"Where can we find what is ultimately meaningful? How can we discover what is truly worth knowing?" In one form or another Huston Smith has been posing these questions to himself--and the world--all his life. In the course of seeking answers, he has become one of the most interesting, enlightening, and celebrated voices on the subject of religion and spirituality throughout the world. The twenty-three interviews and essays in this volume, edited by cultural historian and filmmaker Phil Cousineau, offer a uniquely personal perspective on Smith's own personal journey, as well as wide-ranging reflection on the nature and importance of the religious quest. In The Way Things Are, readers will find Smith in conversation with some of the world's most influential personalities and religious leaders, from journalist Bill Moyers to religion scholar Philip Novak, and recounting his personal experiences with such luminaries as Joseph Campbell, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Daisetz Suzuki, Ram Dass, and the Dalai Lama. Throughout these engaging exchanges Smith speaks with passion and humor of his upbringing as the son of missionary parents in China, of the inspiring and colorful individuals he has known, and of his impressions of the different religious and philosophical traditions he has encountered. A fascinating view of the state of world religion and religious leadership over the past fifty years, the book also looks to the future with a final interview on the vital importance of the transcendent message of religion for the post-9/11 world. Readers will find The Way Things Are to be Huston Smith's most and accessible book to date.

The Sacred Dimensions of Everyday Life This interview by Holistic Education Review editor Jeffrey Kane took place during the summer of 1993 and appeared in Holistic Education Review 6, no. 4 (Winter 1993). Reprinted by permission of Holistic Education Review. Jeffrey Kane: Holistic Education Review begins with the idea that there is a spiritual dimension to reality and that it should make a difference in the way we educate children. The first question I'd like to ask you is, As you walk down the street, or as you eat your meal, or as you go to bed at night, do you see a spiritual dimension which pervades everyday existence? Huston Smith: If I answer honestly and personally (it's a personal question), the answer is some days I do, and some days I don't. But let me say immediately that on the days that I don't, I feel unwell, you might say. It is as if I have the spiritual flu—something like that. When you have the flu you feel rotten, and when you have the spiritual flu the world seems drained of meaning and purpose—humdrum and prosaic. But I've lived long enough to be able to say when those days roll 'round: okay, this is the yin and yang of life—ups and downs. This is one of those dark days of the ego. Most of the time, though, meaning and purpose are discernible, often to lyrical heights. Those moments are privileged; they are gifts. Even when my happiness isn't at a rolling boil, I tend to know that there is a spiritual dimension to all things. Kane: When you think about the spiritual dimensions of reality, is it in the everydayness of the world, is it in a glass of water, or in the air that we breathe? Smith: It's everywhere. Everything is an outpouring of the infinite that is spiritual in essence, so everything reflects that spirit. Blake is famous for having said that if the doors of perception were cleansed, we would see everything as it truly is—infinite. For him infinitude was also perfection. Limitations exist in us, not in the world. Kane: Would it be going too far to say that everything is truly sacred if we see it rightly? Smith: Not too far at all. As the Thomists say, esse qua esse bonum est: "being as being is good." Of course the evil in the world tests that principle, but I think it can be defended.

 

"Where can we find what is ultimately meaningful? How can we discover what is truly worth knowing?" In one form or another Huston Smith has been posing these questions to himself--and the world--all his life. In the course of seeking answers, he has become one of the most interesting, enlightening, and celebrated voices on the subject of religion and spirituality throughout the world. The twenty-three interviews and essays in this volume, edited by cultural historian and filmmaker Phil Cousineau, offer a uniquely personal perspective on Smith's own personal journey, as well as wide-ranging reflection on the nature and importance of the religious quest.

Preface: The Way Things Are for Huston Smith No Wasted Journey: A Theological Autobiography Introduction by Huston Smith PART ONE: THE HEART OF RELIGION Chapter 1. The Way Things Are An interview with Timothy Beneke Chapter 2. The Primordial Tradition An interview with John Loudon Chapter 3. Winnowing the Wisdom Traditions An interview with Mark Kenaston Chapter 4. This Is It An interview with Richard Marranca Chapter 5. The Soul of the Community An interview with Philip and Bridgett Novak Chapter 6. Encountering God An essay by Huston Smith PART TWO: THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION Chapter 7. The Place of Science An interview with Steve Reuys Chapter 8. The Limits of the Scientific Worldview An interview with Jeffrey Mishlove Chapter 9. Science as the Oracle of Our Age An interview with Michael Toms Chapter 10. Science, Faith, and Infinity An interview with Tracy Knauss and the Reverend Jack Young Chapter 11. Toward a Partnership between Science and Religion An interview with April Thompson Chapter 12. The Battle for the Human Mind An interview with Richard Gazdayka Chapter 13. The New Paradigm An interview with Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney Chapter 14. Countering Scientism An essay by Marsha Newman Chapter 15. The Striking Parallels An interview with Phil Cousineau PART THREE: FROM PLATO'S CAVE TO THE ENCHANTED GARDEN Chapter 16. The Sacred Dimensions of Everyday Life An interview with Jeffrey Kane Chapter 17. Demystifying Spiritual Practice An essay by Huston Smith, with commentary by Sarah Ban Breathnach Chapter 18. The Varieties of Religious Explorations An interview with Jeffrey Mishlove Chapter 19. Cleansing the Doors of Perception An interview with Richard Scheinin Chapter 20. Fathoming Psychedelic Mysticism An interview with Timothy White Chapter 21. The Wisdom of Faith An interview with Bill Moyers Chapter 22. Why Religion Matters Now More Than Ever An interview with Phil Cousineau References Acknowledgments Index

"It is a rare thing in any age to find a model of sweetness and light so intent on the pursuit of the truth that [Smith] passes on his excitement like a holy contagion. But when you find one who can mix such rigor with such grace, and bring real spirit to real scholarship, you can consider yourself truly among the blessed."

 

"Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that he would gladly walk 100 miles through a snowstorm for one good conversation. Fortunately, readers don't have to trudge through a blizzard or even leave their armchairs to listen in on these 22 fascinating conversations. Readers will find themselves ravenously eavesdropping on captivating discussions... dialogues that are timeless. Cousineau's stunning preface is worth the price of admission alone."

 

"My idea of heaven (here on earth) is sitting in a room and listening to Huston Smith talk (and sparkle and sing); the next best thing, surely, is having him here, as he is in these pages, passing on his contagious delight and excitement in the Real in a voice of miraculous clarity and humanity. I can't think of a more moving and beautiful, more rigorous and wise, book to help us through these troubled times."

 

Huston Smith, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Syracuse University, is considered the country's preeminent public scholar of world religions. The author of The Religions of Man (1958, republished as The World's Religions in 1991) and Why Religion Matters (2001), Smith has influenced multiple generations of readers, artists, scholars, and students. He has been profiled in a PBS series by Bill Moyers and appears frequently on national TV and radio.

 

The Way Things Are by Huston Smith
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