Jean Biès

Jean Biès was born in Bordeaux, France in 1933. He studied Classics at the University of Algiers and later at the Sorbonne. He was first influenced by the East during his childhood and adolescence spent in Algiers. At the age of twenty he discovered the philosophia perennis through the works of René Guénon and Frithjof Schuon. He later met several representatives of traditional wisdom including the Sufi sheikh Adda Bentounès in 1952, Swami Siddheswarananda in 1954 and 1956, and Frithjof Schuon in 1967, 1968, and 1971. In 1973, he defended his doctoral dissertation in which he studied the relationship between French literature and Hindu thinking (Littérature française et la Pensée Hindoue). This work was awarded the Prix d’Asie by the Académie des Sciences d’Outre-mer. The same year, he traveled extensively throughout India.

During his career as a teacher of French at the High School in Nay and as a Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Pau, he also gave several conferences in France and in Switzerland, Belgium, and Venezuela. He wrote numerous articles which appeared in a range of reviews, while at the same time obstinately pursuing his work as a writer. He retired in 1993 in order to devote his time entirely to his works. In 1997, he was named Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

Jean Biès’ works are divided into theoretical essays: presentations of traditional teachings, travel and personal accounts, testimonies, and collections of poetry—some 10,000 pages of published and unpublished texts. Situated at the confluence of East and West, and in the constant light of the Perennial Philosophy at an especially critical historical time, his work offers spiritual “keys” and suggestions for the urgent preparation for the future.

Since 1962, he and his wife have lived in a country home, “Saint-Michel-la-Grange,” at the foot of the Pyrénées.

The work of Dr. Jean Bies has not been well circulated in English, and so World Wisdom has published Returning to the Essential: The Selected Writings of Jean Bies, a selection of his most important works featuring a variety of topics and styles. In addition, Dr. Biès has contributed the essay “Sacredness” to Light from the East: Eastern Wisdom for the Modern West, and “Theology of the Icon” to Ye Shall Know The Truth: Christianity and The Perennial Philosophy.