Quotes from Huston Smith

I am become death, the shatterer of worlds; Waiting that hour that ripens to their doom. This

We need the courage as well as the inclination to consult, and profit from, the "wisdom traditions of mankind." —E.F. Schumacher In

After all our time living together, my identity is not self-contained: I am the way I am because she is the way she is. This "marriage of true minds" Shakespeare spoke of does not occur at the wedding nuptials but after sixty-five years of wedlock we may be getting there.

If we were to take Hinduism as a whole...and compress it into a single affirmation, we would find it saying: You can have what you want. This sounds promising, but it throws the problem back in our laps. For what do we want? It is easy to give a simple answer- not easy to give a good one. p13

Building upon this early conception of the Church, Christians came to think of it as having a double aspect. Insofar as it consists of Christ and the Holy Spirit dwelling in people and suffusing them with grace and love, it is perfect. Insofar as it consists of fallible human members, it always falls short of perfection.9 The worldly face of the Church is always open to criticism. But its mistakes, Christians hold, have been due to the human material through which it works.

A lamp can be covered with dust and dirt to the point of obscuring its light completely. The problem life poses for the human self is to cleanse the dross of its being to the point where its infinite center can shine forth in full display. p22

He renamed India's untouchables harijan, "God's people," and raised them to human stature. And in doing so he provided the nonviolent strategy as well as the inspiration for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s comparable civil rights movement in the United States. Gandhi

Describing Hinduism] All of us dwell on the bring of the infinite ocean of life's creative power. We carry it within us: supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy. It is never thwarted and cannot be destroyed. But it is hidden deep, which is what makes life a problem. The infinite is down in the darkest, profoundest vault of our being, in the forgotten well-house, the deep cistern. What if we could bring it to light and draw from it unceasingly. p26

The ultimate truth is that nirvana is not infinitely distant but infinitely near, reaching gracefully toward us, as it were, and being the ground on which we already stand if we but knew this. Only the blinders of egoism hide this truth from us.

Everything I do for my private wellbeing adds another layer to my ego, and in thickening it insulates me more from God. Conversely, every act done without thought for myself diminishes my self-centeredness until finally no barrier remains to separate me from the Divine. The

Historical figures lose their center when they become anxious over the outcome of their actions.

In the cyclonic mess of Kyoto traffic, two cars scrape bumpers. Both drivers leap out. Each bows, apologizing profusely for his carelessness.

What is to be known in raja yoga's final stage is without limits. The mind continues to think- if that is the right word- but of no thing. This does not mean that it is thinking of nothing, that it is a total blank. It has perfected the paradox of seeing the invisible. It is filled with that which is separated from all qualities, neither this nor that, without form, without a name. p49

In Hinduism] To find meaning in the mystery of existence is life's final and fascinating challenge. p53

It is possible to climb life's mountain from any side, but when the top is reached the trails converge. p73

Your reasoning is fine, but your experience is limited. Enlarge your experience, and your philosophy will be different.

Everything I do for my private wellbeing adds another layer to my ego, and in thickening it insulates me more from God.

Conversely, every act done without thought for myself diminishes my self-centeredness until finally no barrier remains to separate me from the Divine.

And Americans were—before the Vietnam War, before the Iraq wars—the darlings of everyone everywhere. On a second world trip a decade later, on which I took students for academic credit, the most treasured gift we could give was a John F. Kennedy half-dollar. There

From the majestic pontifical High Mass in St. Peter's to the quiet simplicity of a Quaker meeting; from the intellectual sophistication of Saint Thomas Aquinas to the moving simplicity of spirituals such as Lord, I want to be a Christian; from St. Paul's in London, the parish Church of Great Britain, to Mother Teresa in the slums of Calcutta-- all this is Christianity.

Religion arose out of celebration and its opposite, bereavement, both of which cry out for collective expression.

He who does the task Dictated by duty, Caring nothing For the fruit of the action, He is a yogi. (Bhagavad-Gita, VI:I) Hence

I grew up taking it for granted that missionaries were what American boys grew up to be.

In my town, I had only one adult American male role model: my father. I grew up taking it for granted that missionaries were what American boys grew up to be.