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Huston Smith on the spiritual life
Huston Smith on the spiritual life
POSTED JUNE 17, 2019
Huston Smith, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 97, spent his life exploring the nature and importance of the religious quest. He was widely regarded as one of the world's most influential figures in religious studies. Smith once said, “If we are to be true to our own faith, we must attend to others as alertly as we hope they will attend to us.” His book, "The World’s Religions", has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide since 1959, and is considered one of the defining treatises on the subject.
Huston Smith, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 97, spent his life exploring the nature and importance of the religious quest. He was widely regarded as one of the world's most influential figures in religious studies. Smith once said, “If we are to be true to our own faith, we must attend to others as alertly as we hope they will attend to us.” His book, "The World’s Religions", has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide since 1959, and is considered one of the defining treatises on the subject.
"The Way Things Are" is a collection of twenty three interviews and essays. Subtitled "Conversations with Huston Smith on the spiritual life, it provides insight into both his learnings and his personal journey. Raised by Christian missionary parents in China, he brought a unique perspective to comparative religion studies. For Smith, the world's various religions are different expressions of the same Absolute. In one of the interviews, he supplies a "Cook's Tour" of something he picked up from the religions he has worked with. Here are some quotes from that interview and others in the book.
"The Way Things Are" is a collection of twenty three interviews and essays. Subtitled "Conversations with Huston Smith on the spiritual life, it provides insight into both his learnings and his personal journey. Raised by Christian missionary parents in China, he brought a unique perspective to comparative religion studies. For Smith, the world's various religions are different expressions of the same Absolute. In one of the interviews, he supplies a "Cook's Tour" of something he picked up from the religions he has worked with. Here are some quotes from that interview and others in the book.
"Atheists have no God. The polytheists have many Gods, and the monotheists have one personal God. The mystic - only God."
"Christianity always seemed an affirmative message as to how one should live and what one's basic connection with the ultimate should be."
"Hinduism's doctrine of the four yogas throws a lot of light on the religious quest...how differences in temperaments affect people's religious quests. Those who are reflectively inclined advance by knowing God [Jnana yoga]. Those whose emotions are strong do better to concentrate on loving God [Bhakti yoga]. The actively inclined make time by serving God [Karma yoga], while experimenters make good meditators [Raja yoga]."*
"As for Buddhism, its bodhisattva vow is endlessly inspiring: the image of the person who, posed on the brink of nirvana, turns back to help oithers enter it before he or she does."
"In Islam, Sufism has been decisive for me. To have times explicitly prescribed for calling one's mind back to transcendence...pours each day into a sacred framework."
"In Judaism, the prophets demand for social justice echoes through history right down to Martin Luther King, Jr."
"A fascinating feature of East Asia is the way it configures religions as partners rather than rivals.** It regards them as strands of a single rope...If we untwist this rope, Confucius's strength was in his social emphasis, his insistence that character is forged in the crucible of human relations. Philosophical Taoism's greatest inpout was its concept of wu wei, nonaction that succeeds because it generates minimum friction."
"As for tribal religions (Native Americans are our closest neighbors), their reliance on speech rather than writing teaches us that writing can subtract from understanding as well as add to it...Having to rely on memories, they are more likely to remember what is important."
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*For the integral development of body, mind and soul, combining the four main practices is recommended.
**Confucian in their ethics, a Taoist priest called if someone fell ill, Buddhist priests presiding over funerals."
"Filmed at the 2004 Science and Consciousness in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Smith also holds forth on the state of the world religion and religious leadership, and the vital importance of the transcendent message of religion for the post 9/11 world. His view is that life is rich with purpose, value, and transcendental meaning; that, when it comes down to it, that's just the way things are. "
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