The Simple Life of Rene Guenon

When I found this book with more details about Guénon's life, I was really happy. After I got it I noticed what a good purchase I have done. So lucky to have Paul telling us to much about Guénon's world.

A beautiful book, succinct, insightful, and accurate, by an author who knew his subject personally. Highly recommended.

René Guénon (1886–1951) remains an obscure and enigmatic figure to this day, and is still very little known or read by English speaking people. Yet he always was and still is influential in places where one would least expect to find it. Guénon was a very private individual. He originally wanted his books to be published anonymously, but gave in eventually to the requirements of modern publishing, which make that almost impossible. René Guénon is his family name, although in some very early articles and reviews he wrote under pseudonyms such as ‘Palingenius’ and ‘The Sphinx’. Guénon always insisted that personal details and ‘life stories’ are completely irrelevant to the subject of his interest. So why did Paul Chacornac, his publisher, write a biography in the first place? It is best if we hear it in his words:“René Guénon repeatedly said that personalities count for nothing in the traditional domain, the only domain of any importance in his view. We cannot, however, alter the fact that the modern world is more interested in personalities than in their work; and if their life stories are not told, legends often arise that go far wide of the mark, and perhaps even contradict the facts. We believe therefore that we serve the truth, albeit in a modest way, by establishing or re-establishing, the facts concerning René Guénon’s life—and we intend to confine ourselves to the facts. In other words, to speak in fashionable jargon, no ‘psychoanalysis of René Guénon’ will be found here.”That last point should assuage any doubts as to whether this biography of René Guénon is worth studying, though of course such a ‘psychoanalysis’ would not be expected in any serious work, especially one that is sensitive to its subject concerning the most important spiritual teacher and prophet of modern times.After Guénon’s death on 7th January 1951, a surprising number of articles and biographies were published in France, but only two biographies have been translated into English. It seems obvious to choose the one written by his publisher, who was a close friend of the man for many years. In spite of the title of this book, the facts concerning Guénon’s life are really quite extraordinary, and there is no space here to summarise even what is most cogent. His knowledge of Hinduism and other traditions was not in any way book-learned, though he seems to have read almost everything that can be read. When Hindu masters of the Advaita Vedanta tradition made a rare visit to Europe early in the twentieth century, they somehow found their way to René Guénon—or he found his way to them, we cannot know for sure. Guénon ‘knew people’—many people, and had access to information that does not appear anywhere but in his works. According to an article that appeared in the review Jayakarnataka (edited in Dhawar, India),“This author presents the rare case of a writer who expresses himself in a Western language, and whose knowledge of Eastern philosophy has been direct, that is to say derived essentially from masters of the East. It is in fact to the oral teaching of these masters that Guénon owes his knowledge of the doctrines of India, of Islamic esoterism, and of Taoism, as well as of the Sanskrit and Arabic languages; and this sufficiently distinguishes him from European and American orientalists, who have no doubt worked with Asians, but have asked only for help to facilitate the bookish research characteristic of Western erudition.”Guénon’s first book was Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines (1921), which, as according to Chacornac, was possibly not the best title for it as at least half of it is an introduction to tradition in general. He aimed to make it known what divides the modern world from a normal world, that is to say, a traditional one. It is perhaps needless to say that the India that Guénon was referring to at that time no longer exists, and that his worst fears concerning Western global domination have by now become fully realised. The second part of the book is doctrinal while the last part examines Western misconceptions about Hinduism.In the same year the second book, a large tome, on the history and facts concerning the vastly influential and damaging Theosophical movement, was published. In The Spiritist Fallacy, Guénon goes far beyond a mere debunking of neo-spiritualism and discloses real secrets concerning the subtle or astral plane. Once again, this is best heard in the words of Paul Chacornac:“The Spiritist Fallacy is a copious and extensively documented work, as was Guénon’s preceding one [Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion]; but whereas Theosophy is almost solely an historical and critical work, The Spiritist Fallacy comprises doctrinal expositions on both metaphysical and cosmological questions, and gives the [intelligent] reader an insight into the subtle world, which has never before been publicly discussed in a Western language. Among its chapters, ‘Explanations of Spiritist Phenomena’, ‘Immortality and Survival’, Representations of Survival’, ‘Communication with the Dead’, ‘Reincarnation’, and ‘Satanism’, rank among the masterpieces in Guénon’s corpus.”And furthermore,“The Spiritist Fallacy echoes to some extent the same concerns voiced in Theosophy, for the spiritualists had acquired the habit of attributing to Eastern traditions, particularly Hinduism, both their doctrine of reincarnation and their practice of evoking the dead.”The fundamental doctrinal work of Guénon was Man and his Becoming according to the Vedānta (1925), which appeared in embryonic form as early as 1911. He admitted of the impossibility of producing any comprehensive exposition on “the purest metaphysics in Hindu doctrine”, and so used the nature and constitution of the human being as a launching point. In fact, in it he expounded the fundamental principles of all traditional metaphysics:“Not since the fourteenth century had this doctrine been expounded in the West—and here in lucid language free of symbolism. By degrees he leads up to the doctrine of the Supreme Identity and its logical corollary—the possibility that the being in the human state might in this very life attain liberation, the unconditioned state where all separateness and risk of reversion to manifested existence ceases.”It is not in any way possible to mention all of the works of Guénon, but mention must be made of some of the curious circumstances that surrounded the book The King of the World—a work that is packed with otherwise completely unknown esoteric matters. It seems that one or two of the Advaitan masters that Guénon had remained in contact with objected to the book’s publication on the grounds that too much had been said, and too precisely. Guénon thought otherwise, and gave his reasons for so doing as the dire circumstances that the world had by then entered into by 1927, which made it clear that things could only get worse. It is fortunate for his readers that he made that decision, although his Bengali contact or contacts declined to communicate further.It will be surprising to some to learn that one of his friends performed a psychometry reading on a paper knife at Guénon’s house in Paris—at the request of the latter, who knew of his ESP experiments. The result was an extraordinarily accurate vision concerning the palatial residence of the Advaitan master in question, and of the break in relations that ensued.Guénon was a member of many organisations over the course of his lifetime. Early on in his life, while still in his twenties and before he had completely renounced neo-spiritualism, he was a member of an occult organisation called the Universal Gnostic Church, and received a mysterious appointment, under very strange circumstances, to lead a reformed Order of the Temple of seven degrees. Of the mysterious appointment, Guénon had this to say, in The Spiritist Fallacy, part 1, chapter 7:“A communication, expressing events in fact unknown to all those present, can nevertheless come from the ‘subconscious’ of one of them; for one is normally very far from knowing all the possibilities of the human being in such a situation. Each of us can be connected through this obscure side of ourselves to beings and things of which we have never had any knowledge in the ordinary sense of the word; and innumerable ramifications can ensue, to which it is impossible to ascribe definite boundaries.”The degrees of the reformed Ordo Templi included such titles as Egyptian Rosicrucian, Knight of the Guard of the Inner Temple and Hermetic Adept. This detail is not mentioned to show inconsistency in Guénon’s work, because he was always consistent even if he modified his views on some things over the course of time, as we all must do, but it is to indicate that his activities, involvements and teaching were frequently paradoxical in nature. It is this, added to the fact that his subject of interest and writing was almost exclusively metaphysics, or at least derived from a metaphysical point of view when it leaned towards social criticism, that has made the works of Guénon a revelation to a few while remaining completely inaccessible to a majority of others—though for those who have the intellectual capacity, it is always through their innate disinclination to see beyond their own prejudices.Furthermore, it seems almost incredible that some have used the above facts concerning Guénon’s early life as an excuse to write him off as no more than an occultist. There are only two possible explanations for this: either they did not read any of his books but have only read what other people think of them, or they actually read a book but understood absolutely nothing of what they read.Oliver St. John, author of Way of Knowledge, Nu Hermetica, Thirty-two paths of Wisdom and others.

I would’ve loved to had known more about Guenon’s religious beliefs. The book glosses over it and explains why it glosses, but I was unsatisfied with the explanation. That “Who are we” to question his beliefs? Aside from that minor issue about not being able to find more about his Hindu Islamic syncretism, everything else was deeply informative.

René Guénon is likely to forever remain a mysterious figure, though this short biography fills in some of the blanks regarding undoubtedly one of the greatest expositors of traditional metaphysics and criticism of the modern world.

Edição belíssima da Sophia Perennis para complementar a publicação da obra completa de Guénon, essa é uma das pouquíssimas biografias sobre o autor, que em alguns momentos oferece um vislumbre até íntimo de sua personalidade, afinal Paul Chacornac era amigo próximo de Guénon.

Thank you very much for this perfect translation. The book has been out of print in french for so long, so for anyone wanting to know more about Guenon and having a grasp of the english language, this is the way to go. I cannot compare this biography with the ones done later by other authors, as I have not read any of them. All I can say is that this one was written by someone who had known and loved the man for a long time. It is very sober and respectful. All we need to know, in my opinion, is contained therein.