religious studies scholar (1919-2016)
Huston Smith (May 31, 1919 – December 30, 2016) was a religious studies scholar in the United States, notable for the number of religions of which he considers or has considered himself a member. He is most well known for his book The World's Religions, formerly titled The Religions of Man.
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Alternative Names:
Huston Cummings Smith
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Traditionally, every Chinese was Confucian in ethics and public life, Taoist in private life and hygiene, and Buddhist at the time of death, with a healthy dash of shamanistic folk religion thrown in along the way. As someone has put the point: Every Chinese wears a Confucian hat, Taoist robes, and Buddhist sandals. In Japan Shinto was added to the mix.
No other civilization saw, appreciated, and classified so precisely the full spectrum of human personality types ... an achievement that has earned for India - the title of the world's introspective psychologist. The key to this psychological perceptiveness is her recognition to the extent to which people will differ and the degree to which these differences are to be respected.
What is distinctive in Hinduism is the amount of attention it has devoted to identifying basic spiritual personality types and the disciplines that are most likely to work for each. The result is a recognition, pervading the entire religion, that there are multiple paths to God, each calling for its distinctive mode of travel.
Signposts are not the destination, maps are not the terrain. Life is too rich and textured to be fitted into pigeonholes, let alone equated with them. No affirmation is more than a finger pointing to the moon. And, lest attention turn to the finger, Zen will point, only to withdraw its finger at once.