Books -- Mr. Smith

Books — Mr. Smith

As one might easily deduce, I like to read – especially (lately, exclusively) books on spirituality, religions and metaphysics.

I’m not a particularly fast reader and my opportunity windows for reading are erratic, but at any given time I generally will have at least a dozen titles open as I work my way through the chapters bouncing from book to book.?

Periodic generic requests for reading recommendations caused me to contemplate what would be my personal shortlist – i.e., the stash I would wish to possess if shipwrecked on a desert island.?In playing the bitter/frustrating parlor game, I haven’t assumed a large steam trunk; and, to assist the culling process, I’ve only considered books that I’ve read multiple times.?

If limited to five, my current cherished library would be:?“The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings” by Thich Nhat Hanh; “A New Earth” by Eckhart Tolle; “The Perennial Philosophy” by Aldous Huxley; “Dangerous Mystic – Meister Eckhart’s Path to the God Within” by Joel Harrington; and, “Without Buddha I Could not be a Christian” by Paul Knitter.???

If, however, I was able to cram two more books into my backpack, a few leading contenders would include “The World’s Religions” and “Tales of Wonder,” both by Huston Smith (1919 – 2016).

Professor Smith holds a great deal of appeal for a budding eager new student, such as myself, to the insatiably vast study of theology.?

Born to and raised by Methodist missionary parents in a remote town in China with no other foreigners, Smith’s near century-long life was a complete emersion in the study and teaching of religions of the world.?Smith’s study of other faiths was not merely as a tourist; he was taught by leading spiritual leaders and dedicated himself for decade periods at a time as a sincere devoted member of the belief systems sequentially of Hinduism, then Buddhism and then Islam.?Like Knitter (and many others), he was able to commit himself to following another faith, while simultaneously maintaining his devotion to Jesus throughout his life.?

Dana Sawyer on Smith: “Vedanta allowed Huston to see each religion as a particular ‘color of the spectrum’ emanating from the same white light of mystical insight. Even when speaking about God specifically, Satprakashananda had taught Huston that there is no conflict between the traditions. Each god and goddess is only an emanation of the Divine Ground, the Godhead behind all the gods, and each religion’s god is only a specific culture’s interpretation of the personal-God principle. In Vedanta’s universalism, where the world’s gods are ultimately masks on the face of the one pre-cultural Sacred, Huston found a theology flexible enough for him to support the world’s religions collectively while also moving easily back and forth between them as different paths up the same mountain.”

Such deep personal commitment to the subject matters, as well as his easy writing style and prose, made “The World’s Religions” (first published in 1958) one of the most popular approachable summary anthologies on the great religions.?The precursor to TWR was a popular five-part series Smith did in 1955 on NET (the forerunner to PBS), during the early days of television, which made him a recognizable celebrity of sorts at that time.

Aldous Huxley, Frithjof Schuon, Rene Guenon, Max Muller, among others, do great jobs of illuminating and teaching the essential unifying commonality among the major religions (and Huston Smith provides a worthy meaty Introduction to Schuon’s “The Transcendent Unity of Religions”).?Smith’s TWR, however, provides useful introductory background specifically about the religions in a concise manner, including his final mea culpa chapter -- The Primal Religions (added in the 50th Anniversary Edition).?

If, as the ancient adage holds, that much can be gleaned about a person by the company one keeps, then Smith certainly led a fulfilling and fascinating life -- hanging out with the likes of:?Huxley, Schuon, Ram Das, the Dalai Lama, DS Suzuki, Thomas Merton, Alan Watts, Noam Chomsky, TS Eliot, Goto Roshi, Gerald Heard, William Danforth, Robert Oppenheimer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Timothy Leary, Martin Luther King, Krishnamurti, Eleanor Roosevelt,?Satprakashananda and Pete Seeger.?

Published in his 90th year as he was living in a nursing home reflecting upon his life journey, Huston Smith’s autobiography “Tales of Wonder” provides great context for his frame of reference in writing TWR; and, in that sense, I view it as a useful, interesting and beautiful companion piece.?I won’t spoil the book, but we share a life experience that endears me to the author.?Smith’s style (and, it appears, his life) is full of both curiosity and humility (as we all should be).

As is fitting, I’ll close with a quote from the Professor:?“I am at the end of my professional career, giving only an occasional talk. I won’t be teaching any more students at MIT or Syracuse or Berkeley about Islam. Yet for one last time let me be the teacher and teach one last thing—a verse from the Qur’an: “If We [Allah is speaking] wished, We could have made you one people, but as it is, We have made you many. It is better this way. Therefore, vie among yourselves in good works.” Elsewhere the Prophet tells us that in Paradise upon arrival all you do is say one word, over and over: Peace—peace—peace.”