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Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine, an Autobiography
Huston Smith, the man who brought the world's religions to the West, was born almost a century ago to missionary parents in China during the perilous rise of the Communist Party. Smith's lifelong spiritual journey brought him face-to-face with many of the people who shaped the twentieth century. His extraordinary travels around the globe have taken him to the world's holiest places, where he has practiced religion with many of the great spiritual leaders of our time.
Smith's life is a story of uncanny synchronicity. He was there for pivotal moments in human history such as the founding of the United Nations and the student uprising at Tiananmen Square. As he traveled the world he encountered thinkers who shaped the twentieth century. He interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt on the radio; invited Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at an all-white university before the March on Washington; shared ideas with Thomas Merton on his last plane ride before Merton's death in Bangkok; and was rescued while lost in the Serengeti by Masai warriors who took him to the compound of world-renowned anthropologists Louis and Mary Leaky.
In search of intellectual and spiritual treasures, Smith traveled to India to meet with Mother Teresa and befriended the Dalai Lama; he studied Zen at the most challenging monastery in Japan; and he hitchhiked through the desert to meet Aldous Huxley, dropped acid with Timothy Leary, and took peyote with a Native American shaman. He climbed Mount Athos, traipsed through the Holy Land, and was the first to study multiphonic chanting by monks in Tibet, which he recorded with Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. Most important, he shared the world's religions with the West--writing two bestselling books and serving as the focus of a five-part PBS television series by Bill Moyers.
Huston Smith is a national treasure. His life is an extraordinary adventure, and in his amazing "Tales of Wonder," he invites you to come along to explore your own vistas of heart, mind, and soul.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2008
67 people are currently reading
591 people want to read
About the author
Huston Smith
127 books322 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
December 16, 2009
Huston Smith has led a remarkable life. He has conversed with the Dalai Lama, lived as a monk in Japan, done LSD with Tim Leary and introduced America to Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions considered exotic in the fifties. But I had hoped that his autobiography would bring these stories to life, instead they were a laundry list of accomplishment. He writes his autobiography from his nursing home at the age of ninety, and as a result the book reads more the musings of a man at the end of his life rather than the adventure that was his life.
I feel almost guilty for not liking it more, and reading this has made me want to read his other writings. There are several good moments in the book: When he describes the possibility of religious experiences through "Entheogens", psychedelic substances that produce religious experiences. He writes a balanced view of such drugs, stating that they have been a part of religious experiences for thousands of years, but that moments of divine experience do not make for a religous life, for that requires a life of devoting oneself to others.
The other moment is his description of living as a monk in Japan and his taciturn senior monk requiring him to meditate for ten days on only three hours sleep per night. Then,after he has done so, the senior monk shows him that he enjoys beer and sumo. The senior monk is knocks himself off the pedestal, to prove that both devotion and enjoyment in life are necessary.
Lastly, the appendix at the end of called a "Universal Grammar of Worldviews" is perhaps the best part of the book. Modeled after Chomsky's Universal Grammar, Smith explains fourteen points that all religions contain, and how they relate to each other. The points not only show the commonality of all religion, but also the intersection of science and spirituality.
I feel almost guilty for not liking it more, and reading this has made me want to read his other writings. There are several good moments in the book: When he describes the possibility of religious experiences through "Entheogens", psychedelic substances that produce religious experiences. He writes a balanced view of such drugs, stating that they have been a part of religious experiences for thousands of years, but that moments of divine experience do not make for a religous life, for that requires a life of devoting oneself to others.
The other moment is his description of living as a monk in Japan and his taciturn senior monk requiring him to meditate for ten days on only three hours sleep per night. Then,after he has done so, the senior monk shows him that he enjoys beer and sumo. The senior monk is knocks himself off the pedestal, to prove that both devotion and enjoyment in life are necessary.
Lastly, the appendix at the end of called a "Universal Grammar of Worldviews" is perhaps the best part of the book. Modeled after Chomsky's Universal Grammar, Smith explains fourteen points that all religions contain, and how they relate to each other. The points not only show the commonality of all religion, but also the intersection of science and spirituality.
August 6, 2009
I seldom read biographies, and still less often, autobiographies, making exceptions only for those subjects who truly fascinate me or who I believe have much to teach. Huston Smith falls squarely into both categories.
Many years ago, my husband and I took a class on World Religions being given at the local high school by a professor from the nearest state university. The text was Smith's The Religions of Man, since revised, enlarged, and retitled The World's Religions. So I was familiar with Smith, and the title of this book attracted me. I pulled it from the library shelf and realized it was an autobiography, but sat down to read a few pages; immediately I knew I wanted to read the whole book.
Smith is 90 years old -- he and his friend Pete Seeger share a birthday -- and grew up in a remote village in China where his parents were Methodist missionaries. He still belongs to a Methodist church - I believe, from things he says in this book, that it's San Francisco's Glide Memorial -- but has not only studied, but practiced, other religions. His quest for learning took him first to Shanghai, then to a small college in Missouri, and then to Chicago for grad school. Subsequently, besides teaching in several universities, he travelled all over the world and even to the doors of perception. (He tells of taking mescaline with Timothy Leary.) The tale of his experiences is fascinating in itself, but what makes this book truly worth reading are the nuggets of wisdom, well expressed, that Smith has gained from his studies, his practices, and his life. As a bonus, the appendix to the book is a lecture, "A Universal Grammar of Worldviews," that Smith gave at Pacific School of Religion four years ago, and which contains both knowledge and wisdom. Highly recommended.
Many years ago, my husband and I took a class on World Religions being given at the local high school by a professor from the nearest state university. The text was Smith's The Religions of Man, since revised, enlarged, and retitled The World's Religions. So I was familiar with Smith, and the title of this book attracted me. I pulled it from the library shelf and realized it was an autobiography, but sat down to read a few pages; immediately I knew I wanted to read the whole book.
Smith is 90 years old -- he and his friend Pete Seeger share a birthday -- and grew up in a remote village in China where his parents were Methodist missionaries. He still belongs to a Methodist church - I believe, from things he says in this book, that it's San Francisco's Glide Memorial -- but has not only studied, but practiced, other religions. His quest for learning took him first to Shanghai, then to a small college in Missouri, and then to Chicago for grad school. Subsequently, besides teaching in several universities, he travelled all over the world and even to the doors of perception. (He tells of taking mescaline with Timothy Leary.) The tale of his experiences is fascinating in itself, but what makes this book truly worth reading are the nuggets of wisdom, well expressed, that Smith has gained from his studies, his practices, and his life. As a bonus, the appendix to the book is a lecture, "A Universal Grammar of Worldviews," that Smith gave at Pacific School of Religion four years ago, and which contains both knowledge and wisdom. Highly recommended.
December 7, 2012
A very personal, end of life summing up of the events and principles that most influenced his work, marriage and community. A bit slow at times, but the end chapters were so powerful that it brought tears to my eyes. I provide a spoiler here, but four stars really are for those last chapters. I did enjoy the meandering of the autobiographical, learned a lot from precises of the important parts of his scholarship. Probably not for everyone, but a good read for Huston Smith fans or folks interested in a journey in religions.
June 21, 2025
Huston Smith (1919 - 2016) is the author of a famous work, The World’s Religions. In ISTAC Illuminated, Sharifah Shifa al-Attas mentioned that Huston Smith also pay a visit to ISTAC during the pinnacle of the institute on top of other great scholars like SH Nasr, Shaykh Muhammad ‘Alawi al-Maliki al-Hasani, Prof. Ungku Aziz, Syed Hussein Alatas, Kassim Ahmad etc.
In this gripping autobiography, Huston Smith brings the reader into two aspects of his journey in life – horizontal and vertical. Huston Smith explored, practiced and experienced every single religion for around 10 years from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and found that religion is full of miracle and life is full of mystery.
Though he knew Joseph Campbell quite well, he disagree with Campbell as Campbell downgrade religion into a mere “myth” while Smith believes that religion reflects realities and presence.
In the course of his journey, Huston Smith greatly influenced earlier by Aldous Huxley, then Dalai Lama and finally by Frithjof Schuon. He is also an intimate colleague of Noam Chomsky in MIT until Smith also argued that a universal language of worldviews, of religion, is also embedded in the brain. He also have an opportunity to meet Heisenberg and Oppenheimer to discuss about the effects and human responsibility after production of atomic bombs and World War II.
After reading this book, I find that there are three captivating points worth to be mentioned.
Firstly, when Smith mentioned that Zen Buddhism believes that one need to have an infinite gratitude for all things of the past, infinite service for all things of the present and infinite responsibility for all things of the future.
Secondly, Smith was stunned by the miracle of the language of The Quran (i’jāz al-Qur’ān) when Allah referred to himself as “We” while other religion like Christian talked about only in the third person. He believes that Quran spoke to him more poetically than the poetry itself.
Thirdly, Smith believes that in order to understand the worldview and religion especially the multiple levels of reality, one need to understand symbolism – art, poetry, music, dance etc. In his journey to the land of Konya, he embedded himself into the traditional practice of Turkish whirling which is influenced by Jalaluddin al-Rumi.
All in all, this book is written at the end of his age of 90 and one definitely need to accompany this reading with Prof. al-Attas’ Islam and Secularism, Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam and Islam: The Covenants Fulfilled in order to clarify the thin thread and hazardous entity – Transcendent Unity of Religion.
In this gripping autobiography, Huston Smith brings the reader into two aspects of his journey in life – horizontal and vertical. Huston Smith explored, practiced and experienced every single religion for around 10 years from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam and found that religion is full of miracle and life is full of mystery.
Though he knew Joseph Campbell quite well, he disagree with Campbell as Campbell downgrade religion into a mere “myth” while Smith believes that religion reflects realities and presence.
In the course of his journey, Huston Smith greatly influenced earlier by Aldous Huxley, then Dalai Lama and finally by Frithjof Schuon. He is also an intimate colleague of Noam Chomsky in MIT until Smith also argued that a universal language of worldviews, of religion, is also embedded in the brain. He also have an opportunity to meet Heisenberg and Oppenheimer to discuss about the effects and human responsibility after production of atomic bombs and World War II.
After reading this book, I find that there are three captivating points worth to be mentioned.
Firstly, when Smith mentioned that Zen Buddhism believes that one need to have an infinite gratitude for all things of the past, infinite service for all things of the present and infinite responsibility for all things of the future.
Secondly, Smith was stunned by the miracle of the language of The Quran (i’jāz al-Qur’ān) when Allah referred to himself as “We” while other religion like Christian talked about only in the third person. He believes that Quran spoke to him more poetically than the poetry itself.
Thirdly, Smith believes that in order to understand the worldview and religion especially the multiple levels of reality, one need to understand symbolism – art, poetry, music, dance etc. In his journey to the land of Konya, he embedded himself into the traditional practice of Turkish whirling which is influenced by Jalaluddin al-Rumi.
All in all, this book is written at the end of his age of 90 and one definitely need to accompany this reading with Prof. al-Attas’ Islam and Secularism, Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam and Islam: The Covenants Fulfilled in order to clarify the thin thread and hazardous entity – Transcendent Unity of Religion.
October 14, 2022
The author definitely lived a unique and interesting life, but ultimately this book is just another person saying that all religions lead to the same path. I honestly think it would've been more worthwhile to read the wikipedia article about Huston Smith instead
October 14, 2025
This was readable but should've been written by someone else and much longer. Huston Smith lived a fascinating life, and I'm afraid this book didn't capture a fraction of it. Perhaps this book is lacking because of Smith's age and perhaps because people aren't usually that good writing about themselves.
I'm not someone with a spiritual orientation or prone to believing in human created utopias. I'm more drawn to theology and legalistic religious traditions. So, my views on religion are dramatically different than those of Smith, but I appreciated his thoughts on his experiences with various spiritual traditions.
As a St. Louisan, it was interesting to learn that his academic, television, and writing career began in St. Louis.
I'm not someone with a spiritual orientation or prone to believing in human created utopias. I'm more drawn to theology and legalistic religious traditions. So, my views on religion are dramatically different than those of Smith, but I appreciated his thoughts on his experiences with various spiritual traditions.
As a St. Louisan, it was interesting to learn that his academic, television, and writing career began in St. Louis.
October 4, 2009
Many years ago when visiting a nursing home, I met man who at the age of 101 was writing his first book. I met him again two years later and he was working on his second book.
Like this nursing home patient, Huston Smith wrote this book shortly before turning ninety while living in an assisted living facility. He wrote this autobiograpy after a lifetime of studying, participating in and writing about the religions of the world. This is his fifteen book. If you are looking for a memoir of his spiritual life, forget it. This is an old-fashioned autobiography where the author touches on the highlights of his life, shares some stories of people he has met and generally paints a positive picture of his life.
I was sixteen years old, a junior in high school and committed to becoming a minister when I encountered The Religions of Man by Huston Smith in 1965. The book was to change the course of my life and put me on the road to doubt and disbelief. I went from being committed to the ministry to not believing in God in two short years. Smith opened my eyes to the religions of the world.
Smith was the son of Methodist missionaries to China and spent his early years growing up in China prior to the Communist revolution. He was on the path to becoming a minister before becoming a professor of world religions. He not only studied and wrote about religions but also practiced them. He embraced Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.
Tales of Wonder is a fast easy read that will give you some background on Huston Smith but little insight into the man. Most people would better spend their time reading his books on religion.
Like this nursing home patient, Huston Smith wrote this book shortly before turning ninety while living in an assisted living facility. He wrote this autobiograpy after a lifetime of studying, participating in and writing about the religions of the world. This is his fifteen book. If you are looking for a memoir of his spiritual life, forget it. This is an old-fashioned autobiography where the author touches on the highlights of his life, shares some stories of people he has met and generally paints a positive picture of his life.
I was sixteen years old, a junior in high school and committed to becoming a minister when I encountered The Religions of Man by Huston Smith in 1965. The book was to change the course of my life and put me on the road to doubt and disbelief. I went from being committed to the ministry to not believing in God in two short years. Smith opened my eyes to the religions of the world.
Smith was the son of Methodist missionaries to China and spent his early years growing up in China prior to the Communist revolution. He was on the path to becoming a minister before becoming a professor of world religions. He not only studied and wrote about religions but also practiced them. He embraced Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.
Tales of Wonder is a fast easy read that will give you some background on Huston Smith but little insight into the man. Most people would better spend their time reading his books on religion.
February 2, 2010
Though I give this five stars without hesitation, much of the reason I loved it so much is because I have already appreciated the author for quite some time, so reading his autobiography was significant for me. I'm not sure how good it would be if you didn't know his work. And some of you reading this would NOT like this book.
September 21, 2017
An autobiography of a man who made the world's religions his lifelong study, not in any impersonal way, but with a child's wholehearted delight. Before I had finished the book, I already knew I wanted a copy of my own.
March 10, 2018
Interesting life. Horrible theology.
June 9, 2017
It was an interesting read. He catalogs his faith journey from traditional Christianity to a more unitarian faith perspective. He claims he did a deep exploration of other major religions without leaving "Christianity" and even offers a "curse" on traditional/fundamental Christians. Aside from that one harsh line, I think many Christians may be unknowingly persuaded toward a more flimsy faith because his decades in academia and compassionate engagement of other religions suggest he is a very qualified authority to speak on such matters as spirituality and faith. If you read, be sure to take the time to consider what the Word of God - The Bible (and many many biblical scholars who corroborate it's validity) has to say about such matters.
Here are a few quotes from Huston Smith to give you further insight into his "Christianity":
“I've spent the last 50 years or so steeping myself in the world's religions, and I've done my homework. I've gone to each of the world's eight great religions and sought out the most profound scholars I could find, and I've apprenticed myself to them and actually practiced each faith.”
"We would do well to...think of God as a direction rather than an object."
"I am very orthodox in thinking that Jesus acted in his life the way God would have acted IF God had assumed human form." (emphasis added to "if")
"Well, it seems like the same truths being announced in different idioms, but these traditions are needed to flesh out the full spiritual capacities of the human race-human beings. But when-I find no conflict between them. As I have said on occasion, I have a body and a soul and my body continues to belong to the tradition in which it was born. It was a good experience. The transmission was effected. But my soul cannot be contained in any institution. Like al-Ghazali said-he said, “My soul is a mosque for the Muslims, a temple for the Hindus, an altar for the Zoroastrians, a grazing pasture for gazelles.” "
Here are a few quotes from Huston Smith to give you further insight into his "Christianity":
“I've spent the last 50 years or so steeping myself in the world's religions, and I've done my homework. I've gone to each of the world's eight great religions and sought out the most profound scholars I could find, and I've apprenticed myself to them and actually practiced each faith.”
"We would do well to...think of God as a direction rather than an object."
"I am very orthodox in thinking that Jesus acted in his life the way God would have acted IF God had assumed human form." (emphasis added to "if")
"Well, it seems like the same truths being announced in different idioms, but these traditions are needed to flesh out the full spiritual capacities of the human race-human beings. But when-I find no conflict between them. As I have said on occasion, I have a body and a soul and my body continues to belong to the tradition in which it was born. It was a good experience. The transmission was effected. But my soul cannot be contained in any institution. Like al-Ghazali said-he said, “My soul is a mosque for the Muslims, a temple for the Hindus, an altar for the Zoroastrians, a grazing pasture for gazelles.” "
January 1, 2018
I keep wondering how much more detailed this memoir would have been if Smith had started writing it several years ago -- or if, perhaps, he were less modest. He is a fascinating, charming, very humanistic person who has lived an incredible life, one which would have easily filled out a memoir four or five times the length of this and remained interesting. But these anecdotes merely provide a graceful outline of his life; they don't dig into the details which would have taken it from "interesting" to "compelling."
Still, this memoir is well worth reading. As a student of comparative religion myself, I most enjoyed the second half, when he wrote about his spiritual explorations, including deep, decade-long dives into Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, his late-arriving exploration of indigenous religions (leading to a re-write of his major work), and even of entheogens as part of the spiritual journey.
There is a great deal of wisdom in the second half of the book, and I highlighted many passages, and shared many of them to my FB page. They will be worth returning to for more contemplation.
Still, this memoir is well worth reading. As a student of comparative religion myself, I most enjoyed the second half, when he wrote about his spiritual explorations, including deep, decade-long dives into Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, his late-arriving exploration of indigenous religions (leading to a re-write of his major work), and even of entheogens as part of the spiritual journey.
There is a great deal of wisdom in the second half of the book, and I highlighted many passages, and shared many of them to my FB page. They will be worth returning to for more contemplation.
September 18, 2020
I imagine this autobiography must have been one of Huston Smith's most challenging books to write--for he was both an extraordinarily gifted and remarkably accomplished man and a humble man. A egotistical person, with only a small fraction of Smith's life experiences, would have produced a much larger volume. So when he devotes a sentence to an event that seems to deserve a chapter, I take his brevity to be reflection of his modesty, or better yet, his absence of conceit. All of that is to say that while the reader might wish that this wonderful look back on Smith's life had been longer and more thorough, such a book will have to come from a biographer. This is Huston Smith's story as told by the man himself--at age 90 and living in a nursing home. It is as it should be.
June 6, 2024
I first came upon Smith, the author of the classic "The World’s Religions," in my study of Ram Dass. Smith’s perceptive and accessible autobiography starts with his childhood as the son of Christian missionaries in China and takes the reader through not only his academic career at several leading institutions but more importantly his exploration of the various ways humans around the world seek to get beneath dogma in their pursuit of the divine. We see how his open-minded approach to different cultures and theologies shapes his views and insights.
June 14, 2017
I've heard that some books find you, and I can count on my fingers the ones that have truly found me when I was ready. I was not ready for this book to be one of them but it was.
I'm not sure how much more to review a book whose words blend in with the soul of the reader, at least this reader. I am humbled at his life and Huston is high on my list of people I'd share a beer with.
I'm not sure how much more to review a book whose words blend in with the soul of the reader, at least this reader. I am humbled at his life and Huston is high on my list of people I'd share a beer with.
July 13, 2017
A Very Interesting Life
Houston Smith's book on his life was a delight to read, not only because a biography allows the reader to peek into a person's intimate life, but because it describes in detail the role of religion in his daily business. Furthermore, the book is written with humour and abounds in deep reflections about existence.
Houston Smith's book on his life was a delight to read, not only because a biography allows the reader to peek into a person's intimate life, but because it describes in detail the role of religion in his daily business. Furthermore, the book is written with humour and abounds in deep reflections about existence.
January 31, 2018
Some lovely thoughts, some odd thoughts - but overall, very open minded man.
Quite enjoyed first half, then got bogged down a bit. But overall, would recommend this for lovers of memoir or religion.
Quite enjoyed first half, then got bogged down a bit. But overall, would recommend this for lovers of memoir or religion.
August 7, 2018
May we all reach 90 with as much curiosity, joy, and presence as Huston Smith!
June 8, 2019
Huston Smith lived a pretty incredible life, and I enjoyed reading this autobiography.
July 19, 2022
Autobiography of Huston Smith, Comparative religion guy and big name in the new spirituality movement. Helpful
March 23, 2017
Man. This book is fantastic. Wonder and gratitude ooze out of every page of this Religion scholar (and practitioner)'s wonderfully written reflection of his 90+ years spent taking it all in.
March 2, 2015
Huston Smith has always been a fascinating figure to me. On the one hand I have always admired his ability to see the good in every religion, and I appreciate the fact that he has actively practiced many of the religions he writes about. But I’ve also been frustrated by Smith’s tendency to turn a blind eye toward the troubling aspects of religion. I also find him to be extremely slippery when elucidating his own beliefs, as he is committed to maintaining that all religions are true in their own way, despite their myriad contradictions. I was interested to read his autobiography and hopefully gain some insight into the particulars of what he himself believes, and to hear about the “tales of wonder” promised by the book’s title.
I was at first disappointed by the first half of the book, which primarily recounts Smith’s professional career and family life. Smith came across not as a wise and timeless human being, as he is so often depicted, but instead as a somewhat prideful person who loved nothing more than attention. He too often mentioned the awards that he won, the books that wrote, and the TV series he has starred in. I began to wonder whether he was more interested in the publicity than the actual subject matter he studied.
But the second half of the book helped to dispel that suspicion, as he talks about all the ways in which religion has affected the way he lives. I found his section on Christianity particularly interesting; he subscribes to a pretty liberal branch of Christianity, and says that to him, it doesn’t matter whether or not Christ actually rose from the dead. He also explicitly stated what he conjectures will happen after death. In this second half it was easier to see why so many consider Smith to be such a wise man, though the first half makes it clear that he is no saint. Ultimately, I appreciated the candor with which Smith wrote this book, and how he often explicitly stated his own beliefs (in contrast to some of his other work). His take on the problem of suffering was particularly poignant, since he addressed it within the context of his response to the murder of his granddaughter. He said that suffering and evil make God more necessary, not less. But this seems to me just another way of saying, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” This may be true for some people, but not all. Huston is far from unique among scholars of religion and philosophers in constructing extraordinarily elaborate frameworks to support the beliefs they find attractive. Smith makes such a beautiful case for the perennial philosophy that I admit to being attracted to it, too, though in the end I think we need to consider both the good and the bad aspects of religion, and commit to straining out the bad without letting the good slip through with it.
I was at first disappointed by the first half of the book, which primarily recounts Smith’s professional career and family life. Smith came across not as a wise and timeless human being, as he is so often depicted, but instead as a somewhat prideful person who loved nothing more than attention. He too often mentioned the awards that he won, the books that wrote, and the TV series he has starred in. I began to wonder whether he was more interested in the publicity than the actual subject matter he studied.
But the second half of the book helped to dispel that suspicion, as he talks about all the ways in which religion has affected the way he lives. I found his section on Christianity particularly interesting; he subscribes to a pretty liberal branch of Christianity, and says that to him, it doesn’t matter whether or not Christ actually rose from the dead. He also explicitly stated what he conjectures will happen after death. In this second half it was easier to see why so many consider Smith to be such a wise man, though the first half makes it clear that he is no saint. Ultimately, I appreciated the candor with which Smith wrote this book, and how he often explicitly stated his own beliefs (in contrast to some of his other work). His take on the problem of suffering was particularly poignant, since he addressed it within the context of his response to the murder of his granddaughter. He said that suffering and evil make God more necessary, not less. But this seems to me just another way of saying, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” This may be true for some people, but not all. Huston is far from unique among scholars of religion and philosophers in constructing extraordinarily elaborate frameworks to support the beliefs they find attractive. Smith makes such a beautiful case for the perennial philosophy that I admit to being attracted to it, too, though in the end I think we need to consider both the good and the bad aspects of religion, and commit to straining out the bad without letting the good slip through with it.
November 4, 2014
This book was Terribly Wonderful!I say terribly wonderful because my
heart breaks as he related his wife's upbringing and the deaths of one
daughter and a grand-daughter. Yet it's also terrible because it is forcing me to re-examine what Christianity really means for the 1 Millioneth time in my life.Thst is both terrible and wonderful.
The reason unlike many of Smith's books that I would not give it 5 stars is that I wanted more discussion of the people that he met.
I also would have liked to hear him talk about
Unificationism and other NRM's (new religious movements) that I studied with him.
Also, while I recognize that it was "the 60's" I was dissapointed in his use of and discussion about mind altering drugs. Personally, I don't think that was a road he
needed to travel.
Having said that, the book makes me love my faith and yet it challenges too.
Makes me FALL IN LOVE WITH RELIGION ALL OVER AGAIN I feel like I am sitting with him sharing a cup of coffee and learning his thoughts on EVERYTHING. Makes we wish I had had a tape recorder with me when I was his student in the summer of 1984. He writes that he "never met a religion He did not love." How can you not be impressed by someone with that point of view?!
HE IS A GIANT!!
As with an autobiography, one reads the story of another and it reflects back on oneself and ones own life. You are forced to think and re-examine and think some more. That of course leads to prayer.
heart breaks as he related his wife's upbringing and the deaths of one
daughter and a grand-daughter. Yet it's also terrible because it is forcing me to re-examine what Christianity really means for the 1 Millioneth time in my life.Thst is both terrible and wonderful.
The reason unlike many of Smith's books that I would not give it 5 stars is that I wanted more discussion of the people that he met.
I also would have liked to hear him talk about
Unificationism and other NRM's (new religious movements) that I studied with him.
Also, while I recognize that it was "the 60's" I was dissapointed in his use of and discussion about mind altering drugs. Personally, I don't think that was a road he
needed to travel.
Having said that, the book makes me love my faith and yet it challenges too.
Makes me FALL IN LOVE WITH RELIGION ALL OVER AGAIN I feel like I am sitting with him sharing a cup of coffee and learning his thoughts on EVERYTHING. Makes we wish I had had a tape recorder with me when I was his student in the summer of 1984. He writes that he "never met a religion He did not love." How can you not be impressed by someone with that point of view?!
HE IS A GIANT!!
As with an autobiography, one reads the story of another and it reflects back on oneself and ones own life. You are forced to think and re-examine and think some more. That of course leads to prayer.
November 29, 2016
I ran across this autobiography and was intrigued. Huston Smith had a most unusual life, born in the 1920's in China, the son of Christian missionaries, sent to America to live with grandparents and study at a conservative Christian college, transferring to the University of Chicago, and later to Berkeley and learning all that rational humanism had to teach from professors like Henry Weiman, a self described socialist and naturalistic theist (whose daughter he married) and meditating at a desert monastery with Gerald Heard, the father of evolutionary consciousness, then spending his life in search of the 'divine', literally spending ten years each studying Buddhism, HInduism, and Islam. Along the way he has significant interaction with such luminaries as the Dalai Lama, Eleanor Roosevelt, Aldous Huxley, and Martin Luther King. He started the Philosophy department at MIT and seemed to be in the right place at the right time, from welcoming T. S. Eliot to the United States, to being at Tiananmen square in Beijing during the riots there. He spent his retirement years exploring comparative religion among native tribes people around the world and experimenting with all forms of mind altering substances and rituals, all to come back before his death to a final acceptance of the Christianity of his boyhood. All in all, it was a fascinating autobiography by a very different man.
August 3, 2009
Huston Smith wrote The World's Religions which sold 2 1/2 million copies & was the subject of a 5 part special on PBS wherein Bill Moyers interviewed him about the world's religions. He is now 90 and this is his new autobiography. For someone whose spent his life pondering the depths of Islam, Hinduism, and other religions, this book is surprisingly conversational in tone. It feels very much like you're just sitting down listening to someone tell stories about their life.
I had never heard of him before & merely stumbled upon this book by chance at the bookstore. I spent a good chunk of the weekend reading it & wishing I had known about Smith for years. His book romps through encounters with people like Aldous Huxley, Martin Luther King, Timothy Leary, & the Dalai Lama.
Smith is a Christian but not like any Christian I've met. Fundamentalists will object to his views of Christianity. And I suspect Islamic fundamentalists will object to his views of Islam. He definitely has a liberal viewpoint and at least in this book looks at religions through rose colored glasses - which is good, it's been a long time since I've thought about any organized religion in a positive way.
I had never heard of him before & merely stumbled upon this book by chance at the bookstore. I spent a good chunk of the weekend reading it & wishing I had known about Smith for years. His book romps through encounters with people like Aldous Huxley, Martin Luther King, Timothy Leary, & the Dalai Lama.
Smith is a Christian but not like any Christian I've met. Fundamentalists will object to his views of Christianity. And I suspect Islamic fundamentalists will object to his views of Islam. He definitely has a liberal viewpoint and at least in this book looks at religions through rose colored glasses - which is good, it's been a long time since I've thought about any organized religion in a positive way.
June 11, 2012
I adored Huston Smith before I finished the first chapter of "The World's Religions," which I read for my Comparative Religion class. Smith is a sort of hierophant, revealing the invisible beauties embraced by each of the world's religions. His focus is on the positive, essentially showing why the adherents of a religion adhere to it, the experiences provided by it. I knew I wanted to know more about Smith's life just from "The World's Religions." He grew up as a missionary's child in China, spent a decade as a Hindu, a decade as a Buddhist, and a decade as a Sufi. He befriended Thomas Merton and explored entheogens with Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary. Upon turning 90, he decided that he should create some record of his experiences.
At first, I found myself disliking the fact that I was allowing myself to read the recollections of someone so unceasingly cheery, but a few tragedies midway through the book, and the general aging process, allowed me to see him as human, and his experiences truly were quite interesting. I found the book enthralling, though I admit that it's not much of a narrative, and you would have to find his exploits intrinsically interesting to find it worthwhile. Still, I'm sure you'd find Huston Smith utterly adorable.
At first, I found myself disliking the fact that I was allowing myself to read the recollections of someone so unceasingly cheery, but a few tragedies midway through the book, and the general aging process, allowed me to see him as human, and his experiences truly were quite interesting. I found the book enthralling, though I admit that it's not much of a narrative, and you would have to find his exploits intrinsically interesting to find it worthwhile. Still, I'm sure you'd find Huston Smith utterly adorable.
April 1, 2013
"In the Scarlet Letter Hawthorne cautions us to show the world, if not our worst, at least that by which our worst can be inferred."
"In Buddhism monks daily recite the Five remembrances, which are: I will lose my youth, my health, my dear ones and everything I hold dear, and finally lose life itself, by the very nature of my being human. These are bitter reminders that the only thing that continues is the consequences of our action. The fact that all the things we hold dear and love are transient does not mean that we should love them less but, love them even more."
"This is my litmus test for...any mental experience however induced: does it enhance your whole life, and do you in turn enhance the lives of others?"
"We should conceive God not as an object but as a direction"
"The proper response to a great work of art is to enter into it as though there were nothing else in the world. The proper response to a major spiritual tradition, if you can truly see it, may be to practice it."
"In Buddhism monks daily recite the Five remembrances, which are: I will lose my youth, my health, my dear ones and everything I hold dear, and finally lose life itself, by the very nature of my being human. These are bitter reminders that the only thing that continues is the consequences of our action. The fact that all the things we hold dear and love are transient does not mean that we should love them less but, love them even more."
"This is my litmus test for...any mental experience however induced: does it enhance your whole life, and do you in turn enhance the lives of others?"
"We should conceive God not as an object but as a direction"
"The proper response to a great work of art is to enter into it as though there were nothing else in the world. The proper response to a major spiritual tradition, if you can truly see it, may be to practice it."
February 10, 2013
Huston Smith doesn’t know it, but he’s been my mentor for the past decade and a half – ever since I took a job as religion reporter at a local newspaper. The religion beat has a steep learning curve, I quickly discovered, and Smith’s authoritative book "The World’s Religions" became my bible. It has remained so all these years.
Studying it, I often find myself trying to read between the lines – who is this man who speaks so fluently of Islam and Judaism, Hinduism and Taoism? What did he personally think of the many disparate religions he studied? Is he still a Christian? Did he ever practice any of the religions he studied?
Now I’m reading Smith’s most recent book, an autobiography, "Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine," written with Jeffery Paine. And I’m getting some answers.
Read my full review at:
http://barbarafalconernewhall.com/200...
Studying it, I often find myself trying to read between the lines – who is this man who speaks so fluently of Islam and Judaism, Hinduism and Taoism? What did he personally think of the many disparate religions he studied? Is he still a Christian? Did he ever practice any of the religions he studied?
Now I’m reading Smith’s most recent book, an autobiography, "Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine," written with Jeffery Paine. And I’m getting some answers.
Read my full review at:
http://barbarafalconernewhall.com/200...
August 14, 2016
I was about to give this book five stars, but then realized that I am probably not going to read it again, and I think the "amazing" should be reserved for those. But the life of which it tells is absolutely amazing, at least for those of us who appreciate a rich inner life at least as much as an eventful outward life. In the case of Huston Smith, both are true. He was present at pivotal moments, met and got to know influential people, and had the ability to make use of all this. Regardless of whether you agree with him or even respect his view of the validity of the great world religions, he is a man who will be remembered as standing a head taller than the crowd of his time, a remarkable man, with a vision and the will and dedication to pursue it.
February 18, 2025
As a seeker of truth who was not satisfied with the standard, prominent interpretation of Christianity I was taught as a child, finding this book was like finding a cold glass of water in the desert.
To think a man who was born in China to Christian missionaries, became a professor of philosophy at MIT, wrote best-selling books, and practiced personally all of the great religious traditions while never losing his “subscription to Christianity,” as he put it gives me so much hope for the adventures chasing the divine that I get to undergo in my own life.
If you are skeptical of institutions but left dissatisfied with institutional religion like I was, then stop what you’re doing right now and begin reading this book.
To think a man who was born in China to Christian missionaries, became a professor of philosophy at MIT, wrote best-selling books, and practiced personally all of the great religious traditions while never losing his “subscription to Christianity,” as he put it gives me so much hope for the adventures chasing the divine that I get to undergo in my own life.
If you are skeptical of institutions but left dissatisfied with institutional religion like I was, then stop what you’re doing right now and begin reading this book.
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