The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life [Hardcover]

Huston Smith (Author), Phil Cousineau (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2003

"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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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 with renowned religious scholar Huston Smith. Kudos to editor and accomplished author Cousineau (The Art of Pilgrimage) for gathering these interviews that span more than 30 years. Readers will find themselves ravenously eavesdropping on captivating discussions, such as Smith's humorous story of meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the first time or his soothing anecdote of how he became spiritually reconciled to the death of his eldest daughter to cancer. When Smith speaks about religious violence, his insight could be relevant to any era of humanity: "First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community, it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat." Indeed, a lifelong career of studying the world's religions has made him especially gifted in illuminating the dialogues that are timeless. As a result, his conversations touch upon many Big Questions: what is the meaning of God? Where do science and religion meet? How can we teach children about the sacred in everyday life? Why do we move toward the light? Incidentally, Cousineau's stunning preface is worth the price of admission alone.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"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."--Publishers Weekly -- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 338 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520238168
• ISBN-13: 978-0520238169
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,523,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Way Things Are: Conversations With Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life, December 9, 2005

By 

ascent magazine (Montreal Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life (Hardcover)

Among the most sought after religious writers of this century, author of The World's Religions and Why Religion Matters, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Huston Smith is a reference library of the rites, rituals and beliefs of world religions.
In The Way Things Are Conversations with Huston Smith, author and editor Phil Cousineau records twenty three interviews in which Smith debates his thoughts and theories with renowned scholars, theologians and journalists. This new compilation encapsulates both his personal contemplation, and public conversations, regarding religion and spirituality in contemporary society.
Brought up in China by Christian missionary parents, Smith describes his first contact with religion as one of simple trust. "We are in good hands and in gratitude of that fact it would be good if we bore one another's burdens."
A frequent reference of Smith's is to his concept of a primordial tradition. By forming a list of the common elements within all religions, he has uncovered what he calls the spine of religion. Informing our similarities, while warning us to "Beware of the differences that blind us to the unity that binds us", he encourages readers to see beyond personal beliefs and acknowledge others relationship to divinity.
This unity, or single religious root, should not be confused with the modern trend of religious pluralism. He banks on the integrity of individual traditions, rather than the scotch-taped spiritual beliefs of pluralism, which have left people alienated from their traditional roots. "The moral is to find some tradition and to steep one's soul in it. To me it is immaterial which tradition; it is of maximum materiality that it be a tradition."
An area of concern for Smith is the ever-encroaching "Newtonian view.", in which all reality is relative. A reality of relativity provides no room for the existence of an Absolute, the foundational element of religion. Without an Absolute we are left floundering with what Smith describes as an unlivable philosophy, based on the technically competent but metaphysically impoverished methods of science. "Scientism", the religion of science, or oracle we now look to establish truth, leads us further into isolation, cynicism and despair.
Conversations with Huston Smith guide the reader, using both religious traditions and scientific discovery as signposts, on the quest toward the greater mysteries. Revered for his insight and wisdom, this book is a tribute to Smith's life work and a challenging read for any curious seeker. Though cynics may be adverse to the constant reverence and faith Huston Smith places in God, reading The Way Things Are may result in a basic trust that things are as they should be.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Infinite Gratitude to Huston Smith, March 27, 2008

By 

Keith D. Hansen "Keith the Neoplatonist" (In the Eternal Now) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life (Paperback)

The way things are would be even better if there were more people like Huston Smith.

This book is a window into the "winnowed wisdom of the human race," and the lifelong insight of a deeply devout and humble man that has spent his entire life seeking truth wherever it may be found, while upholding the sacred traditions of mankind.

Smith is a perennialist in the tradition of Aldous Huxley (who he knew personally) and a traditionalist in the vein of Frithjof Schuon, who sees truth as principial, primordial, absolute, unowned, and variegated. Smith mentions that Schuon was instrumental in his own personal understanding of several religions.

The book is actually a series of private conversations with various other seekers of truth and one will feel as if you are sitting in a zen garden sipping a nice cup of coffee while the bluebird sings in the background. The Way Things Are is also an easy read as it does not dwell long on any theoretical or philosophical depths. This is more of an inspirational book with many sweet gems of wisdom.

I found myself feeling more at ease with the world as every possible important subject known to man is discussed with heartfelt sincerity and from personal religious experience for Smith spends every morning praying a Muslim prayer, performing hatha yoga, and reading a passage from the Holy Bible. On Sundays he is typically found worshiping in his Methodist church. Smith has also spent time with a Zen roshi, with Native American worship, using entheogens with Huxley and Leary, and his daughter has married a devout Jew with whom he observes Shabbat.

You will be hard-pressed to ever find another person that is as well-versed and personally experienced in the richness of world religion as Smith, and yet Smith also speaks from several decades as a professor at prestigious universities, and as a son of Protestant missionaries to China (where he spent his childhood).

Smith gives us his final advice from his roshi, "Infinite gratitude towards all things past; infinite service to all things present; infinite responsibility to all things future," to which I can only say a hearty AMEN.

This book is highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Liberal view of religion, January 21, 2012

By 

Rko "Swamp Maven" (South New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life (Paperback)

Entertaining and easy to read. You can pick it up and put it down without losing continuity. Each chapter is a separate interview with Smith.

Very evocative snippets (e.g., science views humanity from the ground up and religion from the gods down) ... but these don't make up for the utter banality of the overall thinking.

Lot's of arguments against scientism, but they are vastly, vastly, vastly inferior to Feyerabend's 'Against Method' arguments as viewed from the side of science.

If you're a fan of PBS - Bill Moyers trivializations of religion then you'll love this book. If you're more into the thinking of St. John of the Cross and his 'Ascent of Mount Carmel' then you'll find the arguments in these interviews just plain laughable.