The Play of Masks

by Frithjof Schuon

A collection of essays provoking an unusually rich description of what constitutes the prerogatives and fulfillment of the human state.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0941532143
• ISBN13: 9780941532143
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: World Wisdom Books
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Human Wisdom

Like all Schuon's books this one deserves the same superlatives: it contains genuine human wisdom, expressed in an exquisite literary form. Schuon's profound understanding of "reality", both material and immaterial was certainly unequalled in the twentieth century and perhaps in much of the past centuries. One important remark should refer to the translation of this book from French, a translation which is exquisitely wonderful and conspicuously anonymous, like most of the other Schuon's translations. Finally, a sarcastically bitter note: this book is priced at nine dollars which shows exactly its place on the value scale of Western mentality.

A Review of The Play of Masks.

The Play of Masks The title of this book refers, in its most general sense, both to its metaphysical theme and to its dialectics. It most fundamentally expresses the multiplicity of the aspects of Mâyâ, the Universal Relativity, as they mask --both to veil and to reveal-- the Supreme and Only Subject, the Divine "I", Atmâ. Dialectically speaking, this title suggests the variety of ways in which Schuon proposes to approach the Ultimate Reality and its spiritual correlates. The diversity of approaches is motivated by a desire for clarity and integrality. In this work, maybe more emphatically than in others, Schuon deals with the human condition both in the "cosmogonic projection," as manifestation of Atmâ through Mâyâ, and in relation to the spiritually liberating doors --truth, prayer and beauty-- which give to human existence its meaning and its prerogatives. Transcendence and objectivity are the fundamental prerogatives of the human on the levels of intelligence, will and love. Objectivity is understood by Schuon as an integral conformity to the nature of things through which man reaches his "celestial potentiality." That potentiality is in a sense already included in the mystery of Manifestation which sees Atmâ become Mâyâ so that Mâyâ may become Atmâ: the Divine Whole Possibility entails that of being known "from outside," that is by a being who is "illusorily" different from God while being actively participant in the Divine Intellect. The intellective faculty is the very center of man and it can be identified as such with the "inner man", by contrast with the "outer man" who lives on the periphery of being. In that sense, the "outer man" is the "mask" of the "inner man." Only the Sage is fully aware of the relationship between these two dimensions because he is perfectly identified to the "inner man," which allows him to objectify his human "mask." Man must be a witness of Necessary Being in the world of contingency, and he does so, first by remembering the Absolute --in prayer-- through the "liberating passage" of the Divine Symbol --the sacramental vehicle of the Divine Presence--, and secondly by "bringing back" the positive contents of Mâyâ --inner and outer beauty-- to their roots in God. When unfaithful to this vocation, man remains "exteriorized" and "horizontal." These two vices characterize and manifest the Fall, or Original Sin, to which Schuon devotes an enlightening chapter. Dealing with the necessary spiritual and moral climate of man's return to God in two chapters on "intention" and "charity," Schuon dispels a series of modern prejudices which eliminate or vitiate the spiritual meaning of veracity and compassion by reducing them to psychological or political categories. The object of this book is, once again, to provide contemporary seekers with fundamental keys to help them rediscover their true nature: the awareness of the Real with their whole intelligence, will and sou