Essential Mystery with Huston Smith

Product Description

The life of Huston Smith reads like an adventure novel. One of the foremost religious scholars in the world today, Smith has lived in a missionary household in China, monasteries in Japan, and a sweat lodge in North America. Introduced to Vedanta through the 20th Century spiritual pioneers, Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard, he has engaged many of the contemporary wisdom giants, including Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama. Youíll hear about the remarkable experiences of a profound and compassionate thinker in this moving dialogue about the place of religion in our culture, history and human experience. Smith believes in the eternal mystery of life, cautioning against our “tendency to reduce the Divine to where it is easily manageable by our finite mind.”

Former professor at Washington University, M.I.T., and U.C. Berkeley, Smith is the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Syracuse University. His compelling classic, The Worldís Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions (HarperSanFrancisco 1991) has been the preeminent text for introducing the world of religious wisdom to millions, and has been reissued recently to celebrate forty years in print.

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• Which book changed Smithís life
• Highlights from conversations with Thomas Merton and H. H. the Dalai Lama
• Why it is important to honor our elders and ancestors
• What caused the split within the Catholic church
• What is the deep wisdom exemplified by H. H. the Dalai Lama
• Why expressing Mystery is so difficult and challenging
• How women are changing religious thought and traditions
• What is the difference between esoteric and exoteric

Host: Michael Toms Interview Date: 7/8/1999