Huston Smith

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born

May 31, 1919 in Soochow, China

gender

male

website

http://www.hustonsmith.net/

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Smith was born in Soochow, China to Methodist missionaries and spent his first 17 years there. He taught at the Universities of Colorado and Denver from 1944–1947, moving to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for the next ten years, and then Professor of Philosophy at MIT from 1958–1973. While at MIT he participated in some of the experiments with entheogens that professor Timothy Leary conducted at Harvard University. He then moved to Syracuse University where he was Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1983 and current emeritus status. He now lives in the Berkeley, CA area where he is Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Californi...more Smith was born in Soochow, China to Methodist missionaries and spent his first 17 years there. He taught at the Universities of Colorado and Denver from 1944–1947, moving to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for the next ten years, and then Professor of Philosophy at MIT from 1958–1973. While at MIT he participated in some of the experiments with entheogens that professor Timothy Leary conducted at Harvard University. He then moved to Syracuse University where he was Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy until his retirement in 1983 and current emeritus status. He now lives in the Berkeley, CA area where he is Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

During his career, Smith not only studied, but practiced Vedanta Hinduism, Zen Buddhism (studying under Goto Zuigan), and Sufism for over ten years each. He is a notable autodidact.

As a young man, Smith, of his own volition, after suddenly turning to mysticism, set out to meet with then-famous author Gerald Heard. Heard responded to Smith's letter, invited him to his Trabuco College (later donated as the Ramakrishna Monastery) in Southern California, and then sent him off to meet the legendary Aldous Huxley. So began Smith's experimentation with meditation, and association with the Vedanta Society in Saint Louis under the auspices of Swami Satprakashananda of the Ramakrishna order.

Via the connection with Heard and Huxley, Smith eventually experimented with Timothy Leary and others at the Center for Personality Research, of which Leary was Research Professor. The experience and history of the era are captured somewhat in Smith's book Cleansing the Doors of Perception. In this period, Smith joined in on the Harvard Project as well, an attempt to raise spiritual awareness through entheogenic plants.

He has been a friend of the XIVth Dalai Lama for more than forty years, and met and talked to some of the great figures of the century, from Eleanor Roosevelt to Thomas Merton.

He developed an interest in the Traditionalist School formulated by Rene Guenon and Ananda Coomaraswamy. This interest has become a continuing thread in all his writings.

In 1996, Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS special to Smith's life and work, "The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith." Smith has produced three series for public television: "The Religions of Man," "The Search for America," and (with Arthur Compton) "Science and Human Responsibility." His films on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won awards at international film festivals.

His latest DVD release is The Roots of Fundamentalism - A Conversation with Huston Smith and Phil Cousineau.(less)

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Average rating: 4.07 · 3,574 ratings · 386 reviews · 54 distinct works

	The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions 4.11 avg rating — 2,032 ratings — published 1965 — 16 editions	My rating:
	Why Religion Matters: The Fate of the Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief 3.63 avg rating — 177 ratings — published 2000 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Buddhism: A Concise Introduction by Huston Smith, Philip Novak 3.86 avg rating — 116 ratings — published 2003 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine, an Autobiography 3.76 avg rating — 108 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The Religions of Man 4.00 avg rating — 94 ratings — published 1958 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals 4.00 avg rating — 89 ratings — published 2000 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World's Religions 4.04 avg rating — 68 ratings — published 1992 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics by Huston Smith, Alex Gray (Editor), Alex Grey 4.06 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 2002	My rating:
	The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition 3.89 avg rating — 55 ratings — published 2005 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Islam: A Concise Introduction 3.75 avg rating — 28 ratings — published 2001 — 4 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Huston Smith

“Love is the movement within life that carries us, that enables us, that causes us to break out of what Alan Watts calls the “skin-encapsulated ego.” Without love, we are self-centered, but love enables us to move the center of our lives outside our ego. Therefore it expands our lives and, needless to say, enriches it. Any human being would give anything to love or be loved. When it really happens, it is like heaven on earth.”
― Huston Smith

tags: love

31 people liked it

“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”
― Huston Smith, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind: The Place of Meaning in a Global Civilization

tags: knowledge , wonder

10 people liked it

“Practice giving things away, not just things you don't care about, but things you do like. Remember, it is not the size of a gift, it is its quality and the amount of mental attachment you overcome that count. So don't bankrupt yourself on a momentary positive impulse, only to regret it later. Give thought to giving. Give small things, carefully, and observe the mental processes going along with the act of releasing the little thing you liked. (53)
(Quote is actually Robert A F Thurman but Huston Smith, who only wrote the introduction to my edition, seems to be given full credit for this text.)”
― Huston Smith, Tibetan Book of the Dead

tags: attachment , generosity , gift , giving , non-attachment , practice , releasing , simplicity

8 people liked it

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The History Book ...: CONFUCIANISM	1	6	Sep 15, 2010 09:05am
The History Book ...: GlOSSARY - GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL	27	27	Oct 07, 2010 09:22am
The History Book ...: * ROLE OF RELIGION IN HISTORY	64	115	May 21, 2012 05:09pm

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