What do you think?
Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer
Essays by internationally renowned writers of faith explore the universal significance of prayer in this inspirational volume of lush images and meditative words. More than 100 photographs taken in 50 countries chronicle the diversity of the devotional experience in all of its intimacy, mystery, rapture, and stillness. The experience of prayer is shown to connect all parts of the human family in pursuit of a greater, transcending reality. With its breathtaking beauty and affirmation of life, this volume gives readers new insights into the practices of the world’s many faiths.
Includes essays by Karen Armstrong, The Dalai Lama, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Harold Kushner, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Thomas Moore, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Kathleen Norris, Pope John Paul II, David Steindl-Rast, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Michael Wolfe, and Carol Zaleski.
Includes essays by Karen Armstrong, The Dalai Lama, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Harold Kushner, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Thomas Moore, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Kathleen Norris, Pope John Paul II, David Steindl-Rast, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Michael Wolfe, and Carol Zaleski.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published October 28, 2006
About the author
Huston Smith
127 books326 followersSmith was born in Suzhou, 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 18, 2008
A fewast of prayes
Some people go to church on Sunday / Kneel and pray / Well I say God bless them / If they can go that way / But me I have to wait / Until the sun goes down / Go to my holy shack / Out on the edge of town. - Joziah Longo, singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Whatever religious tradition or individual observance resonates with you, you will find this book arresting, illuminating, informative and inspirational. The book is arranged in four sections "Every Breath a Prayer," "Praise and Supplication," "The Still, Silent Moment," and "Reaching Out." Each section contains essays on prayer from the wolds leading spiritual minds all of whom have a complex relationship with prayer and wreste with the difficult questions, which can raise more questions than they answer, such as that of unanswered prayers. C. S. Lewis and Harold Kushner observe that prayer isn't magic or a gimmick we can use to get God on our side. "What the writers in this book are saying is that prayer works, but it works on us rather than for us. Prayer doesn't change God, it changes us," observes Gattuso.
Included among the essayists in Talking to God are Karen Armstrong, The Dalai Lama, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Harold Kushner, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Thomas Moore, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Kathleen Norris, Pope John Paul II, David Steindl-Rast, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Michael Wolfe, and Carol Zaleski. There is a moving excerpt from Elie Weisel's Night, and the Navajo Blessing Way.
One hundred plus breathtaking photographs make this book a feast for the eyes, creating an album of individuals and groups from different cultures talking to God in their own ways: reciting prescribed words, meditating, singing, chanting, sacred dance, holy ritual, or simple mindfulness. Just looking at the photos is praying. When asked about forms of prayer, read or compose spontaneously, the editor replied:
Just because you're "saying prayers" doesn't mean you're actually praying. As Gandhi said, "It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart." Brother David Steindl-Rast puts it another way. He says that some people experience their most prayerful moments precisely when they are not saying prayers--when they are watering their flowers, for example, or doing some other mundane chore. That's when they truly experience the sacred. If you look at it from that point of view, then just about anything can be prayer--song, dance, meditation, whatever. Ultimately, I think, the goal is to live as though you're whole life is a prayer. To live prayerfully or, as a Buddhist might say, to live mindfully.
Through many faiths and many voices, though we pray in different ways, we speak to God with the same intentions -- to connect or communicate with the sacred. Rational thought will only get us so far. Let me end with a Jewish Blessing For Caregivers:
May the One Who blessed our ancestors be present to those who provide help for the ill and troubled among us. May they be filled with the fortitude and courage, endowed with sympathy and compassion, as they give strength to those at their side. May they fight against despair, and continue to find within themselves the will to reach out to those in need. And in their love of others, may they know the blessing of community, and the blessing of renewed faith.
Some people go to church on Sunday / Kneel and pray / Well I say God bless them / If they can go that way / But me I have to wait / Until the sun goes down / Go to my holy shack / Out on the edge of town. - Joziah Longo, singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Whatever religious tradition or individual observance resonates with you, you will find this book arresting, illuminating, informative and inspirational. The book is arranged in four sections "Every Breath a Prayer," "Praise and Supplication," "The Still, Silent Moment," and "Reaching Out." Each section contains essays on prayer from the wolds leading spiritual minds all of whom have a complex relationship with prayer and wreste with the difficult questions, which can raise more questions than they answer, such as that of unanswered prayers. C. S. Lewis and Harold Kushner observe that prayer isn't magic or a gimmick we can use to get God on our side. "What the writers in this book are saying is that prayer works, but it works on us rather than for us. Prayer doesn't change God, it changes us," observes Gattuso.
Included among the essayists in Talking to God are Karen Armstrong, The Dalai Lama, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, Harold Kushner, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Thomas Moore, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Kathleen Norris, Pope John Paul II, David Steindl-Rast, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Michael Wolfe, and Carol Zaleski. There is a moving excerpt from Elie Weisel's Night, and the Navajo Blessing Way.
One hundred plus breathtaking photographs make this book a feast for the eyes, creating an album of individuals and groups from different cultures talking to God in their own ways: reciting prescribed words, meditating, singing, chanting, sacred dance, holy ritual, or simple mindfulness. Just looking at the photos is praying. When asked about forms of prayer, read or compose spontaneously, the editor replied:
Just because you're "saying prayers" doesn't mean you're actually praying. As Gandhi said, "It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart." Brother David Steindl-Rast puts it another way. He says that some people experience their most prayerful moments precisely when they are not saying prayers--when they are watering their flowers, for example, or doing some other mundane chore. That's when they truly experience the sacred. If you look at it from that point of view, then just about anything can be prayer--song, dance, meditation, whatever. Ultimately, I think, the goal is to live as though you're whole life is a prayer. To live prayerfully or, as a Buddhist might say, to live mindfully.
Through many faiths and many voices, though we pray in different ways, we speak to God with the same intentions -- to connect or communicate with the sacred. Rational thought will only get us so far. Let me end with a Jewish Blessing For Caregivers:
May the One Who blessed our ancestors be present to those who provide help for the ill and troubled among us. May they be filled with the fortitude and courage, endowed with sympathy and compassion, as they give strength to those at their side. May they fight against despair, and continue to find within themselves the will to reach out to those in need. And in their love of others, may they know the blessing of community, and the blessing of renewed faith.
September 12, 2007
A lavishly illustrated coffee table book addressing the concept of prayer. Beautiful pictures of praying, holy sights and religious festival from around the world with text from imamate theologians ranging from Thich Nhat Hanh to Thomas Merton concerning the nature of pray in the human experience. A great introduction to the subject; absolutely beautiful photography makes this a great addition to anyones library.
January 9, 2008
Incredible photos with essays by world-renowned writers. Highly recommended.
Read
May 25, 2009Wow!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews