One of the issues I constantly struggle with is the tension between tradition and modernity, which has countless ramifications, depending on how you resolve it. It is easy to come down on one side or the other, but I think victory of either side would result in a catastrophe for mankind. Obviously, I have the highest regard for Frithjof Schuon, who is without a doubt the most articulate spokesman for the traditionalist school.
But my spiritual life only began to take wing under the auspices of people like Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin, who are both unabashed “evolutionists.” Schuon detested both of them because he felt that the great revelations were essentially timeless and set in stone, and that they addressed primordial “man as such,” not “evolving man.” His view may sound severe or simplistic, and while it may be the former, it is not the latter. As spiritually elevated as he was, he could not help seeing the absolute horror of the modern world. And it is a horror. The more I grow, the more vividly I see this. I do not believe it is going too far to call it a spiritual atrocity. posted by Gagdad Bob at 12/04/2006 07:18:00 AM 30 comments links to this post One Cosmos Under God Robert W. Godwin
I have a similar struggle with the different ways of portraying the truth. Like, for instance, again, the tradionalist school and Gurdjieff
ReplyDeleteYou are wrong about Schuon. He was not spiritually adept. He was stuck in his own self delusion of greatness. his life and death speak for themselves: A life of desire, a terrible need for admiration, an unspeakable hatred for anything that contradicted him and one could go on and on and on. I spent over 20 years with him and speak from hands on experience.
ReplyDelete