelings (D e
Ordine, 34). M r Green h im self is willing to allow that a“significant” art must be significant o f som ething. B ut an
instinctive expression, how ever “ revealing” it may be (of the
exprc sso r’s ow n state o f mind), cannot be described as
“significant”. To signify is to intend a given meaning, and this
is an act o f the mind: while any unintended subm ission to the pulls o f in stin ct is no t an act, but a passion.
AKC
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y L O N D O N
March 30, 1944
Sir:
In further reply to M r Ro m ney Green: the artist does not
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 433/484
work by “instinct”, as bees do or as lambs gambol, but per
verbum in intellectu conceptum. In other words, ars sine scientia
nihil. M r H ope ’s misunderstanding o f the wo rd “ instinct” is
private , and useless for the purposes o f com m unicating w ith
others.
What should be made is decided not by the artist but by thewhole man, o f w ho m the man as artist is only one aspect: the
whole man’s active life being governed by prudence as well as
art. W orks o f art are “ for good use” . Th e artist knows how to
make them ,, but the man knows what is needed.*
AKC
* See note on p 401.
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
Undated
Sir:
I cannot help feeling that M r R om ney Green ’s use o f thewords “instinct” and “intellect” is very dangerous and confus
ing because it reverses the traditional usage, in which instincts
are natu ral physical propensities o f the outer m an, and the
(pure) intellect is that o f the kno w ing inner man. By instinct
and intellect Mr Green means what others would call “intui
tion” (or “ inspiration”) and “mentality”. It is this mentality
that has disrupted ou r civilisation, for instead o f cooperating
w ith the intu ition, it has entered the service o f the instincts, as
Plato puts it. I think this will make Mr Green’s meaning clearto those who use the traditional terms more exactly.
I should also like to protest against his remarks on humansacrifice. For if there is any eternally true value, it is that o f
human sacrifice. What he means to say is that a particular ritualform o f hum an sacrifice is no longer conven ient. In ritual
hum an sacrifice the victim was always either actually, or in any
case theoretically, a willing victim. The w hole Christian edifice
rests upon the theo ry o f a hum an sacrifice, never to be atonedfor except by those who sacrifice themselves. On the otherhand, the outstanding crime o f m odem industrial cultures is
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 434/484
that they sacrifice men every day, not with any spiritual
intention, bu t only the sacrificer’s w orldly benefit. I canno t but
recall the story o f the cannibal who, hearing o f the great
slaughter that occurs in mo dern wars, asked if the bodies were
eaten, and being told that this was not done, exclaimed “then
for whatever reason are so many killed?”
AKC
To T H E N E W E N GL I S H W E E K L Y, L O N D O N
July 27, 1944
Sir:
I feel that there is not very much more to be said about art
and instinct. 1 am far from failing to recognize the perfection
that is achieved by instinctive operation, for example by bees,
w ho do better in their way than we often do in ours. T heir way
and ou r w ay shou ld be natural ways; and no t therefore the same
ways, for theirs is the nature o f bees, and ours tha t o f
humanity. Instincts are forces by which the bees are in a
manner compelled, and so with our own appetites and passions by which we are led to pursue im mediate ends, w hether for
good or evil. In hum an art ends are foreseen and means chosen;
the artist’s working is deliberate and, I repeat, with Plato, that
“one cannot give the name o f art to anything irrational.”
The whole matter has been admirably stated by Eric Gill,
who says:
T o p roduc e works o f art is natural to men, therefore wo rks
o f art are, in a sense, them selves natural objects. N ature, thenatural wo rld, we must suppose to be the product o f the fullydeliberate will o f God, therefore the natural w orld is itself a
w ork o f art. Bu t though , in this apparent confusion, the
definition o f nature remains obscure, the thing called art
emerges clearly. Art'is skill; and that is what it has always been and what it has always been said to be. But it is adeliberate skill; and a w ork o f art is the product o f vo luntary
acts directed tow ards making. Hence art is a virtue o f theintelligence— it is of the mind. De liberation and volition arcessential to the thing called Art. An involuntary act or an act
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 435/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 436/484
meaningless. I find it very much the reverse. For what are X
and —X? A ny or indefinitely all o f the opposite things o f wh ich
the world or any universe is necessarily made, or would not
have extension in time and space. As Cusa says, the wall of
Paradise itself is built o f these contraries; while the God within,
whom the mystics often call nihil or zero, is that in which allthese contraries really cancel out and are no longer contraries.
This does not mean that an indefinite num ber o f contraries
added up w ou ld make or fill the “na ug ht” H e is, or any naught;
it means that however many the contraries are, they are all
pote ntially alive in the plerom a which “ w hosoever findeth ,
findeth no-th ing and all things .” In other words, X —X = 0 is
not an impoverished or “abstract” but a pregnant statement.
For the same reasons in India the verbal designations o f themathematical or the metaphysical “naught” are also the
designations o f fullness that remains und iminished how ever
many may be the units that we abstract from It. It is these
singular “things”, in all their detail, that arc “abstracted from
It; not the Naught from them! To make them cancel out is to
return them to their source.
AKC
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
June 3, 1945
Sir:
A propos o f Imag ination, discussed by M r Williams in you r
issue o f M ay 10, I think it is too often overlooked that the w ord
itself is the equivalent o f Iconography. T o imagine is to fo rm an
image o f an idea, a thing in itself invisible; and this kind o f
“ im itation” is the proper w ork o f art, to be distinguished from
the studio practice o f m aking “ copies o f copies” . It presup poses, not observation, but contem pla tion. The em bodim ent
o f such concepts, fathered by Nous on Aisthesis in the actualmaterial o f sound or p igm ent, calls for know ledge and
precision, and that is where the Romantics so often fall short, by their exclusive reliance on feeling; it is true that mens sine
desiderio non intelligit, but also that sine intellectu non desiderat. He
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 437/484
who truly imagines docs not so much know what he likes as he
likes what he knows.
AKC
T o DR JOSE PH T . SHIPLEY
October 29, 1946
Dear Shipley:
The quotation is from Whitehead’s Religion in the M aking.
Herbert Read gives the context. Whitehead says:
In this way emotion waits upon ritual; and then ritual
repeated and elaborated for the sake o f its attendan t
emotions. Mankind became artists in ritual. It was a
tremendous discovery—how to excite emotions for their
own sake, apart from imperious biological necessity. But
emotions sensitize the organism. Thus the unintended effect
was pro duc ed o f sensitizing the hum an o rganism in a variety
o f ways diverse from w hat w ould have been produced by the
necessary w ork o f life. M ankind was started upon itsadventures o f curiosity and feeling.
This all seems to m e to be intended qu ite seriously, bu t to beas nearly complete nonsense as possible; thoroughly sen
timental.
It was thus, H erbert Read opines, that the arts came into their
own! I am sorry to have neglected La Driere. This is the first
year in my life that I haven’t done my duty by correspondents.
I simply haven’t been able t o ..........
With kindest regards from
AKC
D r Jos ep h T . Shipley, literatist and critic; see p 222.
Alfred N or th W hitehead, British-Am erican philosopher, very influential;
taug ht at H arvard U niversity in the Am erican phase of his career. As
mathematician, collaborated with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica. H erb ert Read, critic, m useologist and teacher of art; had strong interest in
modern art. He was later knighted.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 438/484
Jam es Craig La Driere; it was probably the academic of this name to w ho m
AKC referred; he taught comparative literature at Catholic University of
Am erica, W ashington, D. C . , USA .
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
March 13, 1941
Sir:
M r H erb ert Read “ refuses to succeed as an artist at the
expense o f his moral ity” (Jan 16, 1941, p 147). Bravo! This was
the basis o f Pla to’s famous “ censorship” ; and as Cicero said,
Cum artifex, turn vir. I should have thought that it had been
demonstrated once for all, by Plato (not to mention other
traditional forms o f the philosophia perenrtis), that if we are to
have “things fit for free men” made by art (and certainly many
things n ow made only for sale are unfit for the use of free men),
they must be both “correct”, “true” or “beautiful” and also
“useful” or “convenient” and arc only then “wholesome”. It
was said by William Morris, too, that we ought not to possess
anything not both beautiful and useful: and in fact all else iseither “b rutality” o r “ luxu ry” . Th e artist is the jud ge o f the
work’s truth, perfection or beauty, and being only concerned
with the goo d o f the w ork itself, will no t norm ally (as the
“manufacturer” or rather salesman may) offer the consumer
anything but a “ true” w ork o f art. The consumer, on the other
hand, requires the w ork for use, and is the jud ge o f its value for
good use. Arc wc no t all consum ers, and if so w hy shrink from
putt in g the artist in his ow n place, and from judging the w ork by its value? By employing an artist at all we take it for granted
that the work will be pulcher, and must dccidc for ourselveswhether or not it is aptus.
AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 439/484
T o PROFESSOR BERNARD CHAPMAN HEYL
May 6, 1946
Dear Professor Heyl:
Apropos your N ew B E A R IN G S . . . , p 146, I should like to
say that I do no t judge a rt by its conten t, and have never said
that I did so. I made this very clear in my article on “ Intention”
in the American Bookman (no I) where I pointed out that a
morally reprehensible orator or writer might be a much better
orator or writer than some morally admirable man, or vice
versa as the case migh t be. I jud ge the w ork o f art as much by
whether the content is clearly expressed, ie, by the extent to
which conten t and shape are fused into a unity. W hat I jud ge bythe con tent is wh ether the w ork o f art is of any value for me,
physically or sp iritually— and if no t, then I have “no use for it” ,
even tho ugh I can recognize its “accom plishmen t” . If you
should ever reprint, I hope you will be kind enough to bring
your statement into line with my actual position.
As a C ura tor, it is my business to recognize works o f art that
are good o f their kind, whatever that may be; but as an
individual, there are some such that I would like to live with,others not. At the same time I think it very important for the
understanding o f ancient or exotic w orlds o f art not to presume
that their makers had aesthetic preoccupations such as are now
curren t, bu t to find out by various kinds o f research wh at they
were really up to; failing that, we fall into the pathetic fallacy.
Very sincerely,
Professor Bernard Ch apm an H eyl, au thor o f a book entitled New Bearings in
Aesthetics and Art Criticism: a Study in Semantics and Evaluation, New Haven,
1943. Also published in London the same year.
“Intention”, American Bookman, I.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 440/484
T o PROFESSORS W. K. WIM SAI T AND M. C. BEARDSLEY
September 4, 1946
Dear Professors Wimsatt and Beardsley:
Many thanks for sending me your paper on Intention. I willonly say that I am only perfectly willing to agree that “the
poet’s aim (ie, in tention) m ust be judged at the m om ent o f the
creative act” and even that in a prolonged act, the intention and
the act move together; but while the contemporary intention
may differ from what he had planned a week earlier, it is still
most probable that his design a week or even much earlier, and
much longer before the act will be a good indication at least of
wha t the inten tion is likely to have been at the time o f action. Ifthe realisation o f intention at any p oint is adequate, the w ork is
so far artistically perfect.
I still see no artistic, but only moral, difference between the
successful murder and the successful poem.*
Very sincerely,
* This, too, is much too clliptical as it stands. Dr Coomaraswamy often usedthe wo rd art equivocally— at times in a vertical, p latonic and fully traditional
sense; at other times, he uses it in a horizontal sense meaning skill alone.
Aristotle, e.g., uses the word more in the latter sense and even then
distinguishes betw een artistic and m oral sin, for it suggests that beauty has
no thing to d o w ith virtue. Art, or prod uction by art, implies an intellectual
operation, a contemplative act—as AKC often asserted. Now intellect, as
distinct from reason, is concerned w ith pure truth; and as soon as one depa rts
from truth , o ne departs from intellect, w ith all this implies for art. N ot so
w ith reason w hich, like an algebraic formula, can be adapted to a lmost any
terms. Reason deals with relationships (as well as, indirectly, with truth),intellect w ith intrinsic natures and essences. T he intrinsic nature o f truth
cannot be separated from the kindred quality of beauty, w hich is the
splendo r o f the true. O ne can sin adroitly or m aladroitly, bu t me re finnesse
docs no t neutralize the evil— if any thing , it adds to it. S imilarly, a poem can
be th e p roduct o f li ttle m ore th an a facility w ith w ords. Beauty , a div in e
quality o r attribute, cannot characterize something evil, trivial or w ayw ard,
except in a wholly accidental sense. A murder cannot be a beautiful act if
words have any meaning.
Professor Monroe C. Beardsley and Professor Wilbun Kurtz Wimsatt, Jr.,
w ho exchanged correspondence with D r Coom araswamy on the notion of‘intention’ in literary criticism.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 441/484
To ERIC GILL
June 1934
Dear Eric:
As to m y book, there is one error I regret, namely my use o fconsonantia, in which I made a mistake. Consonantia is with
reference to symmetry o f parts, that kind o f order in things which
Augustine regarded as, together with their unity, the most
evident trace o f God in the world. 1 hope to be able to correct
this in a later edition. I am working at more material from
Scholastic sources—Maritain’s book is really very insufficient
and Mediaeval aesthetic has yet to be demonstrated, starting
from the fundamental analogy between the divine artifices.This recognized analogy enables us to understand from
expositions o f “creation” and in connection w ith the magnificent doctrine o f exemplarism (which goes back to neo-
Platonic—not to say earlier sources) just what the mediaeval
authors understood by operation per artem. I hope that at the
same time that I collect this material to complete a long article
on Vedic exemplarism—and as I have often said before, there
can be no reason even from the most orthodox Christian pointo f view w hy the Christian philosopher should no t fortify his
positio n by use o f material draw n from pagan sources, which is
precisely w hat was done by the great doctors o f Chris tian
Europe long ago.
With regard to your other point, I think most likely the
secret o f a “balance between love and tho ug ht” centers, not in
not loving things, but in loving them not as they are in
themselves, but as they are more perfectly—bottoms
included—in God. Speculum aeternum mentes re videntium ducit in
cognitionem omnium creatorum, quod rectuis bi cognoscunt quam alili
(Augustine). God is understood to know things not by their
private essences, but by their forms (ideas), and it is preciselythese form s tha t we oug ht to try to see and to imitate in our art,
which is or ought to be an angelic communication.
N ow I w ant to see if you can help me as follows: find ayou ng man o f the proper education w ho w ants to earn a few
pounds to make a transla tion for me o f Aquinas’ Opusculum de pulchro et bono w hich is a part o f his com mentary on D ionysius’ De divinis nominibus; and perhaps also Aquinas’ Opusculum de
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 442/484
ente et essentia. My Latin I am polishing up, but it is still
laborious, and I w ou ld like a dra ug ht version at least o f the De
pulchro. I have in view the m aking o f furthe r articles on
Scholastic aesthetic and insist that the study o f mediaeval art in
our universities is mostly play until the fundamental positions
are considered.
With this request, I remain ever cordially,
Eric G ill, see p 82.
Jacques Maritain, m ost prom inent of the Neo -Th om ist philosophers and a
prolific w rite r; a convert to Cath oli cism alo ng w ith his wife, he was wid ely
respected throughout the Catholic world.
‘Vedic Exemplarism’, originally published in the Harvard Journal o f Asiatic
Studies, I, 1936; republished in Coomaraswamy: Selected Papers, II, Bollingen
Scries LXXXIX, Princeton, 1977.
To ERIC GILL
May 23, 1939
My dear Eric:
This is a sho rt no te in reply to yo urs o f M ay 5. I’ve been
away from the Museum for 3 weeks but expect to get back
soon th o ’ I shall have lost a month: I got a facial cram p, due to a
chill they say, and one consequence is a w atering o f the eyesthat prevents reading with any comfort. However, I expect to
be pretty near well by next week.
M airet did speak o f asking you to w rite on m y s tuff and Ishou ld have liked that. If Father Vann docs it, he should be lent
also the Zalm oxis article, the Vedanta article and Eckstein,
which I had no t sent to M airet. I’m glad you like the “ B iun ity” ;
I thought I had sent you one and will do so next week. It was
approved by Bowen who is a Professor at Catholic Universityhere. My lecture at this university, will be printed as a Stephens pam phle t at the same time as yours. Yes, as som eone has
remarked, Plato could not broadcast his stuff; but on the other
hand, could we have written it? It is a question whether thisabsorption and preoccupation with means is not pretty dangerous. T he South Sea Islanders did their carving w ith very simple
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 443/484
tools o f stone and shell; wh en they w ere given goo d steel tools
their craftsmanship went to pieces.
Th e chief new idea expressed in m y lecture to be printed, I
think is that merely functional art equates with “bread
alone. . . . , husks that the swine did eat”—a “good”, ofcourse, but an insufficient good for man.
Affectionately,
Eric Gill, as above.
Philip M airet, English friend o f AK C and editor of the N ew English Weekly,
London, to which AKC frequently contributed.
Father Gerald Vann , O P, see p 105.
T o MISS HILLA REBAY
August 29, 1947
Dear Miss Rebay:
M any thanks for yours o f August 16. It is rather a shame if
after 30 years o f Curato rship in the Museum o f Fine Arts (apartfrom previous experience) I have “no opportunity to see
creative art”!
N o one is m ore aware than I that “ the realities o f our
existence are non-objective”. This has always been the tradi
tional doctrine; and I have cited so much in my books (Why
Exhib it Works o f A r t ? and Figures o f Speech or Figures o f Thought
regarding its application to art that I shall only refer here to
Plato, Rep 510 D, E; Laws 931 A; Tim 51 E, 92; and the wellknown passage on mathematical beauty in Philebus, all to the
effect that w ha t true art “ im itates” is never itself a visible form.
Bu t this does no t m ean that the wo rk o f art was to be looked
upon merely as an aesthetic surface, provo cative o f feelings; it
had to satisfy both mind and body. Some of the m odernabstract works are, no doubt, “pleasing”; but that is not
enough for a wh ole man, who is some thing m ore than a merely“aesthetic” animal. As for your words “still catering only to
the senses”, that is ju st what the m odern emphasis on “ aestheticsurfaces” as ends in themselves implies; such catering is precisely w hat mediaeval art has never done* nor religious art
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 444/484
o f any school except in Hellenistic and modern times, when it
becomes sentimenta l, like the rest o f modern art. The w ord
“aesthetic” by definition has only to do with things perceptible
to the sense.
As for why Dr Marquette mentioned my name to you, the
enclosed may explain; it need not be returned, as it has already been set up, and will appear in my 70th bir thday Festschrift , A rt
and Thought, to be published by Luzac this year.
The reproductions you kindly sent me 1gave to our library,
where they will be available to all students.
Very sincerely,
* See, for example, Irish and Romanesque art generally; or reproductions in
the Wiesbaden M ss, illustrating St Hildeg arde ’s (12th century) visions. W hat
you would probably dislike in these works is that they have a meaning. In as
much as modern man is typically anti-intellectual, it is not surprising that
appreciations o f m od ern art such as those in the ‘Ho stess R ep orts’ can be
collected. I send you separately a reprint in which the two coloured
reproductions might please you were it not for the fact that they, too, are
‘about something’. (AKC’s note)
Miss Hilla Rebay, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Why Exh ibit Works of Art?, London, 1943. See Bibliography.
Figures o f Speech or Figures of Thought, London, 1946. See Bibliography. A rt and Thought, London, 1947; this was the Festschrift to which AKC
referred.
T o MR L. HARRISON
December 17, 1946
Dear Mr Harrison:
Many thanks for your very kind letter which I read with
pleasure. First let me say you will find some more material in
Figures o f Speech or Figures of Thought . . . and some on danceand music in The Mirror of Gesture . . . ; a chapter on music inm y Dance o f Shiva (o p); and on the representations o f (the ethosof) musical modes in my Rajput Painting (Oxford, 1914) or thisMuseum’s Catalog o f the Indian Collections, Vol V. M arco Pallis’Peaks and Lamas (Am ed at present o p) gives a very valuablediscussion o f the relation o f the arts to society as a whole ( in
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 445/484
Tib et, bu t typical for any traditional society); cf also the chap,
“Notes on Savage Art” in my Figures o f Speech . . .
I think the po int to be rem arked is that ju st as we have
isolated painting as something to be seen in Galleries, so we
have isolated music as something to be heard in Halls; whereas
it was in all traditional societies bound up with all the activitieso f life (as it still is in India). For this relation o f music, drama
and poetry to life as a whole, see in Beryl de Zoete and Walter
Spies, Dance Drama in Bali (a w ond erful book), Co lin McPh ee’s
A House in Bali. . and perhaps also m y “ Bugbea r o f Literacy”
in Asia M agazine for February 1944; also Astrov, The Winged
Serpent. . ., p 33 and passim. For India, also Fox Strangeways,
Music o f Hindustan, Oxford, 1914; and Danielou, Introduction to
the Study o f Musical Scales, London, 1943; Kurt Sachs, History o f Music, East and West. But these last you doubtless already
know. I believe the New York Public Library is rather
specialized in musical literature o f these kinds. It wo uld be
impossible for m e ju st no w to think o f w riting ab out music,
because o f all the other w ork I am involved in, but w hy don’t
you do it yourself, using som e o f the material to be found in all
sources?
For the principle o f vocation generally, I might perhaps have
also mentioned my Religious Basis o f the Forms o f Indian
Society. . . New York, 1946.
Let me k no w if this helps, and if you wish w rite again.
Very sincerely,
M r L. H arrison, The New York Herald Tribune.
Figures o f Speech or Figures o f Thought, AKC, London, 1946; see Bibliogra-
p h y .The Mirror of Gesture, AKC and Gopal Kristnayya Duggirala, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1917; see Bibliography.
Dance o f Shiva, AKC, numerous editions, see Bibliography.
Rajput Painting, AKC, Oxford, 1914; see Bibliography.
Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas, numerous editions; see Bibliography.
Beryl de Zoete and Walter Spies, Dance and Drama in Bali, London, 1938.
Colin McPhee, A House in Bali, New York, 1946.
Margot Lusia Thcrese (Kroger) Askrov, The Winged Serpent: an Anthology o f
American Indian Prose and Poetry, New York, 1946.
Alain Danieou, Introduction to the Study o f Musical Scales, London, 1943.Kurt (or Curt) Sachs: Dr Coomaraswamy was apparcHtly confused as to the
title referred to here, for Dr Sachs is not credited with such a book in the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 446/484
prin cip al bibliographic so urc es. He was a G erm an-A m crican m usic olo gis t
wh o w rote and published a numb er o f books on the history o f music.
The Religious Basis o f the Forms o f Indian Society, AKC, New York, 1946; see
Biliography.
‘Th e Bug bear o f Literacy’, Asia Magazine, February 1944. This was also the
title essay in a collection published und er this title in L ondo n in 1949, an d in
the U nited States und er the title Am I M y Brother's Keeper ?, New York, 1947.
To MRS W. Q. SWART
March 15, 1933
Dear Madam:
Th ere exists o f course a vast literature on Indian art. We havehere wha t is on the whole the best collection o f Indian paintings
in the world*, and certainly the best general Indian collections
and working library in America. I think it would be essential
for you to spend a short time here before actually going to
India. In the meantime I would suggest your looking up my
article on “T he T eaching o f D raw ing in Cey lon” in the Ceylon
National Review for December 1906; Tagore, L ’Alpone, Paris,
1921; m y “ Introduction to the A rt o f Eastern Assi”, Open Court Magazine, March 1932; and articles on Indian art in the
'Encyclopaedia Britannica. Also such magazines as Rupam, nos
1-40, and the Journal o f Indian Art. Also, Hadaway, Illustrations
o f Metal Work in Brass and Copper. . . .
We have no modern Indian paintings here. They are
analogous to “Pre-Raphaelite” art in Europe; more significantas represen ting a revolution o f taste and ou tlook tha n as
everlasting w orks o f art, thou gh they have great charm andsensitiveness.
Yo u w ou ld also find m uch m aterial in m y Mediaeval Sinhalese
Art, 1908. For the rest I can only suggest you spend a few days
here. I should be glad to assist you.
Very sincerely,
*It is worth noting that Dr Coomaraswamy’s own collection, amassed
du ring the early years o f his career when he was in India, form ed the basis o foutstanding holdings o f the Boston M useum. When it became apparent that
no satisfactory arrangements could be made to house the Coomaraswamy
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 447/484
collection in India, A KC bro ug ht them ou t o f the cou ntry w ith him and
eventually to the United States.
Mrs W. Q. Swart, New York, N Y, was a student at Columbia University
School o f A rt and w as thinking o f going to India to teach art in a secondary
school.
William S. Hadaway, Illustrations o f Metal Work in Brass and Copper, Madras,
1913.
Mediaeval Sinhalese A rt was AKC’s first major book and was printed under
his personal supervision at Essex House Press, Norman Chapel, Broad
Campden, Gloucestershire, England between September 1907 and Decem
ber 1908. A second edit io n was published by Panth eon Books, N ew York ,
1956.
T o GEORGE SARTON
Date uncertain
Dear Sarton:
Th ere are three im po rtant pieces of Islamic glass in the
M useum o f Fine Arts. The lamp o f Karim al-Din, w ho retired
in 723 AH (= 1323); and published in Gaston Wiet, Musee
Arabe, le Caire Catalogue general . . . lampes et bouteilles en verre
emaille, M useum o f Fine Arts Bulletin, January 1928, and with arevised translation o f the inscriptions in the 1940 edition o f the
MFA Handbook. The glass globe was made for Saif al-din
A rghun al-‘A la’i, w ho died in 748 AH (= 1347-8). It has been
published by M ayer, Saracenic Heraldry, p 74; and also in MFA
Bulletin for August 1912 and in Eastern Art, Vol II, p 245. A
glass bottle bears no inscription.
There are over 300 im po rtan t pieces o f enamelled glass
known. Wiet in his catalogue (1929) has published 118 glassobjects and the majority o f them arc lamps, o f which 87 can be
dated by their inscriptions (see his Introduction). There arc 19
in the M etropolitan M useu m o f Art, a collection second only to
the Cairo Museum.
AKC
George Sarton, see page 13.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 448/484
To ROBIN FIELD
Date uncertain
My dear Robin:
To have a background for European art before 1300 and away o f understanding what happend after that, I think one
should have read:
Plato, Republic , Gorgias, Cartylus, Symposium Plotinus,
McKenna’s 5 vol version
Hermes, at least Asclepius I in Scott’s Hermetica Dionysius,
translation published by SPCK
Svoboda, L ’Esthetique de Sain t Augustin
Augustine, Confessions and De Doctrina Christiana
St Th om as Aquinas, at least the first volum e o f the translationSumma Theologica
Meister Eckhart, 2 volumes translated by Pfeiffer [actually C de
B Evans], London, 1924 and 1931
Longinus, On the Sublime
Also, o f course, some o f Aristotle, though you get this
implicitly in St Thomas.Books about the subject, I suggest:
F. M. Lund, A d Quadratum, London, 1921
M. C. Ghyka, Le Nombre d’or, Gallimard, Paris, 1931
Albert Gleizes, Vers une conscience plastique, Paris
J. M. Bissen, L ’Exemplarisme divin selon Sain t Bonaventure,
Librairie Philosophique, Paris, 1929
Rene Guenon, “Mythcs, mysteres et symboles” in Etudes
Traditionnelles, Paris, Vol 40, 1935AKC , “ Th e Part o f Art in Indian Life” , in The Cultural Heritage
of India, vol III, 1937
“Mediaeval Aesthetic”, A rt Bulletin, New York, XVII
Spinden, in Brooklyn Museum Quarterly, October 1935
Baldwin, Mediaeval Rhetoric and Poetic
Buchier, L ’A rt chretien
AK C, “T he N ature o f Buddhist A rt” [this was A K C ’s
Introd uction to a collection o f Indian and Ceylonese wall pain tings by Benjamin Rowland, Jr, ag v]
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 449/484
You might read first, in the first group, Eckhart; and [first] inthe second group, Guenon, Spinden and Lund.
1 hope this will be o f some help. D rop in again.
Very sincerely,
Robin Field w as a m em ber o f the faculty o f fine arts at Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
We will no t fu rthe r identify m ost o f these tides, as sufficient inform ation is
provided fo r th e serious reader, except to note that P lo tinus’ Enneads are now
available in a one volume edition (same translation); there have been
additional translations o f Dionysius in w hole or in part; there have been
m ore recent editions an d/o r translations o f Eckhart, Le Nombre d’or, and
Walter Scott’s Hermetica (1985). “Mythes, mysteres et symboles” by Rene
Guenon appeared also as a chapter in his Apergus sur I’initiation (Paris, 1946,1975).
To D R K W A N G - W A N K IM
April 26, 1947
Dear Dr Kim:
It would take a very long letter to answer yours fully; it is a
pity we cannot meet. I th ink it is im portant to im press on
students that one can’t have a “single volume” that will tell
them all they need to know. However, for China I would
recommend E. R. Hughes, Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times
(Everym ans Library), and Rene Guenon, La Grande Triade (this
last being an exegesis o f the implications o f the character ^ ).
For India I would recommend Rene Guenon, Introduction to the
Stud y o f the H indu Doctrines (London, 1945), and my Hinduism
and Buddhism (New York, 1943); Zimmer’s M yths and Sym bols
in Indian Art and Civilization (1946, New York) and Nikhila-
nanda, The Gospel o f Sri Ramakrishna (1942, New York); and
(for Tibetan Buddh ism) Marco Pallis’ Peaks and Lamas (of
which there are four English editions and one US). All these I
shou ld call indispensable. For Islam, all the works o f R. A. N ic holson, especially Studies in Islamic Mysticism (Cambridge,
England, 1921), D iw an o f Shams-i-Tabriz (1898), and histranslation of the M athnawi o f Jalalu’d-d-D in Rum i (GibbM em orial Series); Frith jof Schuon, “ Ch ristianity and Islam” in
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 450/484
The Arab World (Vol I, N o 3, N ew York, 1946); Margaret
Smith, A l-G ha zza li (London, 1921); Gairdner, Al-Ghazzali’s
M ishkat al-Anwar (London, 1924); Fitzgerald, Salaman and Absal
and Bird Parliament (Boston, 1899, or in his Collected Works);
Demetra Vaka, Heremlik (Boston, 1911); and for the Q u ’ran,
the translation by Marmaduke Picthall. For Buddhism, you
might use F. L. Woodward, Some Sayings o f the Buddha (World
Classics). Hare, Woven Cadences (Pali Text Society).
For India I ought to have mentioned also, Temple, The Word
o f Lalla the Prophetess (1924) and Dara Shikuh’s M ajm ’l Bahrein
(Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1929): these especially for Islam
in relation to Hinduism.
O f m y ow n w ritings, also “Recollection, Indian and
Platonic”, (Journal o f the American Oriental Society, Supplement3, 1944); A m I my Brother’s Keeper ? (New York, 1947; material
on “one philosophy”); my chapter in The Asian Legacy (New
York, 1945); “On Being in One’s Right Mind” in Review o f
Religion, VII, 1942, also, Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power
in the Indian Theory o f Government [New Haven, 1942].
All such books and others, as you doubtless know, are most
easily obtained from Orientalia (47 West 47th St, N Y).
I regard the book o f N orth rup as fundamentally unsound,though good in some parts. His distinctions are artificial; the
so-called aesthetic approach (eg, in such expressions as “grasp
ing reality”) is a linguistic necessity, equally in E and W, and not
a characteristic o f either. N o r do I think that Georgia O ’Keefe
throws any light on the subject! The main point, however, [is]
that he does not realize that his “ differences” between E and W
have no thing to do w ith geography, bu t with time; they are the
same as the differences between the modern world and themediaeval and ancient worlds in the West itself.
This leads me to one last remark. Viz, that one cannot
effectively communicate Eastern religion and philosophy to
people here w ho haven’t already grasped som e religious andmetaphysical principles; in other words, to most Americans
(Christians so-called included). Hence you have a right todem and o f your students that as a condition o f admission to the
course they must have some acquaintance with Greek philoso
phy (especially Pythagorean, which is practically th e same asVedanta). All that means one should have studied the pre-Socratics, Plato, Philo, Plotinus, Dionysius, Bonaventura,
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 451/484
Aquinas, The Cloud of Unknowing, Nicholas o f Cusa, etc, etc,
before attem pting to understand the East. Y ou m ight as well tell
you r students this, as a counsel o f perfection.
Let me know how you get on with your course.
Very sincerely,
D r K w ang-W an Kim had been appointed to a teaching position at Simpson
College, Indianola, Iowa, USA, and had written to AKC requesting a single
book or a b ibli ography to be use d in a course on Philosophy and Religion.
T o J O H N O S M A N
June 25, 1947
Dear Mr Osman:
I most certainly apologize for having neglected to send any
kind o f bibliography . Even no w I cannot pretend to send you a
complete guide, but I will list some essential books for India,
and later ask you to let me know whether you mean also
Islamic and Persian material.T he basic epitom e o f Indian religion and philosophy is, o f
course, the Bhagavad Gita; there are many, but no perfect
translations; I prefer on the whole the one by Bhagavan Das
and Mrs [Annie] Bcsant. For the Upanishads, Hume, The
Thirteen Principal Upanishads (Oxford) has its uses, but it is notalways accurate, and the Introduction hardly acceptable from
the H indu po int o f view; I prefer the freer bu t m ore
understanding version by the Rev W. R. Teape, in his The
Secret Lore o f India. For the Brahmanas and Aranyakas, for
which I have the highest respect, the following are good:
Eggeling’s Satapatha Br (5 vols in SBE; Kieth, Rigveda
Brahmanas (Harvard Oriental Series, vol 25) and Aitareya
Aranyaka (Oxford) and Sankhayana Aranyaka (Royal Asiatic
Society, Oriental Translation Fund, RAS, London) and Oertel,
Jatm in iya Upanishad Brahmana (in Journal o f the A merican
Oriental Society, 16) and Caland, Pancavimsa Brahmana (Cal
cutta, 1931) are all pretty good. All these sources at least should be in your library as well as m y Hinduism and Buddhism
(Philosophical Library, N. Y., 1943).
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 452/484
For a general introduction to the East and its problems I
know nothing equal to Marco Pallis, Peaks and Lamas;
N ik hilananda’s Th e Gospel o f Sri Ramakrishna (B. Y., Vedanta
Centre) a classic, nearly in the same class as Zimmer, Der Weg
zum Selbst (Rascher Verlag, Zurich) dealing with the still living
Sri Ramana Maharsi.
For Indian sociology, Bhagavan Das, The Science of Social
Organization-, Bharatan Kumarappa, Capitalism, Socialism or
Villagism (Shakti Karyalayam, Madras), my Religious Basis o f
the Forms o f Indian Society (Orientalia, N. Y.) and A. M.
Hocart, Les Castes (Paris). For Buddhism, Dhammapada (Pali
Text Soc, “Minor Anthologies”, 1931), Hare, Woven Ca
dences. . . . Saddharma Pundarika (SBE Vol XVI), Suzuki, Essays
in Zen Buddhism (Luzac, London).Hinduism further: G. U. Pope, Tiruvacagam (Oxford, 1900);
R. C. Temple, Th e Word of Lalla (Cambridge, England 1924);
[Rabindranath] Tagore, On e Hundred Poems o f Kabir (N. B.:
Tagore’s own writings are not very important); [Arthur]
Avalon (= [Sir John] Woodroffe) Shakti and Shakta(and his
other w orks published by Luzac, London [and later by Ganesh,
Madras]. General: Th e Cultural Heritage o f India (3 vols) [now 4
volumes]; Legacy o f India and Legacy o f Islam (both Oxford).Drama, music, etc: Fox-Strangways, Music o f Hindustan
(Oxford); AKC and Duggirala, Mirror o f Gesture (Weyhe,
N .Y .); AKC, Chap 8 in Asian Legacy (John Day, N. Y.); Kieth,
Sanskrit Drama (Oxford); De Zoet and Spies, Dance Drama in
Bali (N. Y., very good)-, AKC, “Indian Dramatic Theory” (in
Dictionary o f World Literature); Danielou, Introduction to Indian
Scales (Royal India Society, London).
I would emphasize the difficulty for any student to understand Eastern cu lture unless he has a backgrou nd o f kno wledgeof the traditional philosophy and culture of Europe—prc-
Socratics, Plato, Philo, Hermes, Gospels, Plotinus, Dionysius,
Bonaventura, St Thomas, Eckhart, Ruysbroeck, Bochme.
Add the works o f Rene Guenon (see in m y A m I M y Brother’s
Keeper ?)Also o f great use w ould be P ro f B R ow land’s Outline and
Bibliographies o f Indian A rt (Harvard); very fine is Stella
Kramrich, The Hindu Temple (1946, Calcutta); on Yoga,Woods, Yoga System o f Patanjali (Harvard Oriental Series, Vol17); Danielou, Yoga: Method of Re-integration (University
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 453/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 454/484
intellectus vel spirits) that, just because it is disinterested, can
judge o f th e extent to which an appetite (instinct) should be
indulged, if the subject’s real good, and no t merely immediate
pleasure , is to be served.
So, then Hermes (Lib xii. 1.2 -4) points ou t that “ in the
irrational animals, mind co-operates with the natural-instinct proper to each kind; but in men, M ind w orks against the
natural-instincts. . . . So that those souls o f which M ind takes
com m and are illuminated by its light, and it works against their
presum ptio ns. . . . But those hum an souls which have not got
M ind to guide them are in the same case as the souls o f the
irrational animals; in which mind co-operates (with the
appetites), and gives free course to their desires; and such souls
are sw ept along by the rush o f appetite to the gratification o ftheir desires . . . and are insatiable in their craving.” From the
same po int o f view, for Plato, the man w ho is governed by his
impu lses is “subject to him se lf’, while he who governs them is
“his own master” (Laws, 645; Rep. 431, etc).
Th e instinctive appetites o f wild animals and o f men w hose
lives are lived naturally (ie, in accordance with human nature)
are usually healthy; one m ay say tha t natural selection has taken
the place o f M ind in setting a limit to the gratification o f theseappetites. B ut the appetites o f civilized men are no longer
reliable; the natural controls have been eliminated (by the
“co nquest o f N atu re” ); and the appetites, exacerbated by the
arts o f advertisement, am oun t to unlimited wants, to w hich
only the disinterested Mind can set reasonable bounds.
Mr Romney Green is only able to defend the instincts (1) by
forgetting that these are really appetites or wants and (2)
because he is really thin king o f those desires o f which his M in d
does, in fact, approve. Captain Ludovici, on the other hand, isentirely righ t in saying tha t our instincts must be regulated by a
high er principle. If w e are to trust ou r instincts, let us be sure
that they are no t ju st any instincts, but only those that are proper to M an, in th e highest sense o f the word.
I was m uch interested in M r N icho l’s review o f W aley’stranslation, M onkev. He is very right in saying that it ischaracteristic o f this kind o f literature to “ give the deepest
significance in the most economical everyday form”; that is, infact, one o f the essential values o f all adequate sym bolism.Where, however, he is mistaken is in calling such a work “a
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 455/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 456/484
mother, and call a “superstition” as it is indeed in the primary
sense o f the w ord and qua “tradition”, “that which has been
handed on.” Strzygowski wrote “He (ie, the undersigned) is
altogether right when he says, ‘The peasant may be unconscious and unaware, bu t that o f which he is unconscious and
unaware is in itself far superior to the empirical science andrealistic art of the ‘educated man’, whose real ignorance is
demonstrated by the fact that he studies and compares the data
o f folklore and ‘m ytholo gy ’ w ithou t any m ore than the most
ignorant peasant suspecting their real significance.’ ” (J ISOA
V, 59)
The truth is that the modern mind, hardened by its constant
consideration o f “ the Bible as literature” (I prefer St Augus
tine’s estimate, expressed in the words “O axe, hewing therock ”), could, if it wo uld make the necessary intellectual effort,
turn to our mythology and folk-lore and find there, for
exam ple in the heroic rescues o f maidens from dragons o r in
(what is the same thing) the disenchantm ent o f dragons by a
kiss (since our own sensitive souls are the dragon, from which
the Spirit is ou r Saviour), the w hole story o f the plan o f
redemption and its operation.
Although the above communication is not strictly a letter, but rather an
invited one page editorial in the N ew English Weekly, it is included because it
com plem ents the correspondence A KC had with this journal.
T o LORD RAGLAN
July 14, 1938
Dear Lord Raglan:
Very many thanks for your letter. Most likely you cannot
agree with my (traditional) point o f view according to whichthe ritual action is a mimesis, repitition and continuation of“what was done in the beginning” (explicit statements to thiseffect can be cited at least as far back as the Satapatha Brahmana,
about the 8th ccntury BC). We arc nevertheless in fullagreement that “the myth-tellcr is dealing with actions andsym bols already know n to h im .” It is these same actions that
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 457/484
arc equally imitated in ritual. 1do n ot accept a “m yth m akcr” in
the mo dern sense o f “a utho r” . The m yth is transmitted
deliberately, and thus “the actions arc already known to the
myth-tcllcr”, and the only question that can arise here is
“whether he understands his material”; by the time myth has
become romance, o r cuhcmcriscd, this becomes m ore andmore doubtful. How then was the Urmythos first known?
Contemplatively; the actus primus being always a contempla
tion, after which the artist embodies the vision in material
(colour, sound, gestures, etc).
My position is philosophically “realistic”. That which is
told, or rather referred to (the ultimate content being strictly
inexpressible, though it can be experienced), is a reality apart
from tim e, “ seen” or “ heard” contemplatively (or as if in adream) by the so-called “myth-makcr” (there is an old Indian
story o f a sage w ho failed to reach heaven ju st bccausc he
claimed autho rship in w hat h ad as a m atter o f fact been revealed
to him). This reality is expounded and outlined in the narrative
myth or ritual. It remains for the contemporary auditor to
becom e aw are o f it as a living experience, and not a m atter o f
literary art alone, again contemplatively. This all implies a
prim ordia l revela tion, or rather audition; which may be dated back , perhaps, to the Aurignacian.
Certainly, I do not believe that human sacrifice “originated
in the imagination o f some story -teller” , using all these w ords
in all their modern connotations. Traditionally, the creation of
the w orld, w hethe r tho ug ht o f as a past or as a continuous
event, is essentially a “human sacrifice”—the cosmic aspect of
D eity being the “ Un iversal M an” , and creation a subdivision o f
this unity . Th is division is at the same time a vo lun tary sacrifice
(“ dividing H imself, He fills these w or lds” ) and a passion (“ intohow many parts did they, the first sacrificers, or creators,
divide H im ?” ). It is strictly in im itation o f this subdivision that
the bread is broken in the Christian sacrifice.
The treatm en t o f the m yths as historical is always a quite late
and cuhcmcristic procedure. The veritable crucifixion, forexam ple, is a cosmic extension o f the Cross o f Light. Th ere has been a contin uous transmission, not only publically o f the
myth qua narrative, but also in its real significances. Thedistinction is constantly made in Indian ritual books betweenthose who merely participate in a rite, and those who
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 458/484
understand it; the former may receive temporal benefits, thelatter only spiritual.
These points o f view are probably quite unacceptable to you.
But if they interest you at all, I do suggest your look ing at Rene
Guenon, “Le Rite ct le Symbole”, and “Mysteres ct Symboles”
in Le Voile d ’Isis, 40, 1935; and Frith jof Schuon, “ D u Sacrifice”
in Etudes Traditiomelles (new name o f same magazine), April
1938.
Very sincerely,
PS: You say “the human body must come before the statue”; 1
am think ing (in Platonic fashion, if you like) o f the forma
humanitatis prior to either.
Lord Raglan; Fitzroy Richard Somerset, IV Baron Raglan, was educated to
be a profe ssional sold ie r an d did se rve as such but re signed his com m issio n
when his father died and he succeeded to the title. An anthropologist by
interest and com petence tho ugh no t by formal training, his best kno w n book
was The Hero (London, 1936), in which he argued (in a classical non sequitur)
that the great eponymous heroes never existed but were derived from ritual
and drama to provide solace to men by giving some meaning to life. Thereare certain wholly external similarities between these views put forward by
Lord Raglan and those o f D r Coo m araswam y who, on occasion, expressed
doubts whether Buddhism and Christianity, eg, were historically true, or
w hether Jesus Ch rist and the B uddha ever existed. Actually, AK C believed
that Jesus C hrist and the B uddha and the religions they founded are so
suprem ely tru e m etaphysically that the question o f their historicity is o f little
importance. We know, however, that AKC for a certainty held the doctrine
that any and ev ery possibility o f man ifestation necessarily involves an
historical eventuation at its proper “cosmic moment”—“that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets”, to use the Biblical idiom. Allthis, along with the letter itself, should be quite enough to show that any
similarity between the views put forward by Lord Raglan and those held by
Dr Coomaraswamy was no more than accidental and purely external, and
that A KC was him self definitely “on the side of the angels” . Lord Raglan’s
book, how ever, had the undoubte d m eri t o f poin ting out th e elements th at
are com m on in the histories o f Solar Heroes. See the letters on m yth that
follow.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 459/484
T o O. H. dc A. WIJESEKERA
Date uncertain
Dear Dr Wijcsckcra:
M any thanks for yours of N ovem ber 26. R egarding Buddhist Yakkha: I regard this term, where treated in conncction with
yakkhassa suddhi as = sappuriso and the atta hi attano natha, ie, as
what remains a reality when all that tie me so atta has been
eliminated.
Your p rogram for a book o f “ vitalism” is very interesting,
and covers a great deal of grou nd on w hich I have worked for
many years. I am only a little doubtful whether you have a clear
grasp o f the real nature of “ m yth ” . I wo uld hardly think o fmyths as “biological”, rather as metaphysical. We arc easily
misled by their terms, wh ich arc necessarily those o f experi
ence, employed analogically. For example, the whole problem
o f solar m yths cannot be treated intelligently unless we realize
the distinction o f “ the sun w hom all men see” from “ the Sun
whom few know with the mind” (AV), in Greek the
distinction o f Helios from Apollo. I am sending you a few papers
in which I have discussed the nature o f myths in conncction
w ith the study o f particular eases. I w ould add tha t whole
subject of pram pertains to a traditional psychology which is
anything but exclusively Indian; and also that duo sunt in homine
may be callcd one o f the m ost fundam ental axioms o f theuniversal and perennial philosophy wherever we find it, in
China, India, Grcccc or Mediaeval Europe. I do not and cannot
believe in an “evolutio n” o f metaphysics.
Very sincerely,
Dr O. H. de A. Wijesekera was lecturer in Sanskrit at the University of
Ceylon, Kandy.
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
June 17, 1941
Sir:
Apropo s o f M r Fcrrie’s letter on Religion, T heo logy and
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 460/484
M yth, in you r issue o f May 22, may I remark that a m yth is
either true or worthless? From the Christian or any other
traditional po int o f view, the proposition credo quia incredible is
ridiculous. “ The natu re o f faith . . . consists in know ledge
alone” (St Thomas Aquinas, Sum Theol II-II.47.13 ad 2). Crede
ut intelligas, intellige ut credas arc inseparable operations. Super
natural no more means unnatural that super-essential meansnon-essential.
I can and do believe in the myth far more profoundly than in
any historical event which may or may not have taken place. 1
do n ot disbelieve in what are called miracles; on the other hand,
m y “ faith” w ould remain the same even if it could be proved
that the events of the hero-tale never took place as related.
“ H isto ry” is the least convincing level o f truth, the myth andthe (genuine) fairy talc the most convincing. As Evola has put
it, “ the passage from a traditional m yth olog y to a ‘relig ion ’ is a
humanistic decadence.”
At the same time it must be remembered that even the myth
is a sym bol, a representation (“as in a glass darkly ”) o f the
reality that underlies all fact bu t never itself becom es a fact.
Hence the via negativa to be followed when the ascent from
low er to higher levels o f reference has been m ade by themythical via ajfirmativa. “ N oth ing true can be said o f G od ” ; it is
only in this sense that the myth, although truer than any fact, is
finally “not true” . T he m yth is the highest form o f truth that
can be grasped by an intellect thinking in terms o f subject and
object; only when this duality has been overcome, so that thereis no lon ger any distinction o f kno w ing from being, can there
be an im m ediate knowledge o f reality.
Jacqucs Evola, Rivolto Contro il Mondo Modemo, Milan, 1934; sec also later
editions
To T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
N ovem ber 20, 1941
Sir:
Those o f yo ur readers w ho have followed the discussion
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 461/484
on “ M yth ” in m y ow n and other recent correspondence will be
deeply interested in a book entitled Das Verlorene Paradies, by
Ed gar Daque , M unich , 1941, i f it is accessible. I have no t been
able to see this work yet, but it is reviewed as follows in the Fall
number of Philosophical Abstracts:
Man does not originate from the animal. He represents his
ow n and distinct archaic form o f organic nature. This hum an
archetype never developed otherwise than [by] branching
out in different human societies [ie, subspecies] which
potentially take Ipart in a supernatu ral sphere o f reality. The
archetype itse lf could never appear visibly in physical explicit
nature and still less could it develop from a lower stage to a
higher, because already in the ‘natu re o f the bey on d’, in theworld of ‘first prototypes’ it constitutes a spontaneous
totality. Th is form ation o f the beyo nd, this metaphysical
w or ld is the ‘paradise’. The knowledg e o f it is carried by the
m yth. The m yth is the deepest knowledge that m an has until
to-day. (P. L. Krieger)
Assum ing that by ‘m an’ the author m eans the forma humanitatis quae nunguam
peril, and not ‘this man’, this is in complete agreement with what I haveintend ed to sug gest. . . . O u r tro ub le is that, like Bo ethius, w e have
‘forgotten who we are.’
T o T H E N E W E N G L I S H W E E K L Y , L O N D O N
N ovem ber 5, 1942
Sir:
M r Ross N ichols asks how the M yth “ can at all acceptably be
conveyed outside o f a limited ring o f literary sym pathizers.”
Here the w ord “ literary” is significant; for our literary wo rld is,for the most part, coincident with what Professor Iredell
Jenkins has so well term ed the mo dern “ w orld o f impov erished
reality” . The M yth was once the treasured possession o f the
whole people, whether “illiterate” or literate, and this stillholds g ood in a large part of the East; in Europe, how ever,
where men have been “educated”, it survives only precariouslyin folk-lore and fairy-tale, and is a dead museum specimen inliterary circles, more concerned with human personalities and
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 462/484
self-expression than with Gods and Heroes. Living experience
o f m ythic tru th can be destroyed very quickly by public school
or college education.
Th e answ er to M r N icho l’s question lies, then, in our
“ aesthetics” and in ou r exaggerated valuation o f “ literature”alm ost w itho ut reference to its content; ju st as we pride
ourselves up on ou r indifference to the theme o f a painting, if
we can admire it for other reasons. In othe r word s, we are quite
willing to go w ithou t ou r dinner, if only we can be charm ed by
the sw eet m usic o f the d inner bell, ie, the aesthetic surfaces that
sum m on us to consider their theme. O ur hedonistic conception
o f “literatu re” has com e to serve us as a sort o f shell to defend
us from the truth o f “ scripture” , “lest we should hear, and
understand, and be converted.” Not until art is redeemed from
aesthetic interpretations, and it is once more realised that
“beauty has to do with cognition”, and only with emotion in
the sense that mens sine desiderio non intelligit , will the Myth
come to life again in the “literary” world.
AKC
To P R O F E S S O R W A R D
Undated
Dear Professor Ward:
Rumi, M athnawi, VI, 4578 (Gibb Memorial News Series IV
6, p 511) com pares the divine hero to “ a hu nd red men
concealed in a single man (as we should say, ‘a host inhimselF), a hundred bows and arrows concealed in a single
blowpipe”. The word is naivak . . ., for which I find in stcingass’
Persian Dictionary, amongst various meanings, “tube through
which an arrow is projected”. Rumi’s date is 1207-1273( M athnawi about 1260). For Indra’s “bolt” (vajra) we have two
old Indian accounts o f the mythological origin o f the arrow *,in one o f which, wh ich can hardly be later than 8th century b c ,
they are said to be the “ slivers w ithin it” (Indra’s bolt) that w ere
“ separated from it” and became arrows. C f Taittirva SamhitaVI.I.3.5.
AKC
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 463/484
* Interestingly, an early name for Christ was Chosen Arrow.
Professor Ward cannot be further identified.
‘The Blowpipe in Persia and India’, AKC American Anthropologist, N e w
Series, 45, 1943.
‘Th e S ymbolism o f A rchery’, AK C, Ars Islamica, X, 1943.
T o D A V I D W H I T E
October 15, 1946
Dear Mr White:
There must be a great deal more literature on Myth than I
kno w of. T he main thing is to kn ow the m yths o f the various
peoples, and to learn to recognize th eir sim ilarities. For this,
perhaps, Lord Raglan’s The Hero should be considered; and, of
course, folk-tales in general—why are there so many versions
o f the same story all over the world? So one comes to th ink o f
an Urmythos o f which all others are broken fragments; m yths
are the pattern that history exemplifies.
O f my own I suggest “ M ind and M yth” in the N ew English
Weekly o f Dec. 24, 1942 (vide supra)-, “Literary Symbolism” inthe Dictionary o f World Literature (also in Figures of Speech or
Figures of Thought (Luzac, London, 1946). But I do commend
J. A. Stewart, M yths o f Plato (Macmillan 1905); Fritz Marti,
“Religion, Philosophy and the College”, Review o f Religion,
VII, 1942, 41 f f (“ Men live by m yths . . . they are no m ere
poetic inventions”— m ost serious students o f m yth emphasizethat myths are not “inventions”); Wilbur Marshall Urban, The
Intelligible World, 1929; Plato, Theatetus 144 D; with Aristotle, Metaphysics 982 B; N. Berdyaev, Freedom and the Spirit, 1935;
E. Siecke, Drachenkampfe, Leipzig, 1907 (p 60: unglaublich, das
heute noch jemand sich einbilden kennte, weitverbreitete Mythen
Konnen ihre Entstehur der Erftndung eines einzelnen Dichters
verstanden (p 61) ein Grundirrtu, zu glauben, der mythische
Ausdruck sei allegorisch; p 49, die Sage ist von Gottermythen
ausgegangen. Herzfeld in M it th aus Iran 6, 1934, ridicules Fraser’s
interpretations o f m yths as “ mistaken explanations o f phenomena”; says D ie Geburt der Geschichte ist der Tod des Mythos\
lays down sequence, mythos = ursprungliche Gottersage,
Sage = heroische Stadium, legende = Stadium in which myth is
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 464/484
mixed w ith lives o f real men and so hofisch und pseudo-
historische — all like m y M yth, Epic, Romance; M. P. Nilsson,
Mycenean Origin o f Greek Mythology, 1932, “mythology can
never be converted into h istory ” . Read all the American Indian
Origin Myths also. Also N. K. Chadwick, Poetry and Prophecy.As for the “ history o f literature” , from B eow ulf to Forever
Amber (sequence: metaphysics, tragedy, sensation) consider
that in the last stage tragedy is impossible, nothing remains but
the lovely and the horrible; tragedy is only possible where there
is a conflict between what is and what ought to be, the Hero
conquers or loses according to whether he can be what he
ou gh t. Th e same in the history o f pictorial art, Ch ristian and
other; Picasso is not tragic, he only depicts the horrible. Fromthings universally true to our curiosity about personalities,
what a come-down—as Lodge used to say, “From the Stone
Age until now, quelle degringoladeV ’
I would rather count in Blake with the metaphysical poetsthan with the Romantics.
I am afraid this is a rather b rie f answ er, bu t all I can managenow.
Very sincerely,
PS: Also Karl von Spiese, “Marksteine der Volkskunst”
(Jahrbuch fu r Historische Volkskunde V, VI, Berlin, 1937); Jo hn
Layard, The Lady o f the Hare, 1945, and “T he Incest Tabo o and
the Virgin Archetype”, in Eranos Jahrbuch, XII, 1945.
David White, Friends University, Wichita, Kansas, USA; see letter p 155.
T o PROFESSOR RAYMOND S. STITES
January 25, 1937
Dear Professor Raymond S. Stites:
I am having a pho to o f the bronze sent to you.I can best explain my position about “genius” by saying thatWagner is typically a genius in my sense, but not Bach. I
believe this really covers the ground.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 465/484
N o messiah is telling anyth ing new or personal, but
“fulfilling”. Not only Christ, but also Buddha emphasizes this
in their ow n w ords. I am not forgetting such expressions as “A
new law I give unto you”, but am referring to the whole
attitude. T he “ new law” is that o f the proceeding G od asdistinguished from the old Godhead, and in this sense every
gospel is new, and at the same time this “new” is always the
same “novelty”, not a personal one. 1use “genius”, then, in the
m odern sense o f a person ex traordinarily gifted in expression
o f a personal experience. Those o thers such as Christ, Dante,
Dionysius, etc, are rather “heroes” in the Greek sense.
I have no do ub t that by a further definition o f terms we
might reach a clear agreement.
Many thanks for your letter,
Very sincerely
PS: If for exam ple, to take an ext ravagan t case, if anyone
accused m e o f “ genius” , I should reply w ith Gleizes: Mon art,je
I’ai voulu un metier . . . ainsi, je pense de ne pas etre humainement
inutile.
Professor Raymond S. Stites, Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA.
Albert Gleizes, French cubist painter and writer on art and religious themes.
T o PROFESSOR RAYMOND S. STITES
January 31, 1937Dear Professor Stites:
If you will get Etudes Traditionnelles for Dec 1938, you will
find an article by Guenon, “La Porte Etroite” in which the
theory o f the 7 rays o f the sun is stated w ith g reat exactitude
and simplicity.
AKC
Postcard to Professor StitesThe article in question was reproduced as chapter XLI in the posthumous
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 466/484
collection o f Rene G uen on’s studies on sym bolism, Symboles fondam etitaux de
la science sacree, Paris, 1962, reprinted 1982, and would be more accessible
there.
T o PROFESSOR RAYMOND S. STITES
April 12, 1937
Dear Professor Stites:
I have not yet published on the Seven Rays o f the Sun, except
for a br ie f reference in a little book on The Symbolism o f the
Dome which is to be published by Harvard University Press
soon. I have given a lecture at Ann A rbor on “ Is A rt aSuperstition or a Way o f Life?” and shall send you it when
prin ted.
I do not by any means cite Bach as a genius—but as
something better, a master craftsman. Wagner is a genius using
the material for his own ends rather than for its own sake.
N o doubt, the end o f the road is beyond all art: bccause the
reality is not in any likeness nor in any way expressible. In the
meantime Plato (etc) does not require to look directly at theSun before one has acquired the eagle-eye, but much rather to
look directly at the shadows and through them at the Sun.
M aterialism and sentimentality imply a looking at the shadow s
for their ow n sake. T he love o f fine bodies is all right: b ut for
those “ w ho can think o f noth ing nob ler than bodies” (St
Thomas). One can decide to play with the kaleidoscopic pattern
o f things: o r to see this as a pattern e m bro idered on a
perm anent ground. The metaphysical whole or holy man
cannot make ou r kind o f distinction between w hat a thing is andwhat it means; all values are traditionally at the same time
substantial and transubstandal (the Eucharist preserves an
isolated survival o f this once universal po int o f view). T o speak
o f the picture tha t is no t in the colours does no t destroy the
colours bu t adds som ething to the definition o f w hat can be
experienced through the aesthetic surfaces. The whole mandoes not only feel (aesthetics) but also understands (cognition)
what is expressed and to which he is attracted by the colours. I’mdiscussing all this once more in a long introduction to theforthcom ing book by R owland, o f reproductions of Indian
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 467/484
frescocs— a discussion o f the “ N ature o f Buddh ist A rt” . Art is
not a luxury but a necessity.Siva is by no means the only “ guard ian” o f the arts. All are
referred to divine sources, in various ways.
Very sincerely,
Raymond S. Stites, Yellow Springs, Ohio, USA.
‘T he S ym bolism o f the D om e’ was actually published initially in the Indian
Historical Quarterly, Calcutta, XIV, 1938, and then in Coomaraswamy 1:
Selected Papers, Traditional Ar t and Symbolism. See Bibliography.
‘Is Art a S up erstitio n or a Way o f Life?’, American Review, New York, IX,
1937. T he six lectures men tioned w ere published by Jo hn Stevens Pa m
phle ts , N ew port, Rhode Island USA, 1937.
Xmas Day 1943
I do not have all o f Cusa ’s works. The words Mens sine
desiderio non intelligit, et sine intellectu non desiderat are from one
o f his sermons at Brixcn, my source being E. Vansteenberghe,
Autour de la docte ignorance, M unster, 1915, p 56. C f
Bonaventura, Non est perfecta cognitio sine dilectione, I Sent, d. 10,q. 1, q 2, fund 1 (see J-M Bissen, L ’Exemplarisme divin selon S t
Bonaventure, Paris, 1929, p 95). . . . In othe r words, I suppose,the will is involved in all real knowing; we cannot know
something in which we arc not inter-est-ed.
Cordially,
O nly this paragraph was available to the editors, w ith no indication of the
addressee. It is included because o f the imp ortanc e o f the citations and A K C ’s
conclusion, for in any traditional epistemology it is the whole man that
knows and not only the cerebral part.
To PROFESSOR H. H. ROWLE Y
May 10, 1945
Dear Professor H. H. Rowley:
Many thanks for sending me your “Submission in Suffer
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 468/484
ing”, which I have been reading with much interest. I think it
will conduce to clarification if we equate karma w ith ananke and
dharma with heimarmene, “ fortun e” and “ destiny” , respectively.
I am n o t sure that we ough t to separate the idea o f subm ission
in suffering from that o f subm ission in pleasure; these are
contraries by which we ought never to be dis-tracted (see Bhagavad Gita II. 14, 38, 57). O ur only reasonable attitude
towards the contraries that fortune (by the ineluctable opera
tion o f mediate causes) b rings up on us is one o f patience; on the
other hand, it is our part to cooperate with our destiny, if we arc
ever to reach our destination.
This patience under the slings of fortune is an apatheia in the
original high m eaning o f the w ord— a not-being subject-to-
patholo gical-sta tes or “ affections” ; the man who is overcom e by such bein g in fact pathetic. O n this patience, cf MarcusAurelius X. 28 “to the rational being [ie, obedient to the God
and Daimon within him, V. 10] only has it been granted of
freewill to yield to what befalls, whereas merely to yield is a
matter of necessity, anankaion, for all” ; c f Philo, LA III. 21
active and passive submission (com m only thou gh t o f as
“ Stoic” positions, bu t M arcus Aurelius and Philo are essentially
Platonists, and only accidentally “Stoic”).
Did I send you my “Recollection, Indian and Platonic”? If
not, I will do so.
Very sincerely,
H. H. Rowley, see page 75.
T o THE REV PROFESSOR H. H. ROWLEY D .D .
July 8, 1946
Dear Rowley:
I was much interested in your Unity o f O T , and fully agreethat “sacrifice must bear a two-way traffic or none.” The
position you argue against is closely paralleled in th at o f theOrientalists w ho greatly overemphasize the opposition o f ritualto gnosis in the Vedic tradition. I think this over-emphasis
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 469/484
arises from rationalistic m isunderstanding o f the use o f rites,
and the view o f same as “hocus-pocus” .Reverting to my last letter, I might suggest a glance at
Layard’s preface to his Stone, Men o f Malekula (1942) in which
he speaks o f “ the megalithic ritual . . . as essentially a mystery
in the sense in which the Church uses this word.” Layard ishim self bo th a first rate anthropologist bu t also pro foundly a
Christian (see his recent book, The Lady o f the Hare).
With Kindest regards,
H. H. Ro wley , sec p 75.
Jo hn Layard, see correspo ndenc e, pp 42 and 226 ff.
Hocus-pocus: A K C w as fully awa re that this was a corru ption , in mo re sensesthan one, o f wo rds from the most solemn part of the Roman Rite Mass
(according ot the Missal o f Pope St Pius V), com m only referred to as the
Tridentine Mass.
T o H . G . R A W L I N S O N
December 10, 1946
Dear Rawlinson:
By the way, ap ropos o f “ no sentience in N irvan a” , the
traditional doctrine is that there is no sentience after death, the
body alone being an instrum ent o f feeling— Brhadar Up 4.5.13,
Axiochus, Diogenes Laertius, x. 64, 124, also in OT: “the dead
know not anything.”
O f course I cannot at all agree with your view o f the Vcdic
sacrifice. In any case, the Buddha’s (in S 1.169) substitution ofinterna l sacrifice is only an echo o f the old teachings about the
A gn ihotra in $A X, SB X I.5.6.3, SB X.5.4.16; c f already in RV
VIII.70.3, na yajnair.
Very sincerely,
H. G. Raw linson , see p 39.
The reader is referred again to Whitall Perry’s remarks on pp v and vi
(cspcciall the latter) regarding AKC’s seeming blindness towards the posth um ous states which fo r m ost souls in te rvene between th e pre sent life
and final liberation. ‘N o sentience in Nir va na ’ is und ou bted ly and even
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 470/484
necessarily true, given that Nirvana is an eternal pleroma. But to say or to
imp ly th at this can be true o f all post-mortem states is to ignore Scripture and
Tradition, or to artificially oppose one teaching to another. One need only
consider the teachings on posthu m ous beatitude and suffering to be found in
all traditions; or, more specifically, Dante’s D ivine Comedy, which is full of
sentience up to the celestial pilgrim ’s final illumination. D r C oom arasw am y,o f course, kn ew all this; w e can only conclude that, for reasons best kno w n
to himself, he chose to ignore anything less than an absolutist perspective. It
is true, how eve r, that the Vedanta is ‘con na tural’ w ith a kind o f acosm ism.
To MRS PHILIP MAIRET
January 10, 1937
Dear Ethel Mary:
It was very good to hear from you again and to hear what you
are doing. Y our scheme o f weav ing history is very interesting.
But I also think you ought to go deeper, that is in the sense of
the “ Little Mysteries” and the initiation o f craftsmen (no t that
this can be restored artificially, but that it is an important part
o f “h istory ”— the “ secret histo ry” o f the Middle Ages, which
is so much more relevant that the dated facts). . . . Behind allw eaving lies the web o f image-bearing cosmic light, the solar
spider’s web.
As to the essays, I will on ly say I will see if any thing comes
up to write for you—I am so deeply immersed in other work
tha t I do no t like to be taken o ff to w rite anyth ing else, th o’ I
have to do it sometimes (I am giving 2 broadcasts on the use ofart this month).
As to the “new expression” to which we are tending.Yes— because this is the end o f the Kali Yuga, and every death
m ust be followed by a resurrection, o f which the early signs
may be already perceptible. But this only takes place when the
seed has died. There is no life in this present civilization, and no
hope for it. For all its apparent progress it already smells toheaven o f death. Hope, or rathe r certain expectation, is forwhat may be 500 years hence. What do we care about time?3000 BC is ju st as real and present to m e as now . In the
“ m eanwhile” , the most valuable thing is to preserve, as if in anark, the always known truth, and to carry it over the flood.
I agree that probably the whole world will become communist
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 471/484
before the daw n.* But this revolt o f the prole ta ria t, this
dem ocracy , is the last stage o f rcm otion from likeness to the
K ingd om o f God, where all things are in due hierarchy and
“ order” proceeds no t from below, but from above. H istory: (1)
Suprem acy o f the spiritual autho rity (Brahman ism, for exam
ple) and union o f spir itual and royal pow er (priest kings o f
ancient civilizations); (2) revo lt o f the royal po w er (ksatriyas,
Junkers, the “R eform ation” ); (3) revolt o f the econom ic pow er
(bourgeoisie, industrialism); (4) revolt o f the proletarian pow er
(democracy, communism)—a descending scale.
In the m ids t o f this, at all levels, it remains possible for the
individual to work out his own salvation, and that is his first
duty.
I would like once more to recommend to you (1) Eckhart (2)wo rks o f Rene Guenon, eg, to begin with La Crise du monde
moderne; also the magazine Etudes Traditionnelles (where I also
now often publish).
I have been occupied all winter and not yet printed, what
may be little books (1) on Deification—Indian and St Bernard
(2) on reincarnation and transmigration, two very different
things, completely misinterpreted. Reincarnation is rebirth in
one’s children here and now. Transmigration is a temporalfashion o f speaking o f the om nipresence o f the spirit, which as
it were migrates from body to another. As to deification, the
whole theme has been confused by an attachment to the
“ im m ortality o f the soul” . All esoteric Christian doctrine
teaches, on the con trary, that the soul must pu t itse lf to death. The
greatest sorrow o f man should be— that he is. “Deification” is a
m atter o f the transference o f consciousness from the soul to the
spirit; and thus on ly, in the w ord s o f St Paul, can we becom e“one spirit” with the Spirit. To reach this point the whole idea
o f the created soul over against a creating God m ust be
outgrown—as Eckhart expresses it, it is God’s will that we
should become w hat H e as G od . . . is not—this is the breaking through (John, “I am the door')-, as in Indian tradition, passing through the Sun, no t merely basking in the light o f the
Sun, b ut to becom e a ray o f the Sun—w hich brings us back to
weaving, since the “ rays” are the wrap o f the Universe.
Best love from,Ananda
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 472/484
*I f this opinion seems excessive (and it does not necessarily refer to the
‘official’ part o f the U SSR ), c om pare it with sim ilar views ind epend ently
arrived at and expressed in The Tares and the Good Grain, by Tage Lindbom.
Lindbom, a Swede, was for many years an official in that country’s marxist
social dem ocra tic party, and he came to reject m arxism fo r wh at he perceived
to be its groundlessness and inner contradictions.
Ethel M ary was the first M rs Ananda Coom arasw am y, and she later married
Philip Mairet who had a long association with AKC; and the couple
remained on am icable term s w ith him until the end o f his life. M airet edited
the New English Weekly.
To R A MA P. C O O M A R A S W A M Y
1944
My dear Rama:
The following is in response to your question about images:
it says in Exodus xx, 4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness o f anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters
under the earth”,
BECAUSE God instructed Moses with definite directions,as in Exodus xxv, 9: “According to all that I (God) show thee,after the pattern o f the tabernacle, and the patterns o f all the
instrum ents thereof, even so shall ye make it. ” Th en God lists
the things that are proper to H IS T A B E R N A C L E : you know
by now th at this world that we live in is in imitation o f that world
that God lives in; n ow then God gives specific patterns the which
Moses received and brought to his people, for the things that
are proper for man to have and use. Anyth in g other than those
specified by God are forbidden as subhuman, at least as unworthy of
men who worship God and take His and only His directions astheir means of living.
Chapters 25 through 31 give the most wonderful descriptiono f what is suitable for God ’s followers to do and have. At one poin t Moses wonders who and how these th ings shall be made,and in Chapters 31-32, it says:
Sec, 1 have called by nam e Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son ofH ur, o f the tribe o fJudah: (3) And I have filled him with theSpirit o f God, in wisdom and in understanding, and inknowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, (4) to devise
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 473/484
cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
(5) and in cutting o f stones, to set them , and in carving
timber, to w ork in all manner o f w orkm ansh ip. (6) and I,
behold , I have given w ith him Aholiab, the son o f
Ahisamach, o f the tribe o f Dan: and in the hearts o f all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have
commanded thee:
N ow God has provid ed for His tabernacle on earth (our
world) all that is proper fo r man to have, and the way to make
these things, as He declared in Exodus xxxi-xxxii: by those
who are “wise hearted ” , and filled with H IS “wisdom and skill”.
A nd only that which is made by these “wise-hearted, and
filled with HIS wisdom and skill” can be rightly called art. Youought to know this, you who have often heard this discussed.
N O W AS T O W H Y ONE SHALL OR SHALL NO T W OR SHIP AN
i m a g e : A ll works o f art are images o f something; images arc
reminders, representations and signs. It all depends on
w he ther a man on seeing an im age o f God is such a man as can
be reminded by it o f God, or is he such a man as to be able only to see
the image (or clay) and not what it is supposed to remind him of? It
would indeed be dangerous to allow such a man to have animag e o f God, for he w ou ld mistake the stone, paint-
p ig m cnt, the w ood, w hatsoever the im age is made o f for his
God. (T ha t’s rightly called the wo rship o f an image, or
graven image.)
But there are those w ho use the image as a reminder, and only
when they are in the presence o f the real thing no longer need the
reminder.
There is the m atter o f imp ortance; rightly used, images, like
every other thing on earth, have their value, but to use the
image in place o f the real thing , as if it were the real thing , is
wrong and forbidden, e x a m p l e : When you travel by motor car,
you see route numbers on the way, these arc symbols or
images; you reach your destination, you do not take up all the
signs along the way (other people likewise use them ), o r do you
take up the boat or the bridge when you have crossed to the
other side of the river? You use these things when you need
them , likewise images; bu t it wou ld be silly to say they are nouse while you are still crossing overl
In India, it is the cus tom to desecrate all the clay images o f the
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 474/484
household on Thursdays, and on Fridays you go to the bazaar
and buy fresh clay images which are taken to the Ganges and
there consecrated and made holy; these are then used in the
average home for less than a week, and once more the same
cerem ony, o f discarding and acquiring new images, is enacted;
this is a w ond erful m ethod o f keeping people from gettingattached to the clay in the clay-image, but to use it as a reminder or
sign o f the divinity it represents.
Sankaracharya was a very great scholar in India and he too
used images in the way above mentioned. Once he felt
embarassed, he thought it was childish; however, this is what
he concluded: “ God, be pleased to forgive me for worshipping
You in this Tem ple throu gh this Image, I, wh o know You have
no special abode here, but are everywhere, and that you haveno special form, for You are not this image nor are You
anything.”
This does no t mean tha t he intended to change his ma nne r of
worship, but it is an explanation that he understood that the
image was fo r him only a 'sign post.
All the religions o f the world except the Jews and M oham
medans m ake use o f Icons, or images, o r symbols.
Th e Jew s and the M oham m edans forbade it because they feltthat the real thing should not be represented lest on the “ Day o f
Judgem en t” w hen G od calls all the dead to rise, these things
will fail to come to life. A nd they are very strong on God being
the only and the very creator, and all the things that men make
shall not imitate the things that God made, but shall distinctly
look like something else, ie, that the symbol shall look like a
m athematical sym bol o r sign, so that the mistake o f the
imitation for the real thing should not have the slightest chance
for existing. This is the way they wish to avoid error. But for
those who wish to risk the true use, and purpose to take great care not
to make the wrong use o f images, fo r them also it is right that they shall
have the freedom to do what is right, and should they fa il , it is at their
own peril. And they shall, o f course, take the consequences,
should they m ake the erro r o f thinking that the clay is other
than a sign post for the mind to use on its way to concentrationor contemplatio or Yoga.
All the religions (as I started to sjy) have perm itted the use oficons or symbols, made in stone, plaster, paint, wood, words(which are praises o f the Lord) o r in any othe r m aterials
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 475/484
whatever, with the definite restrictions, that those things shall
be made according to the pattern showed thee and by those who
are “wise-hearted” and filled with the “wisdom and skill” that
God graces man with.
For religions o the r than the C hristian this expression is used:
“ Imitation o f the Eternal Idea” , in other wo rds, exactly w hatthe Christains say. W hen you read Plato, I hope in the original,
you will meet every Christian idea (including the above), but
cut m ore sharply and stated more poignantly. For the Greeks of
Plato’s time were a people who could stand for and who could
love Christ for His ferocity, but we want to make Him meek
and mild, a smooth and handsome youth; in other words, we
wish to m ake Ch rist according to ou r idea o f w hat He ought to
be; it is so m uch easier than to try to come up to H im , and youknow we like short cuts, even to heaven. But I need hardly add
that although there are short cuts to Heaven, these cannot be discovered
by a people who adore as their “Culture-Heroes” the makers of
refrigeration boxes and labor saving devices, as well as man killing
implements . . . .
Rama P. Coomaraswamy, Ananda Coomaraswamy’s son (by Dona Luisa
Co om arasw am y) w ho was 14 years old at the time. It is this, o f course,
w hich explains the atypical tone o f this letter. A no ther unusual p oin t is the
use o f the term M oharnm adan, as this is incorrect and a usage that AK C
objected to, the correct term being Muslim .
To R A MA P. C O O M A R A S W A M Y
. June 24, 1947
My dear Rama:
I am afraid my long lette r abou t caste, etc, cannot 'have
reached you. T o perform srdddha, or have it performed for one
by a Brahm an, does not make one a Brahman. O ur family is
Vcllala; this is no t a well know n caste name in N orth India, bu t
any Tamil you may run across will know it. We do wear the
yajiiopavita\ I have received upanayana from a Brahman in the
Punjab, and shall resume wearing the thread when we come toIndia. I suggested that you should accept the offer to give youupanayana in Bengal, bu t if you did not do so, there will be
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 476/484
other opportunities, and meantime you can always live like a
Hindu, and according to Brahman standards and ways . . . .
Our people are Vellalas, originally from Tanjore, but long
settled in N. Ceylon (Jaffna) and then also in Colombo. They
are Saivas\ they are given upanayana and wear the thread. We
cremate the dead and take the ashes to Benares. We keep up a
hereditary connection w ith Pandas at Allahabad. O u r people are
usually vegetarians, and employ Brahman cooks. I once
perform ed by fath er’s sraddha, bu t otherwise this has been done
m y othe r m em bers o f the family in Ceylon.
With best love,
Rama P. Coomaraswamy, as above; at this time he was travelling in India
and the Tibetan borderlands with Marco Pallis.
Yajtiopavita is the sacred thread w hich all the ‘twice b o m ’, ie, the three
uppercastes, am ong the Hindus begin wearing wh en they come o f age. Th e
rite that confers this is called upanayana.
Sraddha is a service for the dead.
T o R A M A P . C O O M A R A S W A M Y
June 25, 1947
My dear Rama:
In two recent letters, I think I mentioned numdah as material
for kurtas; I should have said pattu (patoo), as numdah is a felt
used only for rugs. There are many nice handmade woolen
materials obtainable in Punjab.Also, I think I wrote sraddha; I should have said sraddha. The
former means “faith”, the latter denotes the rite. One should be
careful to be accurate not only in translation, but also in
transliteration; to use oo for w, and so forth is slipshod.
Regarding suddha, “pure” (foods, etc, see in BG ch xviii). Our
inner and outer lives are bound up together, so that physical andspiritual purity are intimately related. Ritual purity is a discipline,
something to be done and understood. Do not think o f it as a
mechanical formality. In Iceland, “no one turned his faceunwashed to Holyfell”, and this fastidious instinct towards sacredthings can be found all over the world. It may be possible, but it is
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 477/484
not likely, to be fastidious inwardly only. Those who are crudeoutwardly are likely to be crude inwardly. All “means” (Skr =upaya, rites, imagery, etc) are indispensable supports, until one has
reached the “end o f the road”, which is still a long, long way off
for those are most apt to believe they can do without them!
Love,
Father
Rama P. Coomaraswamy, as above.
T o D O N A L U I S A C O O M A R A S W A M Y
N ovem ber 23, 1935
Darling:
It certainly was a relief to hear from you after 20 days! I am
looking forw ard to hearing m ore about Gurukul. As to magic,
one must remember that though prevalent, it is by no means
encouraged for Wayfarers, b ut is a “hindran ce” . I am just
halfway through correcting proof (mainly checking somehu nd red o f references) in “ Angel and Tita n” wh ich is at last to
ajjpear, taking 47 pp o f JA O S. As to D r Ross, he made no
proper arrangem ents for paym ent, and I have to prove the
debt. (I have statements from Mr Hawes, Edgar Parker, and
M r Ho lmes, etc) and in any case the estate will take some time
to settle; I shall be glad when it is done—this month I couldn’t
have paid Holmes but for $50 received from College Art
Association for the Introd uction I recently sent you (I hope y ou
like it, I think it quite right fo r its purpose). Aaron w as here last
night, we had a great talk. At the close, discussing circles, he
said “a circle has no ends”; on the contrary I said, “its ends
coincide”; he saw the point but finds it hard to think in that
fashion. I hope several long letters sent a week or two backreach you (addressed to Raj pur). Did I m ention that M anu’s
daughter is called “Rib” in X, 82, 23 [presumably the referenceis to the Rig Veda]? By the way, Aaron’s reply was “That’s
what my father would have said”—I mean about the circles.They both (Warners) ask to be remembered. We are beginningto have light snow. I imagine it’s quite pleasantly cool at
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 478/484
Hardwar. Also it must be a really Hindu place, with pilgrims
com ing and going. I may w rite a jo in t article w ith P ro f Furfey,o f Catholic U niv, W ashington, on enclosed lines. I spent $150
this month, and as I said am hoping that you can save all above
$100 against Spring and Summer. I think as I said last time, you
should p robably stay there till end o f April and then go toFrance for a m on th o r two. I think your dream o f climb ing the
pravat was good ; a variant of the ladder symbo lism, and
analogous to the “upstream” [pratikiila, pratisota, etc) journey;
uphill, countercurrent. When it gets cold up there you will be
able to get nice pattu to make up. 1shouldn’t w orry about what
you can read in the RV; the important thing is to get command
o f the vocabulary and style, we can do the rest here. It comes
infinitely easier to me n ow than a year ago, and by con trast theUpanisads and BG are no effort at all; bu t o f course “ classical”
Skr, which most people know better, would be harder for us.
By the way, Nala-Damayanti = Manas and Vac, etc. As you
know, there is only one story to be told. She holding her
svyamvara, “own choice” is the patim icchanti stri of RV and
Brahmanas.
1 w rote tw o days ago “ Death is imm ortal, Life m or tal” ,
today found SB X, 5,2,3: “Death is the Person in the Sun, andthe Light that shines is what is alive; therefore, Death does not
die, for he is within, therefore he is not seen, for he is within
what is alive.” NB: the best translation of amrta is not
immortal, but simply living as contrasted with dying. The
devas are alive, man is so to speak “dead and alive”, mortal,
corruptible. Amrta rarely means “immortal” (Bloomfield, I
m ust say, already recognized this, but m any have forgo tten it).
Buddhist Mara = Mrtya = Gandharva = Kamadeva = Eros;
hermeneutically Am or has been in terpreted as a-mors. Love-and-
Death unifies; Life divides.
W ith Tho m as, “ the state o f glory is not under the Sun” , cf
SB X, 5,1,5: “ W hatsoever is on this side o f the Sun, all that is possessed by D eath” . It is th rough the Sun th at one escapes;“ no man com eth to the (Dragon-) Father save through M e.”
26th
Your second letter from Gurukula today. Not awfullyenthusiastic. It is difficult about Ram. I don’t see how we can
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 479/484
possib ly sacrifice our time and w ork to the extent it would
involve here. I was at a good school, Wycliffe College, in the
country in England, now a public school and in many respects
improved, probable cost about $750 a year. But then it would
be perfectly ordin ary, it w ould take him so long to outgrow itall, like it has taken me 40 years to go back to Latin for
example. It is a terrible thing any way to think o f anyone going
through an education, it seems interminable. I think he would
have m ore at the Guruku l. A fter all it has Dayananda’s tradition
behin d it, and he was a very great man, and a very g reat Vedic
scholar. Aurob indo Ghose ,* o f Pondicherry, is also a great
man; I have some o f his books here, and you may have com e
across some there. Great men have developed, and will stilldevelop under Indian conditions, however slipshod etc.
As to adoption , if impossible in India, th at’s that, perhaps we
can arrange it here. I daresay Aaron could wrangle it for us. I
have ju st com pleted a w eek’s real tapas and sramana, on 47 pp o f
“Angel and Titan”, checking several hundred references; quite
exhausting, you could have helped if you had been here! The
paper is so lo ng and detailed as to be alm ost unreadable. It’s
almost a book about RV, but you will enjoy it anyway.Helen Joh nso n I have not m et, b ut is a good scholar ofja inaSkr, translating Hemacandra’s Trisastisaldkapurusacaritra. As to
fighting in RV, it is all “w ithin you ” , o f course. There are
several passages in RV emphasizing that the whole business is
maya and lila, that Indra never had and never will have any
enemy, and moreover, making it clear that all the tools and
weapons they speak o f are ndmani, ie, “ideas”. But RV as it
stands (like Bh Gita) is a book for Ksatriyas and therefore
exoteric and karmakanda essentially, with only here and there jnanakanda indications; it takes for granted all that is in the
Upanisads, which represent the contemporary esoteric part, bu t published later, and there fore showin g some linguistic
difference. In any case there is an absolute consistency in the
orthodox teaching throughout, nothing new after RV, butsom e expansion and so to speak underlining o f certain
meanings. One has to take the whole and see its consistency;
there is no one word or statement that can be omitted, each(even i f only said once) is essential; like the visual image seen indhyana w hich fills the whole field and consists o f parts allequally inevitable.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 480/484
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 481/484
Bh Gita is o f course the same battle; all these battles are
exoterically external, esoterically within you; and true bothways, for they are really external for those who see externally.
If you really understand RV, Upanisads are unnecessary. Th e
great mistake most people make is to begin with the Ups and
Buddh ism; if one began w ith RV (as one was supposed to do in
India) there would be no latter “mystery”, but all the later
doctrine wou ld be “o f course” . The Ups are magnificent, bu t
all their tejas is Vedic, not a great new discovery. No more
new, and perhaps even less new, than Eckhart, As for the
stupo r o f those you meet, w ho are asayamanah, susupanah,
abridhyah, jiryya miirah, what they need is to be awakened
(budh), to be made punar yuvanam, punar sutah, “quick” (amrtah)
who are now “dead” (martyah). NB: amrta in RV is generally“ alive”, rarely “ im m or tal” , if indeed ever; and being mortal
does not refer to the fact that one dies after full term o f life, but
to the nature o f ou r “ life” , which is a m atter o f constant deaths,
day after day.
Dearest love from,
Ananda
Dona Luisa Coomaraswamy, AKC’s wife, was in India studying Sanskrit
when this letter was written.
To W A L T E R S H E W R I N G
August 6, 1947
My dear Walter Shewring:
. . . I’m sorry to hear that like m yself you are slowed up. N o
do ub t these later days have drained us all o f strength, in spite o f
ourselves and o f such detachm ent as we m ay have acquired.
Only this week I received a very tragic letter from a man who I
had tho ug ht o f as a pow erful healer o f others—and now seekshealing for himself.
I think you know we— my wife and I— plan to retire to
comparative solitude somewhere in N India not later than theend o f 1948. . . .
N o doubt the whole world is “ in for” a long period o f
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 482/484
suffering fo r its sins, and w e are all involved, som e more, some
less, in the earning o f such retribution— which w ould be true
enough even from a secular point of view. . . .
Sincerely,
Walter Shewring, identified on page 23.
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 483/484
FAREWEL ADDRESS
It seems fitting to co nclude this selection from the correspon denc e o f D r
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy with this farewell spcech read at a dinner
arranged by som e o f his close friends and held at the H arvard C lub in Bo ston
on August 22, 1947.
I am m ore than honoured— somew hat, indeed, overcome— by
your kindness in being here tonight, by the messages that have
been read, and by the presenta tion o f the Festschrift edited by
Bharatha Iyer. I shou ld like to recall the names o f four m enw ho m ight have been present had they been living: D r D enham
W. Ross, D r Jo hn Lodge, D r Lucien Scherman, and Professor
James H . W oods, to all o f w ho m I am indebted. T he form ation
o f the Indian collections in the M useum o f Fine Arts was alm ost
w holly due to the initiative o f D r Denham Ross; D r Lodge,
who wrote little, will be remembered for his work in Boston
and Washington and also, perhaps, for his aphorism, “From
the Stone Age until now, quelle degringolade”. I still hope tocomplete a work on Reincarnation with which Dr Scherman
charged me not long before his death; and Professor Woods
was one o f those teachers who can never be replaced.
M ore than ha lf o f m y active life has been spent in Boston. I
want to express my gratitude in the first place to the Directors
and Trustees o f the M useum o f Fine Arts, w ho have always left
me entirely free to carry on research not only in the field of
Indian art, bu t at the same time in the w ider field o f the whole
traditional theory o f art and the relation o f man to his w ork,
and in the fields o f com parative religion and metaphysics to
which the problem s o f iconograph y naturally lead. I am
grateful also to the American Oriental Society whose editors,
however much they differed from me “by temperament and
training” , as Professor Norm an Brow n once said, have always
felt that I had “a right to be heard”, and have allowed me to beheard. And all this despite the fact that such studies as I have
made necessarily lead me back to the enunciation o f relativelyunp opular sociological doctrines. For, as a student o f hum anmanufactures, aware that all making is per artem, I could not bu t
8/18/2019 Cartas Selecionadas F Schuon
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cartas-selecionadas-f-schuon 484/484
see that, as Ruskin said, “ industry w ithout art is bruta lity” , and
that men can never be really happy unless they bear an
individual responsibility not only for what they do taut for the
kind and quality o f what they make. I could not fail to see that
such happiness is forever denied to the majority under theconditions o f m aking that are imposed upon them by w hat is
euphemistically called “free enterprise”, that is to say, under
the conditions o f production for profit rather than for use; and
no less denied in those totalitarian forms o f society in w hich the
folk is ju s t as much as in a capitalist regim e reduced to the level
o f a proletariat. Looking at the works o f art that are considered
w orthy o f preservation in our m useums, and w hat were once
com m on objects o f the marketplace, I could no t bu t realize thata society can only be considered truly civilized when it is
possible for every man to earn his living by the very w ork he
would rather be doing than anything else in the world—a
con dition that has only been attained in social orders integrated
on the basis of vocation, svadharma.
At the same time I should like to emphasize that I have never
buil t up a philosophy o f m y ow n or wished to establish a new
top related