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I simply wanted to experience the presence of this man who had revolutionized my understanding. After a while we sat in silence, gazing at the barren canyon walls. And the mute desert seemed to carry on our conversation for us.

Huston Smith

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Huston Smith
Age: 97 †
Born: 1919
Born: May 31
Died: 2016
Died: December 30
Philosopher
Professor
Soochow
Huston Cummings Smith
Silence
Sat
Simply
Walls
Understanding
Desert
Revolutionized
Experience
Presence
Canyon
Wanted
Seemed
Canyons
Men
Carry
Gazing
Conversation
Mute
Wall
Barren

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As known unknowns become known unknown unknowns proliferate the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.
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Built into human makeup is a longing for a 'more' that the world of everyday experience cannot requite.
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The self is too small an object for perpetual enthusiasm.
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At the center of the religious life is a peculiar kind of joy, the prospect of a happy ending that blossoms from necessarily painful ordeals, the promise of human difficulties embraced and overcome.
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I have a body and I have a soul. And my body belongs to the faith - in fact, the church - into which it was born, the Methodist Church.
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...like a magnetic compass turning north, I always tried to head in the direction of the better, which is the direction to God. ...the directions that appeared to lead away from Christianity led me deeper into it.
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When I read the Upanishads, which are part of Vedanta, I found a profundity of worldview that made my Christianity seem like third grade.
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What is sickness? What is health? Both are distractions. Put them both aside and go forward.
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The object of pilgrimage is not rest and recreation – to get away from it all. To set out on a pilgrimage is to throw down a challenge to everyday life.
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...the only thing that continues is the consequences of our action.
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It would be good if we bore one another's burdens.
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Daily the world grows smaller, leaving understanding the only place where peace can find a home.
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Not only is the destiny of the individual bound up with the entire Church it is responsible for helping to sanctify the entire world of nature and history.
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The Sufis say there are three ways to know fire - by hearing it described, by seeing it, or by being burned.
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I am profoundly moved and persuaded by the near-death experience.
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When there are miles to go before we sleep, altered traits are more important than altered states.
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We become compassionate not from altruism which denies the self for the sake of the other, but from the insight that sees and feels one is the other.
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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.
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Practice giving things away, not just things you don't care about, but things you do like.
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With mind distracted, never thinking, Death is coming, To slave away on the pointless business of mundane life, And then to come out empty--it is a tragic error. (116) trans by Robert Thurman
Huston Smith