Interview with Frithjof Schuon - on Primordiality

This is taken from a transcript of a 1995 interview with the eminent
Perennialist thinker and writer Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998).

Question : Your book The Feathered Sun reveals your interest in the American Indians. May I ask you what the stimulus of this interest or affinity is?

Frithjof Schuon: The Red Indians—and especially the Indians of the Plains—have much in common with the Japanese samurai, who very often practiced Zen spirituality; morally and aesthetically speaking, the Plains Indians were one of the most fascinating peoples of the world. It was the great mistake of the 19th century to distinguish only between “civilized people” and “savages”; there are distinctions which are far more real and important, for it is obvious that “civilization” in the ordinary sense is not the highest value of mankind, and also that the term “savage” is not suitable to the Indians.

Frithjof Schuon’s response to this question is continued on the next slide.

This is taken from a transcript of a 1995 interview with the eminent Perennialist thinker and writer Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998).

The following is a continuation of Frithjof Schuon’s response to the following question:

Question: Your book The Feathered Sun reveals your interest in the American Indians. May I ask you what the stimulus of this interest or affinity is?

Frithjof Schuon (response continued): What makes the value of a man is neither his mundane culture nor his practical or inventive intelligence, but his attitude in the face of the Absolute; and he who has the sense of the Absolute never forgets the relationship between man and virgin Nature, because Nature is our origin, our natural homeland and a most transparent Message of God. For the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, the very condition of a realistic civilization is the equilibrium between Bedouins and city dwellers, which means between nomads and sedentaries; between the healthy children of Nature and the representatives of elaborated cultural values.

This is taken from a transcript of a 1995 interview with the eminent
Perennialist thinker and writer Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998).

Question: Your art books The Feathered Sun and especially Images of Primordial and Mystic Beauty deal with the mystery of sacred nudity. Could you explain in a few words the meaning of this perspective?

Frithjof Schuon: Sacred nudity—which plays an important role not only with the Hindus but also with the Red Indians—is based on the analogical correspondence between the “outmost” and the “inmost”: the body is then seen as the “heart exteriorized,” and the heart for its part “absorbs” as it were the bodily projection; “extremes meet.” It is said, in India, that nudity favors the irradiation of spiritual influences; and also that feminine nudity in particular manifests Lakshmi and consequently has a beneficial effect on the surroundings. In an altogether general way, nudity expresses—and virtually actualizes—a return to the essence, the origin, the archetype, thus to the celestial state: “And it is for this that, naked, I dance,” as Lalla Yogishvari, the great Kashmiri saint, said after having found the Divine Self in her heart.

Frithjof Schuon’s response to this question is continued on the next slide.

This is taken from a transcript of a 1995 interview with the eminent Perennialist thinker and writer Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998).

The following is a continuation of Frithjof Schuon’s response to the following question:

Frithjof Schuon (response continued): To be sure, in nudity there is a de facto ambiguity because of the passional nature of man; but there is not only the passional nature, there is also the gift of contemplativity which can neutralize it, as is precisely the case with “sacred nudity”; similarly, there is not only the seduction of appearances, there is also the metaphysical transparency of phenomena which permits one to perceive the archetypal essence through the sensory experience. St. Nonnos, when he beheld St. Pelagia entering the baptismal pool naked, praised God for having put into human beauty not only an occasion of fall, but also an occasion of rising towards God.