When masters collide

René Guénon is regarded as the founder of the Traditionalist school, a current of thought which combines Perennialism of the Advaita Vedanta type with Hermetism and a conservative critique of modernity. Since the French Guénon eventually converted to Islam and moved to Egypt, Traditionalists often combine Sufi Islam with their own “esoteric” message. Some are Muslims by birth. Otherwise, there seems to be very little Traditionalists have in common. The saga of their movement, its confusing splits and (sometimes) its creative evolution, is told by Mark Sedgwick in his scholarly “Against the Modern World”. Fritjhof Schuon (another Western convert to Islam) is another leading light within Traditionalism, often considered second only to Guénon himself. Schuon took his branch of Traditionalism (the Sufi order Maryamiyya) down a somewhat different path than Guénon. This short book, published by a Traditionalist press, reprints Schuon's criticisms of Guénon. A summary written by Paul Sérant has been appended. Schuon's criticism of Guénon is often scathing and surprisingly disrespectful. Sometimes, he seems to engage in nitpicking, although it's difficult to say without access to Guénon's complete writings. But yes, his main points are more serious and solid.

One of Schuon's main objections to Guénon is the latter's abstract, intellectual and cerebral attitude towards religion and spirituality. Guénon rejected (or so Schuon charges) both “religion” and “mysticism” as species of “sentimentalism”. Instead, the truly enlightened man should deal in “metaphysics”. By contrast, Schuon has a positive appraisal of both exoteric religion and mysticism. Humans need faith, love, martyrdom and bhakti yoga, things Guénon apparently regarded as merely “exoteric”. To Schuon, they were both exoteric and esoteric. Thus, the Christian message of love is exoteric in the sense that it is preached to the masses of ordinary believers, but esoteric in the sense that only a small minority of accomplished saints can fully embody it. Schuon also has a positive view of mystical experiences and states. He emphasizes the role of the grace of God, writes that an ordinary believer who knows no “metaphysics” can be closer to God than a high-brow intellectual, and even claims that the saints are *bodily* taken up to Heaven. They sometimes descend on Earth in this bodily fashion, the Virgin Mary being the prime example (this book doesn't mention it, but Schuon claimed to have been visited by the Virgin several times, and his Sufi order was named after her). Guénon, with his Advaitin perspective, apparently rejected all this.

Schuon also sharply rebukes Guénon's view that humans aren't particularly privileged compared to other living organisms. To Schuon, even fallen humanity still bears the divine image. Nor is matter necessarily negative or evil: one of the ways in which the Self manifests itself is to create matter and the ego, a manifestation which somehow ads to the Self's perfection. With this perspective, it's hardly surprising that Schuon (who often sounds pretty eclectic or syncretistic) has a positive appraisal of Christianity, despite claiming to be a Muslim. Guénon believed that Christianity wasn't properly “initiatic”, while Schuon seems to regard the sacraments as a valid initiation (“initiation” is an important concept within Traditionalism, although I honestly don't understand what it *really* means!), especially the sacrament of baptism. He also expresses support for the Hesychasts in the Orthodox Church. To Guénon, the only valid initiation still left in the West was Masonry, a statement Schuon regards as absurd. Overall, Schuon believed that Guénon underestimated “Western man” (that is, established Western spiritual traditions), while idealizing and misinterpreting “Eastern man” (Hinduism).

Although Schuon, when he has vented his spleen, pays homage to Guénon as a path-breaker, one cannot but get the impression that their respective approaches really were very different. Guénon was the exoteric Muslim with an esoteric Advaitin-Hermetic message based on abstract “metaphysics” and abstruse intellectual treatises, while Schuon was the budding charismatic prophet who combined many different traditions (both exoteric and esoteric) in a mix that sounds more Christian than Advaitin (or Muslim, for that matter). I've read some Guénon, and has also been struck by his intellectualist approach, mimicked by his often arrogant latter-day supporters on the web, who want to be seen as better than the next guy, just because they've understood the Master's purple prose on some point the rest of the world couldn't care less about. Where in heaven's name is the *spirituality* in all this? I haven't read any Schuon (yet), but I must say that he strikes me as more in tune with what religion and spirituality is usually about, including “esoterically”. Of course, Schuon had other foibles, revealed in Sedgwick's aforementioned book (which I suppose is loathed by both Guénonians and Schuonians). But, as they say, that's another show.

Finally, a word of warning. Although Schuon was a somewhat better stylist than Guénon, none of the two contesting masters would ever win the literature prize. Thus, you will need a certain amount of patience if you want to read “René Guénon: Some observations”. Take it as a spiritual exercise!