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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
Conversation
Mute
Wall
Barren
Silence
Sat
Simply
Walls
Understanding
Desert
Revolutionized
Experience
Presence
Canyon
Wanted
Seemed
Canyons
Men
Carry
Gazing

More quotes by Huston Smith

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Entheogens are not to be lightly trifled with... However, if taken with the right attitude and in the proper setting, psychoactive drugs may produce religious experiences. ...it is far less clear that they can produce religious lives.
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It has been estimated that one third of our Western civilization bears the mark of its Jewish ancestry.
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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've spent the last 50 years or so steeping myself in the world's religions, and I've done my homework. I've gone to each of the world's eight great religions and sought out the most profound scholars I could find, and I've apprenticed myself to them and actually practiced each faith.
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Science can prove nothing about God, because God lies outside its province.
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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 goal of spiritual life is not altered states, but altered traits
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Reserved as he [Confucius] was about the supernatural, he was not without it somewhere in the universe there was a power that was on the side of right.
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The faith I was born into formed me.
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Swami Ashokananda was a brilliant and accomplished spiritual teacher in the West.
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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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I would not say that ethical behavior is not possible for the atheist or agnostic. It is. A couple of pretty good examples are Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, I will have to say that if we take the human lot as a whole, these two men must be seen as exceptions.
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The self is too small an object for perpetual enthusiasm.
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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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I'm not a chauvinist. I'm a universalist. I think that God imploded, like a spiritual big bang, to launch the eight civilizations that make up recorded history and the religions in those civilizations.
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Imagine a man besottedly in love: he won't waste time speculating whether other women equally merit his affection.
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As human beings we are made to surpass ourselves and are truly ourselves only when transcending ourselves.
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Swallow your pride and admit that we all need help at times.
Huston Smith
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A nation can assume that the addition of the words under God to its pledge of allegiance gives evidence that its citizens actually believe in God whereas all it really proves is that they believe in believing in God
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When there are miles to go before we sleep, altered traits are more important than altered states.
Huston Smith