Endnotes

1 - For an excellent introduction to the “traditionalist” or “perennialist” school see Kenneth Oldmeadow, Traditionalism: Religion in the light of the Perennial Philosophy, Sri Lanka, 2000.

2 - It could be said schematically that Guénon’s metaphysical idiom was Hindu, his view of initiation and its relationship to exoterism Islamic, and his symbolist vision Taoist or Far-Eastern.

3 - “Traditional art, in Coomaraswamy’s view, was always directed towards a twin purpose: a daily utility, towards what he was fond of calling ‘the satisfaction of present needs’, and towards the preservation and transmission of moral values and spiritual teachings derived from the tradition in which it appeared.” Oldmeadow, p.33.

4 - In keeping with its Islamic orientation, Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s reading of Schuon emphasizes the traditional dimension of Schuon’s perspective: “Perhaps no other concept is so crucial for the understanding of his writings (Schuon’s). Schuon is first and foremost an expositor of traditional teachings and wants to be known as such.” (The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon, Element, 1986, p.8) Although there is no doubt about the traditional aspect of Schuon’s, it is interesting to note that the word “tradition” is not included in any title of his books by contrast with the more frequently used terms “esoterism” and “gnosis.” Let us add that the word “esoterism” is by and large conspicuously absent from Nasr’s introduction to the Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon..

5 - Esoterism As Principle And As Way, Bedfont, Middlesex, 1981, Note 164, p.157

6 - “Esoterism, with its three dimensions of metaphysical discernment, mystical concentration and moral conformity,
includes in the final analysis the only things that Heaven demands in an absolute fashion, all other demands being relative and
therefore more or less conditional.” “Ambiguité de l’exotérisme”, Approches du
phénomène religieux, Paris, 1984, p.41.

7 - As testified by Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s own assertion of being “the person who knows Frithjof Schuon’s
writings best in the world.” (Conference in Honor of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Washington DC, November 2, 2001)

8 - “I was born into a family of well-known scholars and physicians in Tehran in 1933. (…) My paternal grandfather
hailed from a family of seyyeds (sâdât) (descendants of the Prophet of Islam. (…)” The
Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Carbondale, 2001, p.3. Nasr’s ancestry includes many important figures of Persian
science, literature and spirituality. Let us mention that his paternal grandfather was a celebrated physician, while his maternal
great grandfather, Shaykh Fadlallâh Nûrî, was a most prominent figure of religion and politics in modern Persian
history. Mohammad Faghfoory has also shown interestingly how Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s intellectual destiny is in a sense a
continuation of his father’s, Seyyed Valiallah Khan Nasr: “Those who have known Seyyed Valiallah Khan have in fact
found Seyyed Hossein Nasr to be a mirror image of his father. (…) Lessons which Seyyed Hossein Nasr learned from his father
during the first twelve years of his life have been his guide during the last fifty-four years and will continue to be his source
of inspiration for the years to come.” “The Forgotten Educator: The Life of Seyyed Vali Allah Khan Nasr”, in
Knowledge is Light. Essays in Honor of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, edited by Zailan Moris, Chicago, 1999, p.230.

9 - This is something important to bear in mind when one wishes to do full justice to his understanding of and attachment to
tradition. Seyyed Hossein Nasr is in a sense himself a remarkable product of tradition.

10 - For his part, Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes about Schuon’s “conversion” to Islam, a term
that Schuon has never used to refer to his own spiritual journey: “From the time of his
conversion to Islam, [Schuon] lived as a Muslim although hidden from the public…”
“Frithjof Schuon and the Islamic Tradition,” Sophia, Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 1999,
p.30-31.

11 - "René Guénon et la tradition hindoue", Alain Daniélou, Dossier H René Guénon, ed.
Pierre-Marie Sigaud, L'Age d'Homme: Lausanne-Paris, 1984, p.138.

12 - See Mirror of the Intellect, Quinta Essentia, 1986.

13 - One must also mention, in the same vein, the works of Fernand Brunner, Whitall Perry,
Wolfgang Smith, and Giovanni Monastra; the latter two being established scientists in their
own right.

14 - “With his unyielding stance, Nasr also opens up a new avenue for facing up the challenge of modern science without
sacrificing the traditional ideas and values, and for rejecting the totalizing claims of the modern secular worldview which
continue ever increasingly to dominate every facet of human life. Considering the current positions taken on science, which have
been either total submission in the case of modernism or an inchoate rejection in the case of postmodernism and its associates,
Nasr’s critical approach offers a veritable alternative to both extremes, inviting us to a serious deliberation over the very
terms of the problem. In this sense, the reassertion of the religious view of the universe and its meaning for natural sciences is
indubitably of prime importance, not only for the followers of any particularreligion but for the whole of humanity.” Ibrahim
Kalin, The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, edited by L.E. Hahn, Randall E. Auxier and Lucian W. Stone, Jr., Chicago,
2001, p.458.

15 - “We can compare this particular mode of inspiration and orthodoxy that is esoterism to the rain falling vertically
from the sky, whereas the river — the common tradition — flows horizontally in a continuous flow; that is to say that
the tradition springs from a source, it declares itself connected with a given founder of a religion, whereas esoterism refers in
addition, and above all a priori, to an invisible filiation, one which in the Bible is represented by Melchizedek, Solomon and
Elijah, and which Sufism links to al-Khidr, the mysterious immortal.” “Le mystère de la substance
prophétique”, Approches du phénomène religieux, Paris, 1984, p.185.

16 - “Man has attachments, his instinct of preservation may lead him into error, and that is why, in many cases, to be
objective is to die a little. (…) “If thou wouldst reach the kernel,” said Eckhart, “thou must break the
shell.” Le Soufisme voile et quintessence, Paris, 1980, p.8.

17 - “Esoterism is without a country and it establishes itself wherever it can.” Le Soufisme voile et quintessence,
p.45.

18 - This “direction” is moreover related to Nasr’s tendency to bring the entire religion into esoterism, so
to speak; and this is no doubt in keeping with major trends of Islamic esoterism. “Islam has the tendency — in Sufism
— either to reduce or to bring the entire religion to esoterism; a tendency particularly marked in the Shiites, who go so far
as to make gnosis a confessional article of faith.” Frithjof Schuon, “Concerning Delimitations in Moslem
Spirituality”, In the Face of the Absolute.

19 - Nasr tends to equate Schuon’s universalist perspective with that of famous Sufi like Ibn ‘Arabî or
Rûmî. Such an identification is only partially valid however, as Schuon has explained himself in Sufism, veil and
quintessence. The traditional Sufi leaning toward universality must be situated in the context of love’s abolition of
boundaries and limitations,and not necessarily interpreted literally as a full recognition of the transcendent unity of religions,
a recognition that would have been anyway highly problematic in a homogeneous traditional context. The case of Ibn Arabî is
no doubt different from Rûmî’s in this respect. Still, this universalism reveals very clear boundaries as Schuon
illustrasted in the following passage: “In his Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, Ibn ‘Arabi sings: “My heart has become
receptive to every form . . . a temple for idols, a kaaba for a Moslem pilgrim, the tablets of the Torah and the book of the Koran.
I adhere to the religion of love . . “All religious forms, Ibn ‘Arabi comments, unite in the love of God, and yet:
“No religion is more excellent than the one founded on the love — and the need — of God . . . This religion of
love is the prerogative of the Moslems; for the station of the most perfect love has been imparted to the Prophet Mohammed
exclusively, and not to the other prophets; for God accepted him as his well-beloved friend.” The extenuating circumstance
for this abrupt and unintelligible denominationalism is the fact that for each religion, the Prophet who founded it is the sole
personification of the total, and not the partial, Logos; however, one might expect an esoterist not to enclose himself in this
concept-symbol, but to make mention, since he has opted for the essence, of the relativity of forms—even those that are dear
to him — and to do so in an objective and concrete, and not merely metaphorical manner; or else to remain silent, out of
pity.” Cf. Le Soufisme, p.49, note 29.

20 - Seyyed Hossein Nasr is obviously quite aware –as testified by his essays on the topic-- that esoterism cannot be
“preached.” However, his Islamic emphasis makes it sometimes difficult to distinguish between his esoteric identity and
his Islamic function, whence the ambiguities of some of his positions.

21 - A case in point is the network of juridical injunctions upon which the exoterist mentality particularly flourishes
and thrives. Another example would be what Schuon calls a pedantic or “meticulous karma-yoga” in ritual matters, which
must not be confused with an impeccable attention to the performance of daily rites.

22 - This appears for example in the way in which Nasr reads Schuon’s entire metaphysics, including his writings on
religions other than Islam, as a commentary on the shahâdah, an assertion that is literally impeccable but which has
the obvious inconvenience of appearing to “annex” traditional metaphysics to the Islamic territory. By contrast, Schuon
has tirelessly written and asserted that his doctrinal point of departure is the Advaita Vedânta. His conceptual
language is Advaitin, much more so than it is Sufi.

23 - It is important to add the caveat that Schuon specifies that this limitation, as any other, is only reprehensible to
the extent that it denies the other possibility for “the moralistic attitude is only blameworthy through its ignorance of the
opposite point of view or through its exaggeration, for in fact, the doctrine deserves on our part an element of reverential fear.
“

24 - And needless to say that these limitations have nothing to do with the level of sanctification.

25 - The Essential Writings of Frithjof Schuon, edit. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Elements, New York, 1986, p.12.

26 - Ibid., p.13.

27 - The fact that Schuon approved and saluted Nasr’s introduction to the Essential Writings does not imply
that he would have himself emphasized the same elements of his own teachings. It simply indicates that Nasr’s presentation
does not contradict nor betray the substance of Schuon’s work. Moreover, it should be noted that a spiritual Master tends to
“speak the language” of his interlocutor, which often explains why various “perceptions” and understandings
of the same message may greatly differ.

28 - Frithjof Schuon, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, Bloomington: 1986, p.115.

29 - Frithjof Schuon, Gnosis, Divine Wisdom, Bedfont: 1990, p.32

30 - “ This is the point of view of all invocatory disciplines, such as the Hindu japa-yoga or the Amidist
nembutsu (buddhanusmriti). This yoga is found in jnana as well as in bhakti: “Repeat the Sacred Name of
the Divinity,” said Shankaracharya in one of his hymns.” Ibid.

31 - “God and His Name are
identical,” as Ramakrishna said; and he certainly was not the first to say so.

32 - This reservation
(“indispensable in principle and in the majority of cases”) does not contradict the principle of “the inherence
of the whole Sharî’ah in the Dhikr alone.” First, it applies to the central rites of the religion
and not necessarily to the whole host of traditional practices and juridical edicts that the tradition carries in its wake.
Second, the expression “in principle” suggests the possibility of legitimate “facts” that would not conform to it. Thirdly, the reference to the “majority of cases” leaves room for exceptions and points to a collective norm and equilibrium rather than to an absolute spiritual necessity.

33 - Cf. Le Soufisme voile et quintessence, Paris, 1980, p.126.

34 - “We have here the two essential aspects of plenary esoterism: on the one hand the penetration of the symbols
of exoterism and on the other hand, on the contrary, the affirmation of the independence — and pre-excellence — of
essence with regard to forms, or of substance with regard to accidents, that is, precisely, the formulations of the common
religion.As regards this “non-conformist” aspect of esoterism, we would say, by way of illustration, that the
abrogations of Koranic verses on the one hand and the matrimonial exceptions in the life of the Prophet on the other hand, are
there to indicate respectively the relativity of the formal Revelation and of social morality; which amounts to saying that these
abrogations and exceptions pertain to the esoteric perspective, leaving aside their immediate and practical significance.”
Cf.

36 - Cf. Le Jeu des masques, Paris-Lausanne, 1992, p.7.

37 -Christianisme/Islam: Visions d’oecuménisme ésotérique, Milano, 1981, p.78.

38 - This eschatological vision can moreover be related to Nasr’s statement that “Jesus will return as a Muslim in
the sense that he will unite all believers in total submission to the one God.” (Newsweek, March 27, 2000, p.57)