Talk:Frithjof Schuon

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VERY LONG Template

@Prezbo you added this template, however this article copied in Word format (without bibliography, reference, photos etc.) totals only 12 pages. Whereas similar ones e.g. Julius Evola=17, René Guénon=22, Immanuel Kant=23. What is your basis for tagging this article as too long? Is there an objective criterion that you are using that everyone should follow and warrant the same tag being applied to all those pages I mentioned and more? LeonardoVisconte (talk) 16:14, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I just found it to be a slog, in terms of the reading experience. That probably has more to do with the prose style than the length per se. If you want to replace or remove the template then that’s fine. Prezbo (talk) 18:00, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Prezbo...I appreciate the clarification and will go ahead and remove that template. LeonardoVisconte (talk) 18:06, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Key terms e.g. "Sanatana Dharma"

@Prezbo I also notice that you deleted "According to Harry Oldmeadow..." [1]." I believe that these synonyms can be a valuable help to readers who know one or more of these expressions to better understand what FS means by “primordial wisdom." Do you agree? LeonardoVisconte (talk) 18:19, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As written it sounds like this is Oldmeadow’s view, not Schuon’s. If Oldmeadow is attributing this view to Schuon I would try to make that clearer. Prezbo (talk) 19:24, 4 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Prezbo, Thank you for your thoughts, that makes sense. I will consider ways we can make the attribution clearer. LeonardoVisconte (talk) 19:06, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Schuon's Poetry Example

@Prezbo...I also note that you removed the example of Schuon's poetry. Was there a specific reason you decided to do that? As FS was a prolific poet who composed over 3,000 poems late in life it seems an important aspect to touch upon. Many WP articles on poets for example; William Wordsworth, Geoffrey Chaucer, Emily Dickinson include one or more samples of their poetry. LeonardoVisconte (talk) 19:16, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It seemed hagiographic to me, especially for someone who wasn’t primarily known as a poet, but it’s an editorial judgment call so I won’t press the point. Prezbo (talk) 19:38, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you @Prezbo...it seems to me that given the scope of the opus, it is a worthy addition even though you are correct that FS was not primarily known as a poet. For readers and researchers however, an example gives a sense of the type of poetry he composed and remains helpful context given the sheer volume of poems he authored. LeonardoVisconte (talk) 19:44, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV Template

@Prezbo....you also added the NPOV template. Could you give me some specific examples of non-neutral passages so that we can try to make them more neutral? LeonardoVisconte (talk) 19:48, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sure.

1. From the age of ten, his search for truth led him to read not only the Bible but also the Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gītā and the Quran, as well as Plato, Emerson, Goethe and Schiller. Schuon would later say that in his early youth four things had always moved him most profoundly: "the holy, the great, the beautiful, the childlike."

2. He then immersed himself in the world of the Bhagavad-Gītā and the Vedānta; this call of Hinduism sustained him for ten years, though he was perfectly aware that he could not become Hindu himself. In 1924, while still living in Mulhouse, he discovered the works of the French philosopher René Guénon, which served to confirm his intellectual intuitions and provided support for the metaphysical principles he had begun to discover.

3. Schuon reported that one night in July 1934, while immersed in reading the Bhagavad-Gītā, he experienced an extraordinary spiritual event. He said that the divine Name Allāh took possession of his being, and that for three days he could do nothing but invoke it ceaselessly. Shortly afterwards, he learned that his Sheikh had died on the same day.

4. In 1991, one of Schuon's followers accused him of misconduct during collective gatherings. A preliminary investigation was begun, but the chief prosecutor concluded that there was no proof, noting that the plaintiff was of extremely dubious character and had been previously condemned for making false statements in another similar affair in California. The prosecutor declared that there were no grounds for prosecution, and the local press made amends. Some articles and books, including Mark Sedgwick's Against the Modern World, discuss this event and the related "primordial" practices of the Bloomington community.

The general tone of the article is rather "apologetic" and reads as if it was written by one of Schuon's devotees rather than an encyclopedia writer aiming for neutrality. Maybe template:tone would have been a better choice though, I'll change it now. Prezbo (talk) 19:58, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Prezbo I will give some thought as to how these passages might be modified to increase neutrality. LeonardoVisconte (talk) 20:11, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Prezbo, allow me to number your 4 examples, so that it will be easier to refer to them. And I'm deleting the references so they don't unnecessarily clutter up the bottom of the Talk Page when text will be added. I know we shouldn't edit someone else's post, but I'm sure you understand why I did it. Regards--Hamza Alaoui (talk) 14:19, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No worries. Prezbo (talk) 15:44, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Prezbo. Regarding your example no. 4, which passages would not comply with WP principles?--Hamza Alaoui (talk) 09:24, 8 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The whole passage could be improved I think. It's very vague about what Schuon was accused of, and it bends over backwards to assure the reader that whatever he was charged with, he was definitely innocent. I don't know the details of the case but from reading Sedgwick's book it sounded like the situation was more ambiguous, although he doesn't say much about it either. Prezbo (talk) 12:23, 8 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I tracked down my copy of Sedgwick's Against the Modern World and what he says about this seems pretty damning at first glance. It's kindle edition so I can't figure out the page number, sorry--search for "nudity" and you'll find it. I'll read more closely and try to summarize later. Prezbo (talk) 16:31, 8 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]