The Transfiguration of Man

Rating:
Summary: Deeply Thought-Provoking
Review: What does it mean for a person to be "transfigured'? Schuon answers this question by a series of essays that describe human nature in all its dimensions, both 'vertical' and 'horizontal.' For most of us, it is the horizontal dimension that is realest: the thoughts, tendencies and feelings of our experiential ego and the images of the world around us. Almost every aspect of life today conspires to make us believe there is nothing else.

But Schuon's point of departure is that Reality has its origin, its center and its ultimate end in the vertical dimension, which is the realm of the sacred. To know this, to know it with certitude, is to be transfigured. 'A man's personality is derived essentially from an idea, or more exactly from a set of ideas grouped around a central or determining idea.' The key here is that 'knowing an idea' is far more than a mental exercise which commits us to nothing. For Schuon, 'knowing' and 'being' converge, as in the Sanskrit triad Being, Consciousness, Beatitude.

The essays here are not lengthy, but they make some demands upon the reader. They require that we step outside the modern 'axiom of doubt' and consider things under their aspect of eternal values. 'To accept sincerely the transcendent truth'whose nature is to annihilate our illusions'is to die a little, but it is also to be reborn and to live, beyond all that the earthly ego could ever imagine.' This collection offers both full-length chapters and some brief excerpts from correspondence. All are deeply thought-provoking in a way that makes the effort more than worthwhile.