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The great 20th century metaphysician Frithjof Schuon was also a spiritual master familiar with the spiritual struggles of modern seekers. He once wrote, “To be a human being means to be connected with God; life has no meaning without this.” This “human vocation” means that until we find a personal connection with God we are not able to connect with the innermost being that lies locked up within the human heart. Schuon's simplest solution to all people of all religious persuasions: “You must pray, always pray.”

James S. Cutsinger, author and editor, has collected into this volume some of the most memorable writings on prayer and the spiritual life by this great 20th century spiritual figure. Prayer Fashions Man includes an appendix of excerpts from letters and other writings which have not been published before. Thus, previous readers of Schuon will rejoice in this wonderful collection of many of his best writings on prayer and the human vocation, as well as seeing some materials they have never seen before. Readers new to Schuon will find, as countless others have, insights on spirituality that call to their innermost being in a universal language that all people of all times and all religions can, and indeed must, understand.

“In this finely selected anthology the editor takes us to the very heart and soul of Schuon’s message, bringing to light the ‘categorical imperative’ of prayer that underlies the whole corpus of Schuon’s works and without which those works would remain merely theoretical. To read this book is to feel the irresistible attraction of prayer, Schuon’s reflections on the spiritual life being suffused with an alchemical power that can arise only from a consciousness rooted in the Object of prayer. What Schuon has experienced he conveys, and in so doing galvanizes our own aspirations for ‘the one thing needful’.”
—Reza Shah-Kazemi, author of Paths to Transcendence: According to Shankara, Ibn ‘Arabi, and Meister Eckhart